Stressed Eric

[Badnik Mechanic]

"I expect you to stay in and look after the kids! I do not expect you to go out, have thirty seven vodka slammers and come home at 4am with a rock band called the puss doctors!

Stressed Eric was first broadcast back in 1998 on the BBC, it had a really odd time slot so not many kids saw it and because it was on BBC 2 it didn't get as much interest had it been on BBC or even ITV.

For many kids, it was this strange TV show that was on late which not many people could see because their parents were watching more popular shows on the other side, so a lot of us only got to watch it from video recordings if indeed we'd remembered about them.

But when we did get it, what a show, it was so funny and so strange, the humour was aimed at grown ups, but most teenagers also got the jokes even if they were too young to actually have the same problems that Eric had.

If you've not heard of it before, here is a basic rundown of the plot.

Eric is 40, and lives in London. He is a middle class single father (divorced) with two kids and a crippling mortgage. His son is so dim he's been kept back at school three years running. His daughter is a frail, allergy-ridden waif of six. His wife has left him for a Buddhist and his au-pair is an unreliable waster. Even the family next door are successful and wealthy, a stressful reminder of what his life could have been.

Each week Eric faces up to the important issues that concern a single father today, from, "How do you compensate your children for the lack of a female role model?" to: "How do you ask for sex in your forties without getting arrested?"

This show is great. The annimation is over 10 years old, but it still looks great, you can see it's had influences from popular shows around the same time, but whilst the annimation is similar, it stands on it's own and it stands very well.

It's not a joke fest, each episode has a story to it and most of the humour comes from the dialogue and some visual gags.

The voice acting is amazing, it's fantastic, no two characters sound the same (apart from the perfects, but they're supposed to be similar as they're 'the perfect family.') each character is very different to the other.

As the series goes on you see just how well made the characters are, they all have their hopes, their problems, fears and desires.

Each episode starts off relatively normal, but usually gets more and more absurd as it goes along, but it's done so gradually that it seems normal by the end of it. But the dialogue is just fantastic, it's so absurd yet so well written and the voice actors do such a good job at delivering it. Watching the first episode I find myself laughing out loud at it.

I won't spoil it for you, but most of the episodes are online. But watch them quick. Stressed Eric was released on DVD for the first time last week, chances are they'll start vanishing soon.

The first episode was called nativity, it's definately a great episode to start, whilst theres no 'introduction' to who each character is, you don't need it. It establishes who each character is and then allows future episode to expand on them.

Another episode I strongly recommend is an episode called "Pony" just because of how it ends. The ending for this one is so hilarious because it comes out of nowhere.

Definately give this show a chance.

Now discuss Eric! For he is stressed!

[Covskin]

Oddly enough, I found myself thinking about this show at work yesterday. Freaky.

I never actually saw the first Series, but the Second Series was shown much earlier - I think it was 6.25 (straight after The Simpsons), so the BBC tried to give it a good run I guess.

I think I still have the book downstairs somewhere too, which is also quite amusing.

As for the show, I remember very few episodes, but I can picture all of the characters, and my prevailing mental image of the au pair is her unconscious in the bath with a passed out priest on the toilet, setting up the episode so that Eric couldn't relieve himself (until of course, in full public view).

Once thing I have to disagree on though, is the voices. With the exception of Eric, the au pair, P.P and Mr Perfect, I thought they were all incredibly annoying.

But hey, love for old British TV is always fine with mr.

[Or@ngeHedgehog2010]

It's about bleeding time! I remember watching this 10 odd years ago, why has it taken this long for it to be released onto DVD?

http://board.sonicstadium.org/uploads/emoticons/default_blink.png' alt=':blink:'> Kinda reminds me of the animation from Rugrats.

[Flint]

Fantastic show that's utterly impossible to watch because you feel like raging at the screen about all the crap that flings in Eric's way.