The new and penultimate series of Peep Show has a whole new arsenal of personal confusions, ridiculous predicaments and the same dark humour around Mark’s conniving plans to steal back his past loves and Jeremy’s sexual conundrums. This series has amplified its moments of mania to a level that at points crosses the border from its regular dark humour to a sort of melancholic intensity mixed with pathetic perplexity. I don’t know what it is, maybe it’s something to do with the fact that Mark and Jeremy are still living in that claustrophobic, depressing apartment and that they’ve both gone completely mad. Three episodes into the highly anticipated series and this is the story so far; watch out for spoilers.
Mark and Jez were brought back into each other’s lives after six months apart outside a juice bar, to meet for Super Hans’s nuptials. Once peace was stiffly made, after Jeremy tried to steal Mark’s girlfriend Dobbie, they proceed in getting rid of Mark’s terribly dull new flatmate Jerry. By trapping him in his own sleeping bag and literally dragging him out, at which point Jerry yells the classic Peep Show line “I’ll take this to the citizens advice bureau!” over the rent agreement. Before this, it is revealed that Jeremy has been living in Super Han’s bathroom. Jez comes out with his usual delusions and assures Mark that living in a bathroom is actually pretty convenient, because he can stand up and “piss right down the plughole”.
The series continues with yet more unfortunate events. Mark is given the role of best man as a way to win Dobbie, who turns up, back from the clutches of her psychopathic and ultra hipster boyfriend from New York. Jez, still pursuing his career as a life coach, is, unsurprisingly, sexually involved with his patient Joe and begins questioning his own sexuality – I don’t think it needed any questioning. I mean, Jez is just a humping idiot with no self-control, he even admits that he would have sex with anything that moves. So it’s not too much of a surprise that he involves himself in a bisexual threesome relationship with Joe and his girlfriend Megan, which they hilariously call a “threeism”. Come on, that’s so Jez. April, who Mark met as a ‘mature student’ at his old university of “darty”, makes an appearance. Mark hopelessly tries to win her back by holding a dinner party and ends up serving a nightmarish meal; a mix of baked beans, salad and hummus. As well as frantically putting on blue eyeshadow to cover up a previous stupid idea of Jez’s to write “I love you” on Mark’s eyelids as a manic gesture of love.
Overall, the series is firing up to be a spectacular show of painful predicaments and I can’t even imagine what’s to come, only that the ending will be far from a happy one. I really hope the show ends with a final hurrah involving all of the favourite classic characters; Sophie, Jeff, Sarah, Big Suze and Johnson, sailing off into a disappointing sunset.
Sasha Hodes
Image: Channel 4.