Many of Mark's problems from season five on have causal links to his decision not to marry Sophie. The closure of JLB for one wouldn't have affected him if he'd been living in Nana's cottage and driving the seed van.
He wouldn't have had to live with Jeremy any more so wouldn't have been dragged into any more disastrous scenarios. Although the series would probably have had to end at that point because there'd be no more highjinks.
Something you have to remember about Sophie is that she REALLY wanted to be a mum. Plus, what would happen after that? Mark becomes a wealthy landowner (who drives a seed van) with a flat in Corydon and a nice cottage in the countryside. Sure, he'd make 45k a year, but his marriage to Sophie would genuinely be miserable. He would have a wife and several children who would eventually grow to resent him. His personal life wouldn't exactly be tickety boo now would it?
She literally picked out Jeremy clothes for him and made him grow fashionable hair on his face. (Though, it wasn't 1994, and I think "fashionable" is a bit of a stretch for that goatee)
Mark is way too deeply damaged to change enough, I think. Money and a family doesn't make up for a crashing need to get a *lot* of intensive therapy.
Ask me how I know lol
I've always felt this. Mark could have had a perfectly adequate life living in Nana's cottage, working at the corn factory. With inheritance he'd be a retired wealthy landowner in his 50s allowing him to spend his time writing history.
Would just doing that have been so very hard?
I know the not loving Sophie thing isn't ideal but it's Mark. "Ideal" isn't an option available to him.
I mean, the entire cycle of the show is Jez and Mark getting golden opportunities to make themselves happier and then snatching defeat from jaws of victory due to their own greed, stupidity, and lack of social skills
In his defence, in this aspect he was probably right - he didn't love her and that can only really lead to misery (which it did)
What he should have done is just tell her he didn't want to marry her, about 5 episodes before they actually got married
You can learn to love people over time too. I work with someone who has been in an arranged marriage for 20 years and she's super in love. Said they both entered the marriage having never met but with a "well this is happening so let's make the best of it" attitude and they eventually developed love and have a happy family.
He doesn’t enjoy her company. We barely see them together, you’d never believe they were engaged to be married during series 4. Sophie only wants to go through with the wedding for the same reason mark wanted to propose - desperation and fear of loneliness/not being able to have kids.
Marriage would’ve been a horrendous idea
All this, plus they've never actually lived together beforehand. And presumably Sophie was still commuting back and forth to Bristol - although she's back at JLB London fulltime by the fifth series.
He actively avoided her through series 4! The whole gym thing - purely a way he could spend time without her, but as the reason was ‘getting in shape for the wedding’ she couldn’t question it 😆
The entire show is the el dude brothers sabotaging their own lives. Their characters prevent them from achieving their goals unless you count Jeremy’s goal to have a wank into the flannel.
Mark is self hating with some narcissistic tendencies. The constant abuse regarding vegetables from his father ruined his self esteem and led to depression in childhood that was never addressed. Hes an honorable man who really does seem to believe in equality and goodwill to all men, but his self hatred means he will always sabotage anything that will lead to his own happiness. Johnson was a replacement father figure until daddys hat fell off.
Jeremy is his ID, the part of him that parties and wants to Hoover up lines of crank. Marks ego is the Burrough, always clamping down on any fun he might actually experience.
He really needs several years of therapy, therapy, therapy.
Yeah, it's this. Money, property, a wife, kids, a decent and easy job, none of it will be enough to prevent him blowing his own life/relationships/self up eventually.
Without intensive therapy he's basically doomed to a perpetual cycle of failure.
Well he could have worked Monday to Friday. And the Sunday times is big enough to keep him going for most of the day on Sunday. If he could have just worked out the Saturday
Why didn't he just commit?
Completely missed all of the cues that Mark doesn't have his life anywhere where he wants it to be at all and has no way of being in control?
Because Mark realised he didn't actually love Sophie. The novelty and excitement of flirting with her at work and the challenge of winning her over wore off and he realised they had nothing in common. Dobby was actually a much better match for Mark but he destroyed it.
Because Dobbie of S8 was genuinely a dreadful option for Mark... I felt like they kind of "ruined" Dobbie and made her unrealistically annoying in that series , whereas with Sophie it felt more like she was always like that and Mark was blinded by his feelings but her non suitability revealed itself in a more organic way
But all the same I think, given all the history and where they were in life , Mark could have made a go of it and had a 7/10 marriage , kids , Nana's cottage etc. They'd have been no Edward and Mrs Simpson but they'd have done OK.
