Category Archives: tv reviews

Steve Coogan (The Trip) is outstanding in Saxondale, a fantastic British comedy about a former roadie living the quiet life in suburbia – even if the character isn’t quite aware that his pest control day job and townhouse are a fairly moderate pace of life and at odds with his view of the world.  I wouldn’t say it’s about nothing in the same way as Seinfeld was, but it’s very steam of consciousness and in a bit of a similar style, if more structured, but it still has those same locations in every episode, like in Seinfeld.

List of locations in just about every episode of Seinfeld:
Jerry’s apartment
the coffee shop

List of locations in just about every episode of Saxondale:
the library
Tommy’s Townhouse
Tommy’s job

These day in the life shows are more about reactions to the world, so keeping them grounded in locations the audience recognizes helps with the flow – Saxondale is just a bit more organized than Seinfeld in their respect.

It also features Ruth Jones (co-writer and co-star from Gavin and Stacey) as Tommy Saxondale’s wife, who is the owner of a Hot Topic/Spencer’s Gifts-esque store called Smash the System, which seems to primarily sell t-shirts with in your face slogans.  The show has a great pace and lots of fun characters – not to mention outstanding musical cues.It’s available on Netflix Instant and we highly recommend it.