It's incredibly odd how Ben Elton's writing went so seriously downhill with this series. It's not written with Richard Curtis as Black Adder was and this must be one of the reasons it's so clunky & old fashioned. Rowan Atkinson was brilliant throughout all of the Blackadder series' and his performance here is still quite impressive but the overall effect leaves one feeling immensely underwhelmed. The end-of-the-pier humour sounds like it was taken from an episode of Terry & June circa 1979 - probably funny to some people but in an era with shows like Seinfeld for competition it's just not good enough. I'm quite surprised how many people think it's funny. If you are a fan of more modern shows like Partridge / Nighty Night / Curb etc then you're really not going to be at all impressed.
Review of The Thin Blue Line