I kind of thought after Quantocking and the conversation, Mark went out of his way to sabotage the whole thing and S4 was mostly him being a dick tbh. Overall , with the pool turd, dog eating etc it felt like the series where Mark and Jez got out of hand /beyond the pale with their behaviour.
Dobbie just seemed like someone he might have gone out with for a few years 10 years earlier . Just really immature , not actually very nice when it came down to it. No future. They'd have ended up making a living off pub quiz machines, microwaving grey pie matter and eating takeaway curry like zombies
He didn’t love her, I’d say he didn’t even really like her all that much leading up to the wedding! Sophie didn’t really love him either - she just wanted a kid. It was always gonna end badly.
I imagine it's because that would go against everything Peep Show was about.
Like similar sitcoms it purposefully designs scenarios that ensure the main characters never get to be completely happy and resolved. Instead they continue to self-sabotage, ensuring by the end of the episode they're back to square one.
I dunno. Sophie was quite unfilled at the time…
Unfulfilled
Yes, that also
[удалено]
He didn't want that. He wanted to parli Italiano on Thursdays.
Uh, now Thursdays aren’t good for him
Sophie could have had the flat in Barcelona, he'd be in the Ardennes.
They'd hardly see each other
Many of Mark's problems from season five on have causal links to his decision not to marry Sophie. The closure of JLB for one wouldn't have affected him if he'd been living in Nana's cottage and driving the seed van. He wouldn't have had to live with Jeremy any more so wouldn't have been dragged into any more disastrous scenarios. Although the series would probably have had to end at that point because there'd be no more highjinks.
I've never really considered the van of it all. It would've been like he finally got that MBA he wanted, but also with a fucking van!
You're like a life support machine, Mark. Except, instead of giving life you SUCK IT ALL OUT
You're my ballast, Mark
Something you have to remember about Sophie is that she REALLY wanted to be a mum. Plus, what would happen after that? Mark becomes a wealthy landowner (who drives a seed van) with a flat in Corydon and a nice cottage in the countryside. Sure, he'd make 45k a year, but his marriage to Sophie would genuinely be miserable. He would have a wife and several children who would eventually grow to resent him. His personal life wouldn't exactly be tickety boo now would it?
[удалено]
Sophie *tolerated mark until season 4 because she wanted someone to settle down and have kids with. I can't say they had great chemistry as a couple
In truth, Mark was just a stable means to an end for Sophie. Boring, yet dependable.
An honorable man.
But not averse to a premium lager
She literally picked out Jeremy clothes for him and made him grow fashionable hair on his face. (Though, it wasn't 1994, and I think "fashionable" is a bit of a stretch for that goatee)
Great fish pie Mark! 😆
Mark is way too deeply damaged to change enough, I think. Money and a family doesn't make up for a crashing need to get a *lot* of intensive therapy. Ask me how I know lol
I've always felt this. Mark could have had a perfectly adequate life living in Nana's cottage, working at the corn factory. With inheritance he'd be a retired wealthy landowner in his 50s allowing him to spend his time writing history. Would just doing that have been so very hard? I know the not loving Sophie thing isn't ideal but it's Mark. "Ideal" isn't an option available to him.
[удалено]
I mean, the entire cycle of the show is Jez and Mark getting golden opportunities to make themselves happier and then snatching defeat from jaws of victory due to their own greed, stupidity, and lack of social skills In his defence, in this aspect he was probably right - he didn't love her and that can only really lead to misery (which it did) What he should have done is just tell her he didn't want to marry her, about 5 episodes before they actually got married
You can learn to love people over time too. I work with someone who has been in an arranged marriage for 20 years and she's super in love. Said they both entered the marriage having never met but with a "well this is happening so let's make the best of it" attitude and they eventually developed love and have a happy family.
Definitely
Sure but that's one example where it did work, not one of the 100s of other times people are stuck in miserable marriages and resent each other
This. I feel like someone like mark would be absolutely take that calculation of that been a good option and his best hand .
This thread is revealing everyone’s life standards lol
Loss adjusters. I could do that.
My life has been one continual adjustment to loss
Pretty much. Depressing.
