Fresh Meat (TV series)
Fresh Meat is a British comedy-drama television series created by Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain, who also created "Peep Show". The first episode, directed by David Kerr, was broadcast on Channel 4 on 21 September 2011, and the show aired on Wednesdays at 10 pm. The second series started airing on 9 October 2012 and consists of 8 episodes. On 22 November 2012, a third series was commissioned and began broadcasting on 4 November 2013. Bain said ideas were being developed for a potential film adaptation, following the runaway success of 2011's "The Inbetweeners  Movie". However, a fourth series followed instead, filmed in 2015 and aired in February 2016 as a conclusion to the series. Plot. The plot revolves around the lives of six students – Vod, Oregon, Josie, Kingsley, JP and Howard – who are freshers (with the exception of Howard) at the fictional Manchester Medlock University (loosely based on the University of Manchester). They live in a shared house off-campus in Rusholme rather than university halls of residence, due to their late application. Main themes include: Oregon's insecurity and failed relationship with her English literature lecturer, Tony Shales; Vod's hedonistic, carefree  lifestyle; Josie and Kingsley's tortured relationship; upper-class JP's attempts at popularity and impressing girls; and Howard's many eccentricities. On a larger scale, the series covers many student-related issues, including financial issues, work pressures, grades, expulsion, partying, and internship competition. In the final series a major theme is job seeking, final exam pressure and the value of degrees. Production. Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain created "Fresh Meat"'s characters and wrote the first episode whilst watching "The Young Ones" on "VHS"; subsequent episodes were written by other writers. Bain has explained the reasons for this approach : "We always imagined this as a team-written show partly for practical reasons because "Peep Show" has been recommissioned, and moving forward if we're lucky enough to get another series of "Fresh Meat" we simply couldn't write two shows at once. So we always knew we wanted to bring other writers on board, some are more experienced, some very talented women writers, and one who had just graduated when we started writing." "Fresh Meat" is produced by Liverpool-based Lime Pictures and London-based Objective Productions. The programme was filmed at The Sharp Project in Manchester, a £ 16.5 million studio facility built to fill the void when Granada Studios closed in 2013. The programme is set in Manchester, and some location scenes are filmed on the campus of the real life Manchester Metropolitan University (close to the River Medlock) – including scenes set within the students' union, which are filmed in the students' union of Manchester Metropolitan University. Scenes in the characters' local pub are filmed at the King's Arms in Salford. Many exterior shots were filmed at the University of Manchester's main Oxford Road campus – particularly outside the library – and in series 2, the University  of Salford's library and many exterior parts of the campus were used as a set. 28 Hartnell Avenue, the Victorian house in which the students live, is in fact 28 Mayfield Road in Whalley Range, Manchester. Channel 4 announced that a second series had been commissioned in October 2011. Filming was completed in August 2012, and the series started broadcasting that following October. A third series was confirmed via Twitter following the second series' finale. Filming of Series 4 began in March 2015 and wrapped on 28 May 2015. Reception. Critical reaction to the first series' opening episodes was  mixed, with reviews becoming more positive as the series progressed. "The Guardian" gave the opening episode a very positive review, finding it "sharp" and "refreshingly gag-dense". "The Independent"'s review was also positive, saying "what really holds the thing together is an underlying sympathy, the sense that these characters might be comically foolish but they aren't (with some exceptions) contemptible." However, Michael Deacon in "The Daily Telegraph" called the opening episode's script "a torrent of prattling self-hatred" and found the episode "drainingly bleak". Rupert Christiansen, also in the "Telegraph", was similarly unimpressed, calling it "[p]athetically laboured  and over-acted" and "limply written and predictable". Rachel Cooke of "New Statesman" felt the opening episode was a "damp squib" and commented that this might be because "the writers failed to remember that going to university is also rather melancholic, what with all the loneliness, the strange and soon-to-be-shed new friends and the general exhaustion of trying to act cool and grown-up". By the end of the first series, the "Radio Times" said the show had been "full of well-worked plotlines and gorgeous character comedy", and "The Daily Telegraph" praised "the series' admirable habit  of stirring pathos into the flow of gags" as well as complimenting the scripts and performances. "The Guardian" felt it had "managed to live up to sky-scraping expectations", and "Metro" said "Originally billed as a university version of "The Inbetweeners", Fresh Meat has developed into something much more sophisticated than its more-established sibling." The second series continued to receive positive reviews, with "The Observer" declaring the second episode "almost an hour of laugh-out-loud comic astuteness that single-handedly restored faith in the British ability to be funny", while "The Independent on Sunday" said "First time round , the student sitcom was chipper but clunky fare. But, just as its fresher gang have grown up, so the whole thing has become sharper, wiser, and more lovable". The third series also continued to receive positive reviews. Andrew Collins of "The Guardian" identified some similarities between "Fresh Meat" and "The Young Ones", but he suggested that "to say that "Fresh Meat" is a "Young Ones" for the Jägerbomb generation does neither show justice" and said ""The Young Ones" was like being picked up by the lapels and repeatedly shaken. "Fresh Meat" is more like being invited to stay". Collins also  recognised Jack Whitehall's performance as J.P. and refuted Jonathan Ross's quip at the British Comedy Awards that, as an actor, Whitehall has "less range than a North Korean missile", adding that Whitehall's performance deepens with each episode. Thomas H. Green of "The Arts Desk" wrote that, after "rocky" earlier episodes of the third season, the finale of the third season of "Fresh Meat" had "retrieved its sterling reputation". Green suggested the circumstances in the seventh episode of the season were incredible and "reality was pushed too far" but conceded that the finale delivered, with Kingsley and Josie 's "soul-wringing, half-hearted" attempt at an open relationship and then the "wrenching" dissolution of their relationship for the sake of their friendship; Vod's wildly promising run at president of the student union and then sabotaging her own campaign to mend her friendship with Oregon, who wins but inherits dire straits facing the student union and its executive; the development and progression of Howard and Candice's relationship, culminating in romance; and JP, who "applies for a position" with (or attempts to seduce) Josie (who is in an open relationship) via a PowerPoint presentation, moves on from Sam , cleans the house and attempts to sell it, and laments that he is "horny".