The arrival of Graham Linehan's new comedy show The Walshes has been hotly anticipated these last few weeks - given that the writer has such stalworth credits to his name like Father Ted and The IT Crowd. Safe to say, expectations were high, but lets face it - unreasonably high. Nothing will and can ever live up to Father Ted in our national consciousness, once you can accept that, it's easier to enjoy other comedy offerings. However, if anyone was on Twitter last night during the show, you'll have very quickly seen what became... total annihilation

Look, I wasn't rolling around the floor laughing either last night, but it's early days. The best comedies often involve taking the time to get to know the characters and allow yourself to be endeared by them. Yeah okay, some of the jokes last night were a bit old school (going for 'the long stand'), but the ingredients and talent are there for something really good to grow. The actors behind it are the comedy troupe Diet of Worms, and if you've ever taken the time to watch any of their internet sketches, you'll understand why they have earned the right for a national TV time slot.

Some folk were tweeting their negative opinions on the show within five minutes of it being on air, five minutes. Give me a break. Give us all a bloody break. Dare I say, it is almost a cultural thing for us to slam down on our own homegrown talent just because, I don't know, we don't like people getting notions about themselves? Best to tell them they are shit, just in case they do.

It's not entirely an Irish thing though, the internet as fantastic as it is, also now gives everyone's opinion a platform, whether informed or not. This can obviously be a great thing at times, but other times you just want to roll your eyes, bang on somebody's door, just so you can say; 'Really?'

Thankfully, Father Ted and the gang didn't have to go through this internet scrutiny back when it was first aired, as not sure we would have even gotten a second series if it did. There are two more episodes left anyways, so let's reconvene then.

Here is just some of the reaction from last night:

And of course the TV license guy...

It wasn't all bad though there were some voices of reason: