One of the unwritten rules of popular sitcoms is that things stay the same. Everyone wanted Joey from Friends to just keep on saying “How you doin’?” and not move away from the others to try his luck in Hollywood (and so the Friends spin-off Joey bombed). No one ever secretly hoped Basil Fawlty would remain calm.
Whatever you think of the Irish sitcom Mrs Brown’s Boys, it has at least stuck to its guns. Although the new series is on paper only the fourth, it’s now up to its 47th episode (owing to a decade of high-rating specials, as well as a feature film, Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Movie). Its consistency is a marvel, in the same way the consistency of a McDonald’s cheeseburger is a marvel. In Mrs Brown’s Boys, for good or ill, you know what you’re going to get: the same family, led by a man dressed as a grandma (Brendan O’Carroll, who both created the show and stars as Agnes Brown) clunking around on the same three or four sets trotting out the same threadbare jokes. But things stay the same.
Until, possibly, now. This fourth run consists of only four episodes and they come with the sense of an ending. Episode one, titled Miserable Mammy, saw Mrs Brown ailing. She needed to see a doctor. She hadn’t been sleeping well. The house was a tip. She had “spent the night tossing and turning,” and what’s more, tossing didn’t even merit an eyebrow raise.
