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Fresh Meat.

It's about time the British created their own drama about uni life and that's exactly what Fresh Meat is. Basically it's about six freshers who all miss out on Halls and so are forced to live in uni housing. Of course, they've already been branded the social outcasts so they have to learn to live with each other, the problem is, they're all such different people. There's JP (Jack Whitehall), the privately-educated posh boy, Kingsley (Joe Thomas, the virgin, Howard (Greg McHugh), the Scottish weirdo, Vod (Zawe Ashton), the too-cool-for-school, no nonsense chick, Oregon (Charlotte Ritchie), the one who's desperate to fit in, Josie (Kimberly Nixon), the naiive and innocent one. As time goes on they learn to get along ... or learn to live with each other at least. Expect lots of awkward moments, shifty eyes and long pauses.

I think there's a really great British cast and that was my main reason for watching it. I expected this to be a really great television show with a fantastical comical bunch of British actors; however, I was sorely disappointed. I mean, it's not a bad TV show, but it's not a particularly good one either. Although it follows the lives of uni freshers, there's nothing 'fresh' about it. It's fairly entertaining on a wednesday evening but it's the hope that it gets better that keeps me watching. Fresh Meat had such potential, but unfortunately I don't think enough effort was put into this to make it unique. Whilst the acting performances are good, they're not as great as they could've been. For example, Joe Thomas is an excellent actor, but his character, Kingsley, is basically Simon from the Inbetweeners, there's nothing new there. Jack Whitehall is a great pompous British guy, but there's just something about his performance that just doesn't ... work. He should probably stick to the stand up comedy. Zawe Ashton plays Vod and portrays her as a hardcore and headstrong girl; however, her never-changing facial expression means that I find it very difficult to understand her character and I can't tell if she's playing dumb or if Vod's got some sort of nonchalant attitude to life.


Rumoured to be the uni version of Skins, I have to say I'm disappointed. There is limited sex in this show despite the raunchy looking television poster. That's not to say that I'm some sort of sex obsessed maniac who thinks that sex is needed to make a good show, but if you're going to advertise the programme as one where a bunch of uni students have sex all the time, they could at least try to live up to their own standard because it's really misleading. Frankly the sex scenes in this are just really irrelevant and have probably only been put it because they think it'll make the show 'sexier'. They don't.

There two main things that bothered me were: the fact that all British dramas are portrayed in the same way. Firstly the dramas are always filmed in dingy little houses with awkward teenagers who drink, take drugs and have sex. I'd like to tell the producers that there are other types of British students! On the other hand that is what separates the British dramas from the American ones. The American ones like to show the lives of the glamorous and the well-off whereas the British like to focus on middle or lower classes in their teen dramas. The other thing that bothered me was the fact that this is supposed to be at Manchester University, which is actually quite a good university and since my friend's sister goes there I know for a fact that the majority of students there don't have it nearly as rough as the student's in Fresh Meat have it.

All in all, this is an alright show that's worth watching if you're bored and looking for something vaguely entertaining but to be honest, I could recommend you a whole host of television shows to watch before you even consider this one.

Favourite quote: 'Well maybe you should tuck your cock away while I make us a nice cup of tea?'