The first episode or two were pretty bad; as it went on I thought it improved. I would like to note that the criticism about canned laughter was wrong. On the Fr. Ted DVD Graham Linehan goes into the studio audience "problem" at length - the audience wants to be part of making the show a success, and they laugh too easily. The actors have to wait, timing gets shot and viewers wonder what was so funny. This show reportedly had "live before a studio audience" as an ideal; in practice that does not always make for good comedy. Editors who can put in or take out a hair from a single shot do an extremely good job of editing laughter; if the laughter sounds off, it's probably live.
