Fresh Meat Season 2
Created by: Jesse Armstrong, Sam Bain
Starring: Zawe Ashton, Greg McHugh and Kimberley Nixon
Episode running time: 50mins

The series follows a group of six students about to embark on the most exciting period of their lives thus far, University! Away from home for the first time, on the brink of adult life, they are about to discover who they really are. From the moment they ship up as freshers at their shared house, their lives are destined to collide, overlap and run the whole gamut of appalling behaviour and terrible errors of judgement.

They are: JP (Jack Whitehall), public school boy with good teeth and an inflated sense of entitlement; Kingsley (The Outsiders’ Joe Thomas), charming, lovable and crushingly insecure; Josie (Kimberley Nixon), overly enthusiastic and determined to experience new things, however bad they are for you. Then there’s socially awkward and know-it-all Howard (Greg McHugh); straight talking, hard-living Vod (Zawe Ashton); and finally Oregon (Charlotte Ritchie), desperate to be cool and terrified of being boring.

Fresh Meat, the second series, picks up after the summer break where the gang are reunited for the start of the new term at university. But with rent proving a problem they need to let the spare room. After some serious soul searching and wine drinking, they virtually have foreign student Sabine (Jelka van Houten) thrusted upon them.

Sabine isn’t the only new addition to the group this year. Kinglsey has found himself a stalker (or so he thinks) from when he hooked up with Heather (Sophie Wu). Realising that perhaps there might be something more than just a crazy one-nighter, they both give the relationship a go, much to the annoyance of Josie, who clearly has more than just a flicker of a candle she is holding for Kingsley…

Fresh Meat is part comedy, part drama and the young cast are a great ensemble mix of cultures and personalities that most students will surely identify with. As with most second series, the characters are fleshed out a little more and the viewer gets to see more of their characters traits and flaws.

The writing is engaging and though the comedy sometimes is a little hit and miss, this is certainly something that younger audiences can relate to. As with most student based shows, there is always a presence of alcohol and the usual sexual tension simmering over but that is just skimming the surface.

Fresh Meat may not be your laugh riot of a show but it does display promising young talent on the screen in something more than just slapstick and juvenile humour and that is certainly one of the strengths in this series.

3 out or 5

So, do you fancy winning one of three copies on DVD? Of course you do…

To be in with a chance to win, just answer this simple question:

Joe Thomas starred in a British comedy about four school friends… what was it called?

Email your answer, name and address to followingthenerd@gmail.com, marking it ‘Freshers’

Competition closes on Friday November 22nd

Normal T&Cs apply. judge’s decision is final.

Only open to UK readers (Sorry everyone else)