What is it about Mrs Brown and her boys?

Taking pride of place at BBC1 Xmas night schedule is the show that was recently voted the best sit-com on British TV in the 21st Century beating the likes of The Office, has won awards including BAFTA and NTA wins, has hit viewership peaks of 11m and has even had a spin off film. Yet for all it's success it has been on the receiving end of some of the most vitriolic reviews that a TV show has got in recent years, so why the extreme reactions? Mrs Brown's Boy has  had a journey that has included radio, books stage shows and a prior film version that did involve creator Brendan O'Carroll. And then the TV show was launched in 2011 with little to no fanfare in a grave yard slot, from this some what muted start the show grew to become the massive hit it is today but the critics were if anything had the reverser reaction. The main charge they bring against the show is that for all it post modern trappings (gaffes are kept in, there are shots of the audience laughing at the action, musical numbers etc) it is a show that is deeply rooted in the era of the nadir of the  British sit com, the early 1970's.. This was a time when shows like On the Buses and Love thy Neighbour were massive hits at the time but now viewed through the prism of political correctness they are seen as appearing to lowest common denominator. Though On the Buses is at times repeated on ITV3, both it and Love thy Neighbour do not feature on all time great British sit-com lists. If anything Mrs Brown's Boys is seen as a massive step back when the past decade has seen the likes of The Office and The Thick of It had been redefining the language of the sit-com. The question of if Mrs Brown's Boys joins the pantheon of great British sit-coms like Dad's Army, Fawlty Towers and Only Fools and Horses to name just 3 will judged be in the fullness of time.