The Full Monty

“The Full Monty” is far from a dutiful retread. It’s charming and deceptively humble, a far more effective tribute to a feel-good touchstone than simply running back the same beats.

The movie barely had a plot, the TV version even less so, but it’s charming and at times poignant to see all the ways that Gaz’s world has and hasn’t changed.

Doubtless some viewers will find “The Full Monty” sentimental to a fault, though sentiment was key to the success of the movie.

A sequel that, for all its shortcomings, retains much of its predecessor’s unassuming charm.

Some storylines wrap themselves up too neatly for how painful they are but still manage to find their footing. The saving grace to all this comes back down to the characters.

Good, sharply written (and acted) series that lacks the sizzle, pop and magic of the movie.

There are glimmers of the grit and sweetness of the film, and this is a cast with charm to burn.

This new eight-part series delivers a political polemic — “seven prime ministers, eight northern regeneration policies” later — which is sugared with comedy, but only lightly.

The Full Monty lacks any fun-loving DNA. There’s no doubt that fans of the film will be intrigued to catch up with the beloved characters, but if it’s instant uplift you want, go back to the original.

There are issues of pacing here, both with the plotting and the dialogue. .... Still, for all the kitchen-sink bleakness, its community spirit still crackles with warmth, offering glimmers of hope.

There’s an overall pendulum swing between cheery optimism and jokey hijinks and eventual somberness that never feels like it’s all located within the same show.

On paper, it’s a good idea—and there are moments when it delivers on that potential. Yet the overall randomness and dearth of joy in this Full Monty, whose full season arrives June 14 on Hulu, make it a puzzling follow-up to a film that charmed millions with its lighthearted social commentary.

Stream it, but only because all of the characters from The Full Monty that you loved in the ’90s are back and as quirky as ever in the new series. But, just like the dog that got kidnapped in the first episode, the show is a bit shaggy and aimless, which may make your goodwill for these characters wane after a few episodes.

Despite a few mildly funny escapades, the best efforts of that most-welcome returning cast and some crisp and insightful writing from original “Full Monty” scribe and co-writer Alice Nutter, “The Full Monty” is on balance a dark and gloomy slog that has us wondering if we might have been better off just imagining how these characters’ lives were going to turn out, rather than seeing the often depressing “reality.”

This is how a feel-good one-off bouncing with mountains of cheek, literally and figuratively, sags into an eight-episode slog.

“The Full Monty” gives us heartfelt but overlong and comedically underwhelming looks at the different lives of the Monty men and others in their orbit.

Pursuing a similar route with “The Full Monty” – a synergistic exercise, incidentally, coming from one of Disney’s production units and premiering via Hulu – might have sounded good in theory. Yet stripped down to its pretty-bare merits as a viewing proposition, it doesn’t offer much incentive to leave your set on.

Boring. It feels neither as real nor as uplifting as its progenitor, showing us less of the characters, society, the deep malaise and human potential than before.