It’s time for season 2 of Love Soup, and it seems that the latest series has brought about a number of changes to the familiar format. The biggest change is that Michael Landes (Gil) will not be appearing in the new series at all, while Alice will continue her search for Mr Right. The programme is also half an hour long this series, rather than an hour long.
Tamsin Greig plays the apparently doomed, but ever-hopeful romantic Alice Chenery, and Sheridan Smith and Montserrat Lombard play her department store colleagues, who are always ready to weigh in with their advice, however off-the-wall it may be. I could happily watch Tamsin Greig reading her shopping list and find it hilarious, and Sheridan Smith has established herself as an extremely capable comic actress with range far beyond that of her “chavette” character Janet from Two Pints of Lager (And A Packet Of Crisps). Unfortunately, I’m struggling to see the point of clueless sidekick number three, Montserrat Lombard as Milly Russell, as although I appreciate she may be a fantastic actress playing an awful character, I find her relentless simpering quite irritating to watch on screen, and fail to understand what it is that her character is supposed to bring to the programme, which is slightly disappointing.
I was very excited to see Raymond Coulthard (James from Hotel Babylon) and Olivia Colman (That Mitchell and Webb Look, Peep Show) written in to the programme in episode two, hoping they were perhaps going to replace the parallel Gil storyline, but they were written right back out again at the end of the episode, where in the style of an American sitcom, everyone ends up just as single as they were at the beginning.
Happily we have some more excellent guest stars to look forward to in season 2, including Helen Lederer, Bill Bailey, Mackenzie Crook and Ronnie Corbett!
I have also found the storylines this season quite unlikely, but sadly also a bit unfunny. Over-the-top comedy stylings work well in shows like Green Wing, but Love Soup is pitching itself as a drama, not a surreal fantastic comedy. It doesn’t seem to know exactly what it wants to be and therefore doesn’t really commit to any one thing, rattling through a number of situations which may be comedy sketches, bizarre surreal nonsense or supposedly touching romantic scenes, none of which hang together properly.
David Renwick (Love Soup’s creator) is one of Britain’s foremost comedy writers, and is perhaps best known for One Foot in the Grave. This is an old British comedy favourite, but certainly not one of mine, so I wonder whether Love Soup just suited to a different type of viewer, one who likes gentle Saturday night BBC comedy where nothing too much happens and there are plenty of catchphrases that can be repeated to the long-suffering barmaid down at their local.
Nothing wrong with that if it’s your thing, but overall, I am of the opinion that it’s a mildly enjoyable waste of amazing comedy talent – check out Gavin and Stacey instead!
Series 1 & 2 are available to buy from Amazon on DVD - Love Soup - Series 1 And 2 [2007]
