When I first found out about Father Ted, a 24 episode Irish Cult classic, it was in my Media Aesthetics and Analysis class. We were doing presentations about tv shows we like and why we liked them, and a student did a presentation about this show, littered with funny clips and descriptions of the characters that had the entire class laughing. Naturally, the first question asked after the presentation was shown was "Where can I watch this show?"
Father Ted takes place in Craggy Island, a fictional island off of Ireland where three incompetent yet loveable priests are banished, and they live with their housekeeper. The priests are scheming but likable Father Ted Krilly (Dermot Morgan), his younger and dumber best friend Father Dougal (Ardal O'Hanlon), and old, alcoholic and bad-tempered Father Jack Hackett (Frank Kelly). The housekeeper they live with is an old Irish woman obsessed with making and serving tea and other food, Mrs. Doyle (Pauline McLynn).
In some ways- it's a cheesy, standard feel-good sitcom. It has sitcom rivals such as rival to Ted, Father Dick Byrne (Maurice Cornelius O'Donoghue) who has petty competitiveness with Ted on every single thing, which is childish and petty. The plots are always extreme, hilarious, and outlandish, such as when the priests competed and made terrible songs for Eurovision, or when Father Dougal got a job as a milkman but couldn't slow down to less than four miles an hour because an enemy planted a bomb in the milk truck if that ever happened.
Father Dougal is also a ridiculously dumb character, who frequently can't tell the difference between dreams and reality, small things and things that are far away, or what a conversation is about mid-conversation. It's hilarious though when he picks apart one of Ted's schemes, which shows that Ted is being so dumb that even one of the dumbest characters in the show can call him out.
Father Jack is even more incompetent, and can barely say any words other than "Drink", "Feck", "Girls", and "Arse."
It also pokes fun at the Catholic Church a lot, such as when Father Dougal, who's supposed to be a priest, frequently and comedically questions all of the beliefs. Once, he accidentally asked a series of dumb questions which led to Bishop O'Neill questioning his own beliefs and eventually changing his bishop ropes to bandanas and khakis, becoming a hippie atheist and traveling in a caravan with his new hippie friends to India for a few months while he smokes a joint.
Basically, Father Ted is a funny and brilliant show that is short enough to binge watch the whole thing, and I would recommend it whenever you're feeling down, stressed because of midterms, or bored by yourself or with friends.
