Dear John

1980s British tv sitcom

Teacher John Lacey returns home one day and finds "Dear John" letter... His wife has just left him for his best friend, soon after they are divorced and John is struggling to find a second wind. He seeks help in group of people in similar situation.

Teacher John Lacey returns home one day and literally finds the "Dear John" note from his wife. She just left him for his best friend and inevitably they get divorce. After that John is forced to leave the home and rent a room for himself so he can pay the alimony for their son. Struggling with his new life John decides to take part in the 1-2-1 club, a group meetings in community centre for people divorced. The people he meets there makes him realize he is not alone, but also he might be in better situation than most of them. Louise, the counsellor of the group, tries to open the people to new life, to deal with the past and to take part in social events. Among the group there is Kate, who is called frigid, Kirk, who poses to be a playboy, recluse Ralph and older lady, Mrs. Arnott. Together they share their stories and try to find a way ahead.

British sitcom about divorced John Lacey, who joins the club for people like him, and tries to find a way to patch up his life. The colourful characters he stumbles upon the meetings gave the series a great start, the delve into their personal stories even improved the show, but after first series the emphasis of the story was suddenly shifted from the group to the life of John himself, which turned the successful sitcom into messy comedy-drama like show. The surprising bit is that creator of Dear John, John Sullivan, was experienced comedy writer with such titles in his resume as Only Fools and Horses, The Two Ronnies and Citizen Smith, yet the second series of Dear John was a disaster. The stories were too serious, character of Kate left the group and was not replaced by new characters, the chemistry was gone and new concepts were just weak.

It is hard to describe Dear John in few words - brilliant first few episodes and rest of them completely forgettable. John Sullivan chose uneasy topic for this sitcom and quickly ran out of ideas how to deal with it and still make comedy. On the other hand he created few very good characters, but at the same time he did not made full use of their potential.

Rating	5.6
Funny	6 / 10
Entertaining	3 / 5
Characters	3 / 5
Nonrepetitive	2 / 5