Compare Prices
Postage & Packaging: £1.​21
Postage & Packaging: Free!
Postage & Packaging: £0.​00
SHOPPING > DVDs > Comedy > Ideal - Series 1 (DVD) > Reviews

Ideal - Series 1 (DVD)

from (5 offers) · Product Information

Ideal - Series 1 (DVD)

Quote-start

An ideal sitcom? Not quite, but on its way

Quote-end

3 Jul 4th, 2007 

13 Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful

Advantages:
A lot of great characters and an excellent finale

Disadvantages:
Gets repetitive and boring mid - series

Recommendable Yes:

Detailed rating:

Did you enjoy it?

Story

Characters / Performances

Special Effects

How does it compare to similar films?

gp1234512345

gp1234512345

About me:

Member since:16.05.2006

Reviews:18

Title: Ideal Series 1(2 discs)
Running Time: 223 minutes approx
Certification: 15
Director: Dan Zeff
Region: 2

Brief Story Outline: This series follows the life of Moz and his array of wild and wacky friends as he attempts to make a living selling cannabis to the local populous. Along the way meet a weary secondary school teacher, an irresponsible babysitter and many more of the people who visit Moz to score some hash.

Character (Actor) Descriptions:
Moz (Johnny Vegas) is a hapless lay about who manages to scrape a living selling marijuana to the locals.
Nicky (Nicola Reynolds) is Moz’s long-term girlfriend who also has a sexual relationship with
PC the local police constable and Moz’s main drug supplier
Cartoon Head (James Foster) is a mysterious hit man who is commonly believed to be psychotic and has a disturbing secret concerning the local mass murderer
China (Natalie Gumede) is a 19 year old university student who, much to his annoyance, only sees Moz as a friend
Colin (Ben Crompton) is on probation, yet still seems to be trying to offload stolen goods onto Moz and his friends
Jenny (Sinead Matthews) A dozy babysitter who becomes pregnant with one of her charges’ children
Kuldip (Ronny Jhutti) An up and coming DJ who dreams of international stardom.

Episode Synopses:
Episode 1: Moz learns of the arrival of a new drug dealer in his neighbourhood and has an unfriendly confrontation with him. Meanwhile Nicki gets sick of Moz’s lazy habits as a rat moves in and temporarily moves out herself.
Episode 2: Moz learns that Nicki seems to be having a great time after having moved out of his flat. He also befriends a beautiful young student named China
Episode 3: The locals learn that a sinister murder has taken place in neighbourhood, with the victim’s hand being removed. Nicki returns to Moz’s flat
Episode 4: Moz meets with some more colourful characters, including a pair of men who have formed a techno group called “Silicone Valets”
Episode 5: Moz and Nicki get a surprise visitor named Yasuko who, unbeknownst to Moz, only knows Nicki from a threesome they had while in Thailand. Nicki agrees to let her stay for fear of Moz finding out
Episode 6: It’s Moz’s birthday and Nicki tells him she’s going to thros a surprise party for him. She invites all her friends and, much to his annoyance, none of Moz’s. They agree to have an open relationship for the evening and Nicki proceeds to sleep with 2 other men, before finally going to bed with Moz.
Episode 7: Nicki finds out she is pregnant but unfortunately, after her night of passion, she doesn’t know who’s baby it is and so is hesitant to tell Moz. Meanwhile, Moz finally meets with his pseudo-stalker but a misunderstanding with Cartoon Head leads to his untimely demise
Episode 8: Moz and CH have to enlist the help of Psycho Paul to dispose of the body and prevent anyone from knowing what had happened that day. ….. Also reveals to Moz that she is pregnant

Programme Review:
Now I’d heard several good things about this “cult BBC3 viewing”. I spotted series one for a fiver at Virgin Megastores and I thought I’d give it a go. I enjoyed the first couple of episodes, as we were introduced to all the variety of characters who enter Moz’s life to score some drugs. It wasn’t hard to see that this was a very character driven show. But I have to say that after the first two episodes I started to lose interest.
The acting, as a whole, was reasonably good with the “Moz” role fitting Johnny Vegas like a glove.
Nicola Reynolds is excellent as the long suffering but promiscuous girlfriend.
All of the supporting characters, and there are many, are all proficiently acted but you would expect this with the amount of comedy pedigree that there is within the cast. Graham Duff shows off his acting chops as “camp scally” Brian but I think that my favourite performance was that of Jason….. He only shows up in a couple of episodes but I found the character he played(slightly depressed man recently dumped by his girlfriend) absolutely hilarious.
I believe that this was one of Graham Duff’s first writing projects and it shows somewhat. The show does seem to lack ideas which leads to the dull repetition of some. I think that the stuff covered could have been fit into a 6 part series rather than the 8 parts and the programme would have, in my eyes, been much better because of it.

My big problem with Ideal was that I struggled to connect with any of the characters apart from, to an extent, Moz, but that may be due to my middle class upbringing, and the repetitiveness of the dialogue was almost reminiscent of a poor sketch show. I was considering giving up after the first disc(episodes 1-6) but I have to say I’m glad that I gave it another chance as the last 2 episodes were absolutely by far the best in the series. Finally, there was some sense of a plot and it became more of a sitcom than the aforementioned bad sketch show, the sheer implausibility of the story and the culmination of events which seem to doom Moz to utter misery made it one of the funniest hours of TV I‘ve seen for some time. This helped to radically improve my opinion of the series and I shall be on the look out for the second series, with the hope that Graham Duff will capitalize on the experience gained from writing this and make Ideal into a much better sitcom and altogether a better show.

