Very funny stuff - centers around Martin, a cheerful outcast with an imaginary friend (Chris O'Dowd) who (being a product, after all, of his own thoughts) reinforces his many amusingly terrible ideas. In addition to this friend/partner-in-crime, Martin has three sisters, and a mom and dad who are absolutely brilliant characters. The mother is kind of like Lois from Malcolm in the Middle, in that she's a real pro at the parenting gig, probably the smartest cat in the family and tells it like it is. Unlike Lois, she does all of this with a calmness that makes her more humorous, likable and watchable. It's clear that the dad would lose all control without her around, and often fails spectacularly at important parenting tasks. He's no fool though, even if he often plays the part. He and his wife have the air of people who could be much more if they didn't have 4 kids to raise in Boyle. They're brutally 'real' with their kids, hilariously practical in their parenting and daydream almost as much as their screwball son Martin. So, when they inevitably have to help out one or a few of the children, you as the viewer can't help but feel a little moved. This isn't just about Martin's coming of age - it's also about family and unconditional love and community. That said, it's also just hilarious. It's clever (Martin's exchanges with O'Dowd come to mind), absurd (Martin's ideas), irreverent and much more. Best comedy I've seen in a long time.

Great show! The small Irish locale has lots of charm, and the characters are both entertaining and familiar. he show invokes a powerful feeling of nostalgia, and I would recommend it for anyone. It primarily revolves around the changing life of a small boy, and a small Irish family who are always using their wits to get ahead, or at the very least catch up. The plots are both ironic, and dramatic, but the humor is light-hearted and sarcastic, making it a great show for all ages. The characters are fascinating, but easily identifiable. The setting is exiting but familiar. the humor is both thought-provoking and childish. As I said there is truly something for everyone here, and it reminds us all about a powerful lesson- live life on your own terms.

When ideas have a heart, this kind of comedies come to life. This may be one of the funniest -really funny, heart warming and cozy series I've seen. And I suppose there are reasons for it to be so good. David (Martin-Martin) is not an actor and comes across as the most believable boy ever (maybe above Nick H. as Marcus in About a Boy). Another very strong one is that most people are from the region, and Boyle becomes part of the characters.Definitely, O'Dowd's connection with the land (the soil, in fact) is so deep that it really shows off in each episode. Paul's (Dad) character is amazing.Positive, funny, family oriented. A plain joy to watch. Let's hope the job they did for the third season comes out of the can. I suppose Sky1 is not "that" happy with something.

Truly unique and original........ or maybe just a typical Irish childhood experience resulting in his participation to the human race. I'm not quite sure if I ever had an imaginary friend though, although I am Irish so maybe I did, actually I did and Chris did too... evidently. (It was quite boring living in the Irish country-side you know, and in addition, growing up in the 1980's in a recession definitely didn't help with the boredom!) But we did have the A-Team to watch and Where's me Jumper to listen to...... and ZZ Top!, but all that set aside, it was standard procedure to have an imaginary friend in rural Ireland! In fact growing up one of my many many REAL pals had an imaginary friend that he called 'Mr. Kipling'. He often tried to introduce him to me!After watching the first episode I could see the similarities to Fr. Ted but that was purely down to the fact that it was simply Irish. Steve Coogan's character is outstanding and his Irish accent was surprisingly acceptable, we want to see more of him (but less of his pecks). Not sure if that was a Cork accent though, not that it matters of course but Corkonian fish mongers don't generally go to Roscommon, they have an ocean full of fish.Johnny Vegas hasn't made an appearance yet but I hope he and Steve's characters get to unite at some point. I wonder what role Johhny will get to fulfill, another sleazy Irish fish mongering womanizer? Obviously not but I cant wait to see what they have come up with nonetheless.My rating: 9 out of 9!