A Man. And His Blog.

And as soon as I’ve finished the second episode of the series, I’m starting to like the show for what it is. But I have to say that I don’t see EPISODES as a highlight in US television so far. For it to be a highlight, it kinda needs to be more cynical.

The episode was good. I wonder what is going to happen in the episodes, when the network is actually shooting the show, since Sean (Stephen Mangan) and Beverly (Tamsin Greig) were only dealing with the fact that Matt LeBlanc (Matt LeBlanc) was just casted (by the way: This episode was proof that Matt LeBlanc just plays a character named Matt LeBlanc, as expected – his story about his two kids and him being unfaithful… yeah). I loved that Sean and Beverly were shocked at first, but when they met Matt, they were actually surprised that he could pull off the role of the headmaster (if he would be more intelligent, and more … suitable for the role at all). But at the end the two were annoyed of him again, thanks to the “whip” splash (which was funny, btw.)

The dinner in Merc’s (John Pankow) home was somewhat between hilarious and boring. His blind wife was the hilarious part (as well as his reactions besides her, when she was talking), but some of the talks during the dinner party was rather boring. There was the talk in front of the painting between Carol (Kathleen Rose Perkins) and Sean, which didn’t help much (except the writers plan to let them have a shot at relationship); and there was the talk between Matt and Beverly, which only showed that Matt really is just a character in the show, and not the real-life Matt (which could have been more hilarious, when that would be the case).

Other than that, the episode delivered some information, which seems to be unimportant at first, like Carol sleeping with Merc (of course she does). Maybe the series is going to get a bit deeper in some secondary information throughout the series, as long as it doesn’t go more into the cynical part of the story. But I loved Beverly’s burst-out in front of the gate. That’s how you curse in real life!

I wouldn’t mind if the show would be a bit more funnier though. 7/10

A marriage, described with one screencap

And introducing: Matt LeBlanc

Well, that was … interesting. Or maybe not. Maybe the humor was missing. Or maybe I just didn’t notice it in the pilot. Somehow I’m underwhelmed, but thinking back to the casting clip from EPISODES with Matt LeBlanc, the episode was exactly like that clip: simple, with less things to focus on, with more screentime for the actors. But after 29 minutes I actually don’t know what to make of it. Yet.

I wonder if Matt LeBlanc had a contract to appear in all episodes of the first season. Because the first scene was actually unnecessary and a waste of some time, but the car accident was the only scene with Matt LeBlanc in this episode. Otherwise only is name would have been mentioned at the end, when everybody was “shocked” (on one end of the line: in a good way; on the other end of the line: very very negatively shocked). But I don’t really want to go deep into this topic, instead I kinda want to compare EPISODES with what I’ve learned from STUDIO 60.

First: It looks like the comedyshow-within-a-comedyshow “Lyman’s Boys” doesn’t seem to be funny like the sketch show “Studio 60″. While Sorkin’s drama had a lot of scenes, where he proved that the comedy in the comedy isn’t funny (and that Sorkin couldn’t really write it), the same thing happened here during Julian’s (Richard Griffiths) audition scene, even though it was kinda funny on another note. While the dialog exchange showed me that “Lyman’s Boys” is going to share the fate of “Studio 60″, the scene itself was ridiculously cool, and it felt like a sitcom. The laughter from the people in the room was reminiscent of a laugh track comedy, and this scene showed how EPISODES could have looked like as a multi-camera sitcom: pretty bad. But for a show, which wants to persiflage the Hollywood business: pretty good.

Second: I was expecting a bit more TV business in the series, similar like in STUDIO 60. Maybe the future episodes will show more of how “Lyman’s Boys” is going to be produced, but what the pilot has shown was a bit underwhelming, and maybe even a bit too fast-paced. From one scene over the next to the next, the writers couple Sean (Stephen Mangan) and Beverly (Tamsin Greig) go from England to Hollywood, just because network president Merc Lapidus (John Pankow) said he wants to have their show on a network. I liked the minute of “discussion” between the two (as if Beverly was already expecting the US remake to heavily fail, which is why she never wanted to do it), but maybe the episode would have gotten to me more, when it actually had more drama in it.

Third: It wasn’t funny. I know that the humor of the episode was hidden in the behavior of the characters, and in their facial expressions, but for this pilot, I expected maybe a few more oneliners, or some more situational comedy. The whole first episode was basically a comedy without the usual and known comedy. Or maybe I just couldn’t laugh about how everybody was reacting to everything.

Even though it sounds like I didn’t like the pilot, I actually liked it. Kinda. While thinking about it, it gets better after a while, and after I realized how the show will work in general. Maybe there is no situational comedy at all, and maybe the series will just be about the two writers of the original and the remake, and how they are annoyed and pissed about how the business in US television works. In this case, the series could actually do some good, and some funny things, like STUDIO 60 did with the late night genre and the production of such a show.

The first episode was alright at first, better while thinking about it, but at the end I was still underwhelmed. On the other hand I was actually surprised that I was expecting that much from EPISODES, while clip and trailer didn’t show me much. 6/10

"We have Matt LeBlanc. Isn't it awesome?"

"They have Matt LeBlanc. Please not!"