Episodes, S01E01 (BBC2, 10th January 2011)

Episodes (BBC2) got off to a clunky start this week, although we’ll try not to hold it against it; after all, so did this blog.  Let’s see how long I can persevere with either until I give up and declare the whole thing a pointless exercise in mediocre writing…

Of course, it may well improve, and we should give it the benefit of the doubt.  First episodes often turn out to be a bit of a struggle, juggling trying to give us the general ‘feel’ of a programme with introducing characters and setting the scene at the same time.  And there’s quite a lot of scene to be set here, though the central premise is quite a promising one.

Part-scripted by Friends co-creator David Crane, the show features a married couple who also co-write their own tv programme, played by Stephen Mangan (that Guy offof Green Wing) and Tamsin Greig (that Caroline, ditto).  After picking up an award in the UK, they are romanced by a big-shot American producer and whisked off to the States to make one of those lovely American remakes that we’re all so familiar with.  You know, the ones where every semblance of what made the original show so good is ripped asunder and then cobbled shonkily back together along with a load of cotton wool and plastic in an attempt to extend the run of the show to fit an American season.  Yeah, them. I could spit out some bile here about attempted American remakes of cult Brit classics such as Spaced and Red Dwarf here, but we’d be here all day.  And I could talk about the upcoming remake of Being Human, but I might start to cry tears of pure molten trepidation. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it isn’t long before our protagonists run into difficulties, discovering that producer Merc hasn’t actually seen their show and – even worse – wants to recast their main character and replace him with completely-wrong-for-the-role Matt le Blanc.

Episodes joins Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon’s The Trip and Simon Amstall’s rather more dubious Grandma’s House as another in a line of reality-blurring programmes which include fictionalised versions of real people; in this case the suddenly greying (and hence rather distinguished-looking) Matt le Blanc.  Le Blanc actually doesn’t show his face much in this first episode, only appearing to make a phone call and then get involved in a car accident – despite this, it’s a still damn sight more watchable than his last major project, the slightly less literal car crash that made up Friends-spinoff Joey. The challenge with this type of show must be to balance the slightly inevitable feeling of self-indulgence with witty, knowing dialogue and a large dose of self-deprecation – something we’ve seen done perfectly in shows like Curb Your Enthusiasm and Extras, and even to an extent in Channel 4’s 2009 series Plus One which featured Duncan James (of hit boyband Blue) playing “Duncan from Blue”.  How it pans out in Episodes will mostly be down to Le Blanc’s performance, which remains to be seen.

With a strong supporting cast in the form of notables Richard Griffiths (Vernon Actual Dursley!) and Daisy Haggard (that girl! With the teeth! Who’s in all the things!), along with a sprinkling of American talent, we should have been onto a winner here.  Instead, the dialogue feels forced and stilted, and our own familiar comedy stars look out of place and a little washed-out in the glitzy surroundings of Sunset Boulevard.  That’s part of the point, of course, but there’s still something here that doesn’t quite sit properly yet.

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Tags: BBC, BBC2, comedy, David Crane, Episodes, Matt le Blanc, review, Stephen Mangan, Tamsin Greig, television