Moone Boy product reviews

I'm a big fan of Chris O'Dowd. I first came to know his work through the IT Crowd where he plays an IT geek in the basement of a big corporate buildng. I really enjoyed the show and thought his comic timing was great. Since then his career seems to go from strength to strength, and he is popping up all over the place. So I was interested to see what this Moone Boy thing was all about.

Martin Moon is a kid at Primary school who isn't terribly bright. He is the youngest of four kids, and the only son. I guess you'd say the family portrayed in this sitcom is fairly typical of the 80s. Mum stays at home, but has a little side business and does a lot of volunteer work outside of the home. Dad has his own little business and is quite blue collar in his way. The sisters are all fairly nasty and much older than Martin too. So in his loneliness he has this imaginary friend.

In a lot of ways it's like what might have happened if Drop Dead Fred had become a series instead of just a movie. The imaginary friend acts as a narrator for Martin's life and helps him work through his problems. But because this is a comedy, this isn't always the best course of action. There is a lot of silliness, and "coming of age" stuff going on as Martin navigates the last days at his school and other family dramas.

I didn't find this laugh out loud funny, but I did feel engaged with the characters. They are all well written and likable in their own ways. I found myself interested to see what would happen next and watching three episodes in a sitting. I discovered that there is a series 2 for this, which is good as I definitely want to see the outcome of the various open storylines. Thanks Roadshow and KIWIreviews for selecting me to review this series.