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The Brit-produced Gavin and Stacey is finding plenty of adherents on the Yank side of the pond, and based on this six-episode debut season (it aired in 2007), it’s easy to see why. This show’s charms are many, but while it might be called a sitcom, it doesn’t have a lot in common with American programs of that ilk. There’s no studio audience (much of it was filmed on location) or laugh track; best of all, the humor comes primarily not from facile one-liners but from the characters and the quotidian situations they find themselves in. The former, of course, include young lovers Gavin Shipman (Mathew Horne) and Stacey West (Joanna Page), but it’s the others in their orbit, especially respective best friends Smithy (James Corden) and Nessa (Ruth Jones), Stacey’s Uncle Bryn (Rob Brydon), and Gavin’s mum, Pamela (Alison Steadman), who threaten to steal the show. Watching this talented ensemble deal with everything from an unsightly zit on Stacey’s nose to the various distractions at a Welsh “wedding fayre” isn’t exactly edgy, just delightful.
The show picks up with Gavin and Stacey (he’s English, she’s Welsh) meeting in person for the first time after months of phone conversations. The pair hit it off like gangbusters, but their plus-sized pals need a little time and a lot of booze to overcome their mutual loathing at first sight; indeed, Smithy and Nessa’s drunken assignation leads to major complications (actors Corden and Jones also wrote the series, so it’s no accident that their characters are perhaps the most interesting of the lot). Things move fast after that, as Gavin proposes, their families meet, and the bride and groom have their stag parties, all leading to Gavin and Stacey’s marriage (in the sixth episode), just nine weeks after their initial meeting. It’s a great start--now on to Season Two! Bonus material includes outtakes, a “making of” documentary, and episode commentary. --Sam Graham
