TV Review: FRESH MEAT, 1.1

By D.J. Haza / September 21, 2011

rating: 2.5

Channel 4€™s new university student based sitcom Fresh Meat aired it's first episode tonight with comedian & t.v. presenter Jack Whitehall making his acting debut. The show follows a group of students who all share a student house. Not much new there. You also have the generic bunch of students €“ one€™s been there ages, Howard (Greg McHugh), one is a book worm, Oregon (Charlotte Ritchie), one is a rebel, Vod (Zawe Ashton), one is your average guy, Kingsley (Joe Thomas), and clearly he fancies the average girl, Josie (Kimberley Nixon), plus there€™s the public school boy, JP (Jack Whitehall). So everything in the initial set up is as generic as it could possibly be. They all met in the house, things were a little awkward and everyone was a little nervous. So they went to the pub. Howard was a scab and went around getting people to poor bits of their pints into his glass so he didn€™t have to buy a drink. The first night everyone talked about shagging and looked to find a sex buddy for the evening. Josie ended up in bed with JP only to find out in the morning that he was meant to be moving in with them. Still no originality. There were lots of little awkward conversation and not much going on for the most part of the first episode and it all felt a little bit like a slow episode of The Inbetweeners minus the comedy. When JP finally moved in and threw his financial weight around to get what he wanted the others objected for a short time, but eventual caved in. A reasonable giggle came when JP tried to get Howard out of his bathroom and they had a sort of Mexican stand off with one on the bog and one in the shower. Kingsley tried to talk JP into leaving and found out about him and Josie. Not a lot else happened of any note. Jack Whitehall was a bit odd to start, but grew into the part as the episode went on. The other characters didn€™t really come alive in the episode as so little seemed to happen for a TV hour. Each of them made a few statements, but we didn€™t really get to see who they really are or what they are about. Hopefully episode 1 is just a slow start to the series as I expect a lot more from the writers of Peep Show! Fresh Meat airs 10pm Wednesday nights on Channel 4.