How are you planning on spending your evening? Going out with friends? Watching a movie? Well, whatever you do, you may want to avoid BBC One.
That may sound dramatic, but one of the most divisive TV series of all time returns tonight after a two-year break from our screens.
So what’s the show?
Well, it’s Mrs Brown’s Boys, of course, a comedy series so reviled by some that they’ve branded it ‘the worst TV show ever made’.
Created by and starring Brendan O’Carroll, Mrs Brown follows the titular ‘Agnes Brown,’ an interfering old woman who can’t help sticking her nose in her friends and family’s business.
The show’s real schtick, though, is how ‘informal’ it is, with Carroll regularly breaking the fourth wall, chucking in improvised gags, and leaving in outtakes.
If that sounds like your type of thing, then you can check it out for yourself by tuning into BBC One at 9:30 pm tonight.
A quick warning, though, Mrs brown’s Boys has not received good reviews. In fact, that’s a bit of an understatement.
The Irish Independent said of the first season that it’s the type of show that ‘makes you embarrassed to be Irish’ while the Daily Record labelled it ‘lazy, end-of-pier trash’.
Meanwhile, Metro (that’s us) wrote that the BBC should ‘hang its head in shame’ for broadcasting it.
If you think critics have warmed to it since then, then you’d be mistaken. In a review of the season starting tonight, Pat Stacey of the Irish Independent claimed it feels like Brendan O’Carroll is ‘taking the p*ss out of viewers’ with how lazy the show is.
Critics aren’t the only ones to loathe Mrs Brown and her boys either. On a tweet celebrating the launch of the new fifth season, several people have made their displeasure known.
@JohnThwaites10 askedwho the show is made for, adding ‘I don’t know anyone who enjoys watching this?’Kelvin
@KelvinEHughes felt similarly, adding ‘I don’t know a single person who watches it, let alone enjoys it. How on earth does it keep getting recommissioned?’
It was @SkylarSkye14 who was the most withering, however, when they declared it the ‘worst show of all time’.
Is Mrs Brown’s Boys really that bad?
Our Deputy TV editor Tom Percival shares his thoughts…
I do not enjoy Mrs Brown’s Boys. Now, I should caveat that by saying I’ve only ever seen one episode and D’ Movie (don’t ask), so maybe it gets better.
Still, the broad humour, creaky gags and funny wigs just weren’t for me, and I found it painfully unfunny.With that in mind, though, I don’t really get the hate.
There have been plenty of bad sitcoms over the years, and to my mind, Mrs Brown’s Boys is no worse than the likes of Miranda, Not Going Out or Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps.
Are these bad shows? Maybe? Maybe not? They just don’t work for me, and I don’t waste my energy thinking about things I don’t enjoy.
Honestly, I think moaning about Mrs Browns Boys is a bit like watching a bin fire and complaining about the smell. No one’s forcing you to watch it…
Despite the outburst of hate online, it’s worth noting that Mrs Brown’s Boys remains popular (That’s why it keeps getting recommissioned @KelvinEHughes).
At the height of its popularity, the show regularly brought in 9 million viewers an episode, and its 2013 Christmas special was watched by 11.52 million viewers.
While its viewing figures have declined, its most recent Christmas special drew in 3,875,000 viewers, putting it ahead of the Masked Singer, Weakest Link, Bake Off and Channel 4’s Big Fat Quiz Of The Year.
It is also worth noting that it won a TV Choice Award for Best Comedy in 2024. This isn’t an award given out by a body of critics or journalists either; it’s voted on by the public, so clearly there are people out there who do enjoy it.
People like Todd and Mark Wilson-Edwards, who wrote in their Google review, ‘This show is one of the best that I have seen in a long time! As screwed up as the world is right now, it is nice to slip away into Mrs Brown’s Boys world, where I can laugh until I cry!’
Mrs Brown’s Boys returns tonight on BBC One at 9:30 pm.
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