Do you folks "across the pond" get this new sitcom series (shown on Showtime in the U.S.)
It is quite possibly the worst show I've ever seen with British actors in it.
The whole premise is shopworn to bits. A British husband and wife who have created a hit comedy series in the U.K. about a public school are invited to adapt the show for the U.S. network.
Of course, the minute they arrive they are seduced and repelled by the LA lifestyle and the idiocy of the U.S. film and TV industry, which changes every aspect of the show, including casting Matt LeBlanc (Joey from friends) in the key role.
While it's supposed to be a "cultural clash" type of show demonstrating how American TV dumbs down just about everything (absolutely true), this is a such a cliched and been there done that topic that the show is stillborn from birth.
What makes it worse is that the English couple--played by Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig--are so amazingly and pathetically unfunny. Greig in particular may be the worst British import sent to the states since that ill-fated tea that was dumped overboard in Boston Harbor. Shrill, annoying, pathetically unfunny, and deserving not an ounce of empathy, watching her is like watching endless fingernails scratching a blackboard.
Mangan isn't much better. His pop-eyed "can't believe this" overacting gets old within minutes.
And the Americans are just as guilty. LeBlanc is goofing on his image as a stupid, vulgar buffoon, but it gets tiring after awhile. And all the toadying, stupid American industry people are little more than cardboard cutouts.
If you really want a more realistic and better conceived satire of the American TV industry, rent "The Comeback" with another "Friends" alum, Lisa Kudrow. Or "Curb Your Enthusiasm."
J-I-B
It is quite possibly the worst show I've ever seen with British actors in it.
The whole premise is shopworn to bits. A British husband and wife who have created a hit comedy series in the U.K. about a public school are invited to adapt the show for the U.S. network.
Of course, the minute they arrive they are seduced and repelled by the LA lifestyle and the idiocy of the U.S. film and TV industry, which changes every aspect of the show, including casting Matt LeBlanc (Joey from friends) in the key role.
While it's supposed to be a "cultural clash" type of show demonstrating how American TV dumbs down just about everything (absolutely true), this is a such a cliched and been there done that topic that the show is stillborn from birth.
What makes it worse is that the English couple--played by Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig--are so amazingly and pathetically unfunny. Greig in particular may be the worst British import sent to the states since that ill-fated tea that was dumped overboard in Boston Harbor. Shrill, annoying, pathetically unfunny, and deserving not an ounce of empathy, watching her is like watching endless fingernails scratching a blackboard.
Mangan isn't much better. His pop-eyed "can't believe this" overacting gets old within minutes.
And the Americans are just as guilty. LeBlanc is goofing on his image as a stupid, vulgar buffoon, but it gets tiring after awhile. And all the toadying, stupid American industry people are little more than cardboard cutouts.
If you really want a more realistic and better conceived satire of the American TV industry, rent "The Comeback" with another "Friends" alum, Lisa Kudrow. Or "Curb Your Enthusiasm."
J-I-B
