Suburban Shootout (2006–2007) User Reviews

best thing on channel 5, just great fun

[archiesanders · 8/10 · 19 August 2006]

It is wry, dark and humorous with a perfectly pitched line in silliness. Do not expect hard edged drama, do not expect much in the way of mind melting plot twists. Having said that there is enough plot that i was most irritated to miss the final episode. Do not expect much detailed characterisation, certainly not for the supporting cast. Do expect the p..s to be taken out of everything. Do expect to laugh. the botox episode was particularly amusing.

i really hope they make a second series of this, it was kind of hidden late on a Thursday night on channel 5 and i doubt many actually watched it. It made me chuckle more than anything else on recently.

Well - I liked it!

[Peter-1994 · 7/10 · 15 August 2006]

While I accept Bill's criticism that the characters were a little one-dimensional, I nevertheless found this hilarious. It's certainly original. The opening 10 minutes give no idea what's to follow but the cat fight between the two suave ladies of the rival gangs was a great opening gag.

Instead of making their living selling hard drugs or smuggling, these ladies keep their charming town of Little Stempington 'clean' by running a protection racket. Dissolute youths are kept in line by tweed clad ladies of a certain age toting Uzis under their pashminas; as Camilla says "Why do you think the shopping arcade isn't full of sullen youths sniffing Toilet Duck?" The main scam here is not hard drugs but weapons grade HRT patches which liven up the sex lives of all who take them.

This gun-wielding women's institute never quite manage to kill anyone but they certainly trash a few houses, cars and gardens along the way. Favourite characters are the smooth and hardened bitch-queen of Little Stempington, Camilla Diamond, played smoothly by Anna Chancellor ('Duck Face' of Four Weddings); 'Auntie' Hillary, the sex crazed vamp wonderfully played by Rachael Blake (Home and Away and Heartbreak High) and Barbara (Felicity Montagu – sometime long suffering PA to Alan Partridge).

You can get a flavour from http://www.suburbanshootout.com/video.aspx (select the UZI option for best effect).

I guess nothing is more divisive than comedy – you either love it or hate it – and although this show is not as original or anything like as dark as League of Gentlemen or Synchronicity it IS funny and worth a go. I look forward to series 2.

Funny and clever

[Odyssebax · 7/10 · 10 May 2020]

Good comedy, nice jokes. Not an outstanding production but quite decent. And, about Ruth Wilson... There's a colloquial expression in Greek: "Trelo Gomenaki". Well, in that show, she is a Trelo Gomenaki indeed...

worth watching

[abrown2980 · 20 April 2006]

"Stepford Wives" vs "Suburban Housewives" or perhaps an English "Twin Peaks" - you'd understand the connection if you REALLY watched "Twin Peaks". The acting is rich, the comedy black and the content adult. If you enjoy bloke comedy then you will recognize a few faces. It doesn't take long before you are well entrenched into the story line and you'll be thanking Oxygen for running two episodes back to back.

Overall theme: Joyce and her husband have moved into a small English city (it has a church, so it's a city) as he has accepted a position as chief constable. Two factions of housewives are contending for influence/control over Joyce and ultimately, her husband's influence over local law enforcement. Each gun toting faction uses a different method of influence, fear and intimidation vs conscience and moral duty.

The supporting characters (more a case of caricatures) are campy and carried out by actors and actresses with the same commitment to their role as Don Adam's "Maxwell Smart".

Highly recommended.

Little Britain meets The Sopranos

[extravaluejotter · 9/10 · 25 June 2006]

Channel Five never seems to have anything that I want to watch. Well, that was the case until I discovered "Suburban Shootout"!

Fans of comedies like "Little Britain" and "Spaced" will find plenty of surreal pleasures in this tale of bored suburban housewives turned vigilantes and gangsters. Every episode these tweed-clad Amazons engage in drug dealing, extortion, wanton destruction and pointless violence.

The talented cast pitch into the bizarre story lines with gusto and the series is brimful with enthusiasm. There aren't many comedies that I find laugh-out-loud funny these days, but "Suburban Shootout" did have me chortling on the sofa as I watched. I really hope that Paramount and Channel Five make another series.

BLACK COMEDY AT ITS FINEST

[wildcard_doc23 · 10/10 · 24 February 2018]

I hail form Greece and being part of the European Union (at least sometimes I think we are) we are no strangers to true British comedy. From the Kenny Everett show, to Men Behaving Badly, Only Fools and Horses, to the Benny Hill show and of course the Black Adder, along with numerous VHS tapes and occasional screenings of Monty Pythons's movies, we've seen and heard it (almost) all. But then a hidden gem like this comes along and brings a bright and nutty smile on one's face again. From the seemingly peaceful little British town and quiet paradise of Stempington comes a colourful array of innocent housewives, leading an ordinary and boring life. But things are much different below the surface, with gun totting criminals, naive police enforcement, corrupt officials, deviant old ladies and sex crazed menopausal wives, springled with asylum seeking refugees and cheese loving French gangsters, this series has it all! From bonkers crazy themes, to surprise attacks of equal amounts of laughter and mayhem, often at the same scene, it is a truly hilarious and darkly satisfying black comedy, promising to entertain you as only british comedies can. Before Vicious came into play, it is truly a marvel to behold. A special nod to then just aspiring actors Ruth Wilson (Luther/The Affair) and Tom Hiddleston (the name needs no introduction nowadays) as the Romeo-And-Juliet-esque doomed lovers, who show us a very different and comic performance than we are accustomed to...

A good idea for a short film stretched out over two seasons of television.

[tobiasthuressongtv · 4/10 · 1 April 2019]

I'm on a quest to watch everything Ruth Wilson has acted in. She's brilliant and steals this show as well. Here she hams it up tremendously as a ditsy/nutty sex pot. She plays the daughter of one of the gun toting old ladies who sets her sights on the son of another (Tom Hiddleston in an early role). While a fun idea this would've been better suited for a 30min short film. Old ladies touting guns and having turf wars in a quaint little town gets really old really quickly and they couldn't possibly have stretched this out further than the two seasons that were made. While fun and sometimes even brilliantly so this has a tiresome undercurrent of male bashing. Points subtracted for that. Besides that this is a mostly fun watch but it does get old and towards the end of the second season my interest had severely waned and I found myself surfing on my smartphone while glancing at the screen every now and then. Watch it if you are curious about early appearances from Tom Hiddleston and Ruth Wilson. Especially Wilson is broad camp to the hilt and she plays it wonderfully.

Oooo I like it! - EDIT: Nope I take it back!

[JulesTSmith · 2/10 · 27 April 2006]

Nope- now I take back all my other comments. Suburban Shootout was a one trick pony- the pilot very funny but after that it all just goes downhill. Well done Channel 5, take a good idea and ruin it.

DISREGARD ANYTHING BELOW!

Finally some great original comedy from Channel 5!!!!! It seems great from the pilot. Desperate Housewives meets The Godfather! A woman and her policeman husband move to Little Steppington- a typical little village in the south of England. However before the first box is unpacked Joyce is taken on a tour round the town by a group of housewives only to be become involved in the destruction of the Wicker Barn. Very clever dialogue, and a great performance from Chancellor!

Give it a go! Thursday nights 11pm Channel 5. Give it the ratings it deserves so they can make more shows like this! Also Channel 5 move it to a better time slot! It's about time us Brits took back the king of comedy title from the Americans, we've been laking it for AGES!!!!

awesome show

[UzuUzuDeshi · 26 March 2006]

I was channel surfing and ended up on Oxygen when this was on. It's housewives meets mafia how these women control their town. Odd twists and good acting make this a highly entertaining piece of the BBC. One of my favorites, second only to Xena: Warrior Princess. Once upon a time, Two best friends come home to find their home vandalized. From then on they take a vow to stop crime in their own vigilante style. Camilla goes to far, and it results in two gangs of housewives battling it out in suburbia. All the little details are funny, from how the 'gangmembers' get their own parking spot at the grocery store and ridiculous discounts through intimidation. I would highly recommend this show.

Bone rattlingly unfunny

[PaulsLaugh · 1/10 · 11 December 2022]

This TV series has not aged well now that there's a "suburban shooting" nearly every week. The show might make more sense if set in West Texas where the gun culture is like a religion, but in domesticated England? Nope. Rather than playing comedy seriously, the actors know they are in spoof and mug accordingly. It's rather sickening to watch considering the subject.

I kept watching just to catch TH, but he had not gotten passed his teen years' ungainliness when this was filmed. He had bad skin and un-brightened teeth with little muscle tone, kinda shocking to see him as he was then compared to later. He got better looking.

There's only one joke in this awful sitcom

[Bill_Bones · 19 June 2006]

Suburban Shooutout only has one joke and you guessed it it's the one in the title. If you find it hilarious that middle England housewives are in fact gun slinging gangsters and feel like having that gag rammed down your throat in various different ways for half an hour then this might be the show for you. Most will hate it. Or just not notice it.

The worst aspect is the characterisation. It's non existent. Everyone is one dimensional and there are no motivations based in reality. The relationship between the main dippy woman and her husband, the copper played by Ralph "Finchy" Inneson, is the most stupidly unbelievable thing going.

Basically it's kids' TV. Bad kids' TV at that. Awful and unfunny. Could have been good if there was anything beyond the "hilarious" premise but there's not. Avoid.