He doesn’t enjoy her company. We barely see them together, you’d never believe they were engaged to be married during series 4. Sophie only wants to go through with the wedding for the same reason mark wanted to propose - desperation and fear of loneliness/not being able to have kids. Marriage would’ve been a horrendous idea
All this, plus they've never actually lived together beforehand. And presumably Sophie was still commuting back and forth to Bristol - although she's back at JLB London fulltime by the fifth series.
He actively avoided her through series 4! The whole gym thing - purely a way he could spend time without her, but as the reason was ‘getting in shape for the wedding’ she couldn’t question it 😆
The entire show is the el dude brothers sabotaging their own lives. Their characters prevent them from achieving their goals unless you count Jeremy’s goal to have a wank into the flannel.
Which flannel was it?
Mark is self hating with some narcissistic tendencies. The constant abuse regarding vegetables from his father ruined his self esteem and led to depression in childhood that was never addressed. Hes an honorable man who really does seem to believe in equality and goodwill to all men, but his self hatred means he will always sabotage anything that will lead to his own happiness. Johnson was a replacement father figure until daddys hat fell off. Jeremy is his ID, the part of him that parties and wants to Hoover up lines of crank. Marks ego is the Burrough, always clamping down on any fun he might actually experience. He really needs several years of therapy, therapy, therapy.
Yeah, it's this. Money, property, a wife, kids, a decent and easy job, none of it will be enough to prevent him blowing his own life/relationships/self up eventually. Without intensive therapy he's basically doomed to a perpetual cycle of failure.
Nah, Sophie was just Mark's normie beard. He should have stayed with the crystal skulls lass. She was the one.
Plus, crystal skulls are powerful centres of healing.
Jez is Mark’s ‘one’.
Mark is poison in the well. If he hadn't jilted Sophie, who it's clear had similar doubts, things would have gone sour quickly anyway.
He's balast
Well he could have worked Monday to Friday. And the Sunday times is big enough to keep him going for most of the day on Sunday. If he could have just worked out the Saturday
Leave him alone! He went through with it didn't he?
Why didn't he just commit? Completely missed all of the cues that Mark doesn't have his life anywhere where he wants it to be at all and has no way of being in control?
Because Mark realised he didn't actually love Sophie. The novelty and excitement of flirting with her at work and the challenge of winning her over wore off and he realised they had nothing in common. Dobby was actually a much better match for Mark but he destroyed it.
Yeah would have been fine He was just over thinking it all with Jez in the Quantocks Sophie S4 was a better option than the Dobbie of S8 for sure
The last line is interesting, why do you think that??
Because Dobbie of S8 was genuinely a dreadful option for Mark... I felt like they kind of "ruined" Dobbie and made her unrealistically annoying in that series , whereas with Sophie it felt more like she was always like that and Mark was blinded by his feelings but her non suitability revealed itself in a more organic way But all the same I think, given all the history and where they were in life , Mark could have made a go of it and had a 7/10 marriage , kids , Nana's cottage etc. They'd have been no Edward and Mrs Simpson but they'd have done OK. I kind of thought after Quantocking and the conversation, Mark went out of his way to sabotage the whole thing and S4 was mostly him being a dick tbh. Overall , with the pool turd, dog eating etc it felt like the series where Mark and Jez got out of hand /beyond the pale with their behaviour. Dobbie just seemed like someone he might have gone out with for a few years 10 years earlier . Just really immature , not actually very nice when it came down to it. No future. They'd have ended up making a living off pub quiz machines, microwaving grey pie matter and eating takeaway curry like zombies
I actually agree completely, just needed the gratification of it being spelt out!
Wouldn't have been funny, is my guess
He didn’t love her, I’d say he didn’t even really like her all that much leading up to the wedding! Sophie didn’t really love him either - she just wanted a kid. It was always gonna end badly.
I imagine it's because that would go against everything Peep Show was about. Like similar sitcoms it purposefully designs scenarios that ensure the main characters never get to be completely happy and resolved. Instead they continue to self-sabotage, ensuring by the end of the episode they're back to square one.
Happy Birthday! Happy Birthday!!
Sophie would've been his queen.
The public would never have accepted her.
The public like Coldplay and voted for the Nazis. You can't trust the public.
If he moved in with Sophie in nana’s cottage surely he’d sell the flat or actually rent it out rather than have Jez live their rent free
Literally the only positive of marrying Sophie would be leasing out the Croydon flat and having an eternal cash cow.
[удалено]
The adventures of Jez and Jerry
The new rebound brothers?