Guardian Pans "No Big Deal," an AI-Generated Sitcom with a Human-Written Script

The Guardian has reviewed "No Big Deal," a workplace comedy that premiered on YouTube and bills itself as "The Office meets Dragons' Den." All characters, locations, and visuals were generated by AI, though the script was written by human creator Andrew Dickinson, a former angel investor who turned to AI after finding traditional TV development too slow and expensive. The review is scathing: critic Stuart Heritage describes the show as unwatchable, citing dead-eyed, waxwork-like characters, nonexistent shot-to-shot continuity, and erratic background audio — faults he says are endemic to current AI-generated content.

Beyond the technical shortcomings, the review raises a pointed creative argument: by bypassing conventional development in favor of AI production, Dickinson may have also bypassed the iterative process that makes scripts actually work. Heritage concludes that even a masterfully written script couldn't survive being rendered by these AI visuals — and that this particular script is far from that.