I recall seeing Psychoville's first series on TV when I was living in Reading back in 2008. I saw one episode and thought "I'm going to miss this on broadcast" and immediately bought the DVDs. I watched them avidly and then forgot about the series.

About a year ago, on a plane to India, I re-watched the first series and decided it was even better than I remembered. Series 2 went onto the Amazon wishlist. I've only just gotten round to buying and watching it (including the Halloween special, which is annoying abridged on the Series 2 disc, though I somehow managed to watch it unabridged).

I am in equal measures enthralled and disappointed by this series. I'm glad to have had more of the show, but glad it stopped here. I think the problem stems from the fact that it's more of the same. Taken as part of the whole canon of the League of Gentlemen, it feels very much like old ideas are getting a repeat airing. That's not to denigrate those ideas - they were worth using the first time and are given a new angle/spin the second time. Unfortunately, they just don't feel as fresh to me this time.

Even the music is thematically quite similar to the League of Gentlemen's original music.

That said, there are so many lovely characters, silly events in dark moments, bits of cheeky onscreen wordplay you have to look for. It's still a multi-layered show which had its laugh-out-loud moments. That's the frustration. Strip away 25% of it, and there's a core of lovely, captivating, addictive TV.

The way that grotesque characters can be made sympathetic and even heart-stoppingly poignant is art. Just art.

It still ended up with some predictable plot turns and a bit of magic - the Deus Ex Machina ending - standard fayre.

Great but not great.