Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Here We Go’ On BritBox, A ‘Modern Family’-Style Sitcom About A Chaotic But Very Together Family

The concept of the BritBox series Here We Go isn’t exactly new: We see documentary footage of a family that seems to be in a constant state of chaos. But sometimes a less-than-fresh concept doesn’t take away from a show that’s funny and well-executed. Is this one of those shows?

HERE WE GO: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A teen is videoing as his dad carefully brings a tray of food upstairs, intent on giving his wife breakfast in bed for her birthday.

The Gist: The life of the Jessop family is being filmed by teenage son Sam (Jude Collie); he’s making a documentary for his media studies class. What he ends up capturing, for the most part, is just how chaotic life in the Jessop family is. For instance, the romantic gesture his dad Paul (Jim Howick) made for his wife Rachel (Katherine Parkinson) predictably doesn’t go smoothly when he struggles to open the door with the tray of food in his hands; Rachel opens the door suddenly and gets OJ and scrambled eggs all over her.

The Jessops live in a typically tiny British row house, but it’s full and busy. Nineteen year-old daughter Amy (Freya Parks) is there with her girlfriend Maya (Mica Ricketts), and coming through the door is Paul’s mother Sue (Alison Steadman), and later Rachel’s brother Robin (Tom Basden) and his on-again, off-again squeeze Cherry (Tori Allen-Martin).

Paul, a former Olympic archer (in 2004… now he has a dad bod and a wonky back) has been out of work while Rachel has been the main breadwinner, but he has a good birthday present for her: A “wowcher” for Jungle World, which has mini-golf, climbing, go-karts and other fun family stuff. Amy suggests they go that day, but Paul feels they have plenty of time.

Cut to six months later, on the day the “wowcher” expires. As Rachel frantically tries to get everyone out the door, she plans out how much time they have to do everything. But they get waylaid when they pick up Sue, who’s dog sitting for her neighbor; they have to stop at a park to let the dog go pee, and he runs as soon as someone lets him off his leash. They take a couple of hours to find the pooch, but there’s a problem: Rachel found what she thought was the dog, but it turns out to be someone else’s dog. Now they have to bring that dog back to her person. Will they get to Jungle World on time?

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Well, we put this show’s comp right up there in the headline: Here We Go is a smaller-scale, British Modern Family.

Our Take: We were a bit distracted at how similar Here We Go, created by Tom Basden, was to Modern Family, right down to the fact that the Jessop’s every move is being filmed. There are a few fundamental differences, of course: For one, Basden solves the conundrum of the never-ending presence of a film crew by having the Jessop’s younger son filming. Second, it jumps back and forth in time to tell its story in each episode, mainly to show how what we do or say one month doesn’t necessarily correlate with what we say or do in the same situation at another time.

Despite that strong similarity to MF, though, Here We Go is genuinely funny, mainly because it’s showing a working class family who somehow gets themselves into chaotic situations. In the second episode, for instance, Paul is going to present an award at his old school, but injures himself biking, while trying to increase the anemic viewership on his YouTube page. In the meantime, Rachel thinks Amy has an in for a job interview when the person hiring is an old classmate of Rachel’s, but finds out just what people thought of her back then.

It might be funny because we’re also part of a chaotic family and see ourselves in the Jessops. And the show isn’t exactly problem free. For instance, Paul is too much of a manchild who seems to refuse to do anything but something related to archery, an archetype that grew so old on this side of the pond that series were created to parody it. But the Jessops’ inherent ineptness is spread around, with the possible exception Sam, whom we mostly hear making snide comments from behind his camera.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: After getting in one hole of mini golf at Jungle World, the Jessops walk back to their minivan, only to find that the dog has done its business in the front passenger seat.

Sleeper Star: Freya Parks is good as Amy, who isn’t sure what she wants to do in her life yet, is on shaky ground with Maya, but is still pretty confident about what she doesn’t want to do.

Most Pilot-y Line: The dog’s name is “Lord Sugar.” When Rachel calls out “Lord!”, Sue says, “You’ve got to use his whole name or he won’t respond!”

Our Call: STREAM IT. Here We Go is one of those cases where the execution is so good that the fact that the concept isn’t fresh doesn’t matter.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.