I'm two episodes into the TV version of The Full Monty and I have to say I'm enjoying it so far. I have only dim recollections of the original movie so I don't remember the tone of it very well but I'd definitely rank the TV version as a dramedy rather than a straight-up comedy.

The series continues to be set in the city of Sheffield (England), a city which was once an industrial powerhouse but appears to have been largely deindustrialized in the past few decades. The characters from the movie are 25 years older and most of them seem to be on the low end of the socio-economic spectrum, working in low-status jobs if they're working at all.

The local school is a central hub to the story lines. The school is falling apart physically and the guy who is ultimately responsible for helping the school through these problems continually evades his responsibilities by avoiding meetings or delegating powerless individuals to make excuses. Meanwhile, some of the kids at the school are really struggling too. Some of the guys from the movie do their best to help in the face of rules (and laws) that don't allow for anything but "the system" to help, a help that mostly makes things worse rather than better.

Despite the troubles some of the characters are having, I can't help but feel an optimism that things are building in such a way that enough good people will wake up to finally act and solve a lot of the problems. I'm definitely going to stay with it for the rest of the season (eight episodes of roughly 50 minutes each) to see what happens.