Men Behaving Badly: Series 4

No sooner do the self-absorbed, arrogant yet pathetic Gary (Martin Clunes) and his miserable yet hapless girlfriend Dorothy (Caroline Quentin) decide to get married than Dorothy comes to her senses and breaks off the relationship. With this turn of events, Men Behaving Badly launches its strongest series yet. The dismal squalor of Garys life is, for once, completely justified as he wallows in his aimless singledom. His roommate Tony (Neil Morrissey), on the other hand, finally lets go of his fruitless crush on their upstairs neighbor Deborah (Leslie Ash) and sets off on a series of affairs with foxy chicks--thus making Gary all the more miserable. These turnabouts allow for fresh stories and different problems for these two louts, whose charm is an acquired taste but perhaps--if you can appreciate the comedy of utter cluelessness--worth acquiring. Men Behaving Badly never shies away from outrageous behavior: Gary accidentally inhales a diaphragm; Gary interrupts a dinner party with Dorothy and her new boyfriend by cutting a stuffed cat in half with a chainsaw; perpetually unemployed Tony finally gets a job--as a mime. This is not erudite humor, but some viewers will find it hits the spot. Clunes, in particular, does an amazing job of being completely boorish yet remaining ineffably sympathetic over the course of seven half-hour episodes, all written by the shows creator Simon Nye. --Bret Fetzer