GOGGLEBOX

This is the newest thing to hit our lounge-room. It's the most meta show ever. Clokes found out about it on a tv show about reality shows. The premise: install a camera in people's houses, that films them watching the same shows on the same night in Britain. Some of the people are fantastic and hilarious. Here are the funniest (probably); Stephanie and Dominic, B&B owner-operators in Sandwich:



Constantly pissed (it seems, especially him) they are the posh ones.




There are the Siddiquis, a father and son group (top left; but we have lost the son on the far right, he only appeared in first season); the Tapper family (top right; the wife has the shrillest voice you've ever heard. It makes you want to kill her. It makes you wonder how her husband can stand her. Their daughter is about 14 and sucks her thumb and regularly seems to spiral into hunger-rage); couple Christopher and Stephen bottom left, hairdressers and caustic, well Christopher is) and June and Leon bottom right, married more than 50 years. Leon gets a bit sleazey, keeps talking about seeing women's 'nicks' and wanting June to bring him a cracker to eat. He's been on a diet since we've been watching.)

Another favourite lounge-room is the one belonging to Sandy and Sandra,  long-time friends:



They often have a heap of take-away food and Sandra (on the right) gets very loud and shouty and occasionally has jumped out of her seat because there's a mouse or some other unwanted visitor in the room. In an episode we watched last night she used a shoe to squash something we couldn't see that was climbing on a wall. They are really entertaining.



We call this the 'German family' although it's only Ralph, the man above, who is German. He's married to the woman, and we think the daughter is hers only but aren't sure. You only get a slow drip-feed of background info across the seasons and I love that. You get to know them in the way you might get to know acquaintances in your real life, without the info dump which seems to be how we learn about people through the media nowawadays, including tell-all memoirs and blog posts. The funniest thing about this family is the way they all seem to wear metal t-shirts, and the boyfriend's face (and coif) which the camera zooms in on the most regularly. He never talks and is always just staring at the tv, and conversations happen around him. I think last night we saw him react with anything resembling animation, and he said something. We're in season 3.

The family we hate is this one:



Parents and son all living together in their overstuffed couch. They have no coffee table which is weird but the son has an even more annoying voice than the Tapper mother (it sounds like he is from Monty Python, like a put-on voice, but not funny). The father often falls asleep and the son often contemptuously corrects his mother's dumbness.

A recent couple just appearing in season 3 is Rev Kate and her husband, a man we think would prefer to be married to the dog. He is always fondling it, while the Rev lays her feet across his lap, tries to touch him all the time.



Oh, and also this couple, who have a painting of boobs right behind them:



It's all so funny.

You sit on the couch, like they do, and you get to see bits of what they are watching, plus their reactions and commentary, and often we find ourselves pausing so we can make our commentary. We react to the shows, like them, and we say things about the shows, like them as well.

If you think too much about it, you'll go nuts. But get on it, it's fabulous, I recommend.