Disc Review:
The special features on this DVD package are reasonable with the deleted and extended scenes presented in a genuinely unique way, with a police interview with Brian(Graham Duff), being questioned about the whereabouts of Cartoon Head.
The outtakes were the usual stuff, fluffed lines and copious amounts of swearing, but at 5 minutes long, just short enough for me not to get bored.
The making of documentary informs viewers of how Graham Duff developed the character of Moz and how they created his world, and also the reasoning behind how this sitcom was given the go ahead by BBC3. It also gives a quick look at each of the characters in the programme and how the writers and actors created their personalities.
All in all, a worthwhile purchase and well worth the money I paid for it. Although the series has a flabby middle, the beginning and the finale more than make up for this and I hope to see the 2nd series soon. 

How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines

exceptional

very helpful

helpful

somewhat helpful

not helpful

off topic

Products you might be interested in »

The Truth About Love (DVD)

The Truth About Love (DVD)

Production Year: 2004 - Comedy - Director: John Hay - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Jennifer Love Hewitt, Jimi Mistry, Kate Miles, Dougray Scott

User reviews (1)

Buy now for only £ 0.01

Only Fools And Horses - The Complete Series 1 To 7 (Box Set) (DVD)

Only Fools And Horses - The Complete Series 1 To 7 (Box Set) (DVD)

Comedy - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring: David Jason, Nicholas Lyndhurst, Lennard Pearce, Buster Merryfield, Gwyneth Strong, Tessa Peake-Jones

User reviews (27)

Buy now for only £ 31.85

Blackadder - Complete Blackadder (Limited Edition Box Set) (DVD)

Blackadder - Complete Blackadder (Limited Edition Box Set) (DVD)

Comedy - Director: Richard Boden, Mandie Fletcher, Martin Shardlow - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Hugh Laurie, Miranda Richardson, Stephen Fry, Brian Blessed, Tim McInnerny, Tony Robinson, Rowan Atkinson

User reviews (13)

Buy now for only £ 16.99

Complete Only Fools And Horses (Box Set) (DVD)

Complete Only Fools And Horses (Box Set) (DVD)

Comedy - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring: Tessa Peake-Jones, Buster Merryfield, David Jason, Nicholas Lyndhurst

User reviews (12)

Buy now for only £ 49.98

Bob Roberts (DVD)

Bob Roberts (DVD)

Production Year: 1992 - Comedy - Director: Tim Robbins - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Ray Wise, Alan Rickman, Giancarlo Esposito, Tim Robbins

User reviews (1)

Buy now for only £ 2.24

Laurel And Hardy (Box Set) (DVD)

Laurel And Hardy (Box Set) (DVD)

Comedy - Original Language: English - Classification: Universal, TBA - Starring: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy

User reviews (4)

Buy now for only £ 9.89

Comments about this review »

Mitsudan 04.07.2007 22:26

I'm always wary of anything starring Johnny Vegas; he has the potential to be very funny but doesn't always live up to it in my opinion. This sounds worth a try though. I don't understand why you have 2 "helpful" ratings for this review; it seems to me to deserve at least a VH. Perhaps it's the Ciao gremlins again! David

Compare prices for Ideal - Series 1 (DVD) »

1 to 5 out of 5 offers for Ideal - Series 1 (DVD) Show all offers   sorted by: Price 
Ideal - Series 1 [DVD]

Ideal - Series 1 [DVD]

Release Date: 2005-11-07, Rating Suitable for 15 years and over,

amazon marketplace dvd

Postage & Packaging£1.21
AvailabilityUsually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
 Visit Shop  >
amazon marketplace d...
Ideal - Series 1 [DVD]

Ideal - Series 1 [DVD]

Johnny Vegas, Nicola Reynolds, Tom Goodman Hill, Sunetra Sarker, Ronny JhuttiDirectors: ... more

Dan Zeff

amazon dvd

Postage & PackagingFree!
AvailabilityUsually dispatched within 24 hours...
 Visit Shop  >
amazon dvd
Ideal: Series 1 (2 Discs) (Johnny Vegas) DVD

Ideal: Series 1 (2 Discs) (Johnny Vegas) DVD

Moz has been dealing drugs for over twenty years from his small bedsit in Manchester which ... more

he shares with his girlfriend  Nicki. But despite
his chosen profession  Moz is a man of principles
- he deals only in the best quality marijuana and
nothing els...

play.com (films)

Postage & Packaging£0.00
Availability3-5 working days
 Visit Shop  >
play.com (films)
Ideal - Series 1-DVD

Ideal - Series 1-DVD

thehut.com

Postage & Packaging£0.00
AvailabilityIn stock - Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
 Visit Shop  >
thehut.com


More reviews »

Ideal - Series 1 (DVD) - review by sandemp

Advantages: Funny, realistic. Good special features
Disadvantages: Not for the politically correct

Ideal - Series 1 (DVD) - review by sandemp sandemp 27.07.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Ideal - Series 1 (DVD)

Ideal - Series 1 (DVD) - review by tomlancs

Advantages: Refreshingly different, great array of characters
Disadvantages: Not much really...

Ideal - Series 1 (DVD) - review by tomlancs tomlancs 03.05.2007 (03.05.2007) · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Ideal - Series 1 (DVD)

Ideal - Series 1 (DVD) - review by kurt187

Advantages: New and completely different
Disadvantages: Might not get if youv'e never taken anything

Ideal - Series 1 (DVD) - review by kurt187 kurt187 18.08.2006 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of Ideal - Series 1 (DVD)

Ideal - Series 1 (DVD) - review by el_spencer

Advantages: Original comedy, Vegas at his best
Disadvantages: Not for the faint hearted!

Ideal - Series 1 (DVD) - review by el_spencer el_spencer 04.01.2006 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful
Review of Ideal - Series 1 (DVD)



Are you the manufacturer / provider of Ideal - Series 1 (DVD)? Click here