With an onslaught of poorly designed chat-show entertainment and repeats, you'd be forgiven for avoiding the Channel 4 Friday night line-up at all costs, but with a continued focus on Ugly Betty, repeats of Peter Kay's fantastic Phoenix Nights, and most importantly the fourth season of Peep Show, things have been better recently. Such a great feeling of course doesn't last forever, as last night,was the conclusion of the afore-mentioned series of Peep Show.

Successfully managing to bypass the stigmata of "difficult third season" that plagues so many shows nowadays, the fourth series of the show picks up largely from the events of the previous year, in particular Mark's marriage proposal to Sophie. For the first time in the show's history the entire series is driven towards this particular plot, with an ongoing continuation of references and scenes dedicated to this every week, unlike past weekly disposable plots from the previous years. It's something of a double-edged sword however, as it evidently restricts creativity and exploration in each of the episodes, with a lot of possible scenarios and character development often left out in favour of Mark's impending doom, so much so, that in essence, Jeremy doesn't really get a look in this season whatsoever.

This is something that occurs throughout the surreal world of the show, with many of the recurring characters barely appearing at all, perhaps the best example being fan favourite Johnson only appearing in a sole character-driven episode. What this means is that despite the entourage of characters that do appear in the show, season four is very much "The Mark and Jeremy Show" much like in the first year. Whether this appeals to you as a viewer or not is based entirely on your televisual preferences, but certainly, some expanded cast or further memorable guest characters like Liz May Brice as Sally in episode four, would do no harm.

With the show renowned often as being crudely hilarious and a mash up of other adjective verbs, this season is no exception, with notable examples including pissing oneself, burning down a farm and Jeremy sleeping with Sophie's mum. As ever these moments are always incredibly surreal and random in their execution, but continue to build on the frameworks of past season mishaps and blunders. With the show now in it's fourth year however, scenes like this are quickly becoming expected, and similarly in regards to Nip/Tuck, less shocking as each season passes. Like Nip/Tuck however, that's not to say these shock moments are still far from effective, but along with first-person narration, well, they're the tried and tested staples of this show regardless of what happens.

Series four of Peep Show is far from the funniest year of the show, with that accolade rightly belonging to the first season. Peep Show is a show that's still incredibly enjoyable and incidentally still far better than the majority of UK comedies namely the ones on offer from Ricky Gervais. As a concept it's one that's since of course aged, and certainly not as well as one would've hoped, but despite these faults and niggles, the fact remains that Peep Show is essential viewing- more so if you're a newbie- if only, because frankly, there is nothing like this on TV.