I thought it was dire. The first two episodes were dull as dishwater and neither of us (I watched with Minor_Furie) laughed once in that first hour.
I did everything right, and made sure I'd had four cans of wicked strength lager before watching them back to back.
The third episode was actually amusing. I smirked a few times and laughed out loud once. Then when it became clear it was just a rehash of
I wanted to throw something through the TV.
It had made such an epic attempt to avoid being the horrid catch-phrase comedy the later series were. It was trying (and failing) to recapture some of the early series brilliance (the parody and the simple quips and one liners). However, it just wasn't funny. Not in a "compared to the others" way, just in a "it wasn't funny" way. As I say, the third episode did have some moments, but the rest was as funny as "Keeping up Appearances". In fact, when they were on the set of Corrie, I wished it would become a Manc soap, as it would be much more amusing and decently scripted!