See, I knew you'd read on...
I wasn't sure what to expect as I eagerly, yet anxiously sat on the sofa waiting for episode 1 of Episodes (I have a feeling that a certain 'e' word may be written a fair few times in this post) to begin. I had a horrible feeling that the viewing figures for episode 1 would be sky high, but that the figures for future and successive episodes would be considerably lower. This is down to what I like to call 'The JOEY, IT'S JOEY OMG Factor'. Thankfully this series has nothing at all to do with Friends and its characters (though cheeky references are made). Hell, I love Friends, and I've seen every episode several times, but its moment has passed and we all need to get over it. The channel 5 spin off 'Joey' is probably the best evidence we have to support this notion. It was shit. Back to Episodes though. After the programme had finished, I found myself in a weird situation. What I had watched was moderately, no, slightly funny but quite entertaining - more so than its near empty barrel of laughs would indicate, at least. Episode 1 served as an introduction to the main characters in the series, except Matt le Blanc, who probably only featured for the best part of 20 seconds. Considering he was the only real reason I found myself watching the show in the first place, this disappointed me greatly. That said, the first episode comfortably did enough to make me come back to watch more thanks to neatly explaining who's who and why they're there, and also thanks to the still very much present curiosity I had about Episodes and what its six main episodes would actually contain quality-wise. It's worth me pointing out that this little review is serving only as a rough opinion of the show. I won't be giving away any big spoilers, because hopefully there will be people reading this that didn't bother with Episodes when it was being aired that may now want to see it. For those that have seen the show, you don't need it spelt out to you anyway - you saw it, and the overall storyline's not exactly hard to grasp. From here on in, very few plot details will be explained, but the characters and the general impression Episodes gave me will be.
I found that throughout the series, I felt as though Episodes was trying to make me switch allegiances with the characters at various points and that I was supposed to be sympathising with one character one minute, and then another the next. This didn't affect my view, however. I was nearly always on the side of Sean (played excellently by Stephen Mangan) and Matt le Blanc (played by...you guessed it, Matt le Blanc). Come the season finale, this may have changed a bit though. I found Beverly (Tamsin Greig) rather hard to like, however. Her character was good, just not particularly likeable. The persona of stubborn, forceful woman stayed very strong until the end of the series, and this definitely worked with the dynamics of the show. As a married couple, Sean and Bev seemed convincing in the way that they bickered and argued, yet (nearly) always came through just fine. Of course, I'm not saying that this was acted naturally and realistically; after all, we are talking about an American TV show here. I was very impressed with Matt le Blanc throughout pretty much the whole of the series. He came across as similar to a certain Joey Tribbiani, but never too similar to his infamous role. After all, when did Joey ever say 'fuck'? The swearing is in fact something that I feel adds to the show. It feels good to hear Matt le Blanc curse, and you'd be dead inside not to at least raise a smile at Beverly's raging expletive filled outburst. It makes Episodes feel like a bit more of an adult show, which Friends (I'm sorry to have to make the comparison, because the two programmes really aren't very similar) never truly did. The swearing also allows the intriguing blend of American and British comedy styles to blend together, not seamlessly, but rather well indeed. It makes the show feel fresh, and I think this may be what made me so compelled to watch on at points where the quality and regularity of sustained entertainment was dipping. The whole concept of the Hollywood dream not being what it's cut out to be certainly isn't original though, and as time went on, the concept began to grind. Luckily the focus shifts away from the potential nightmare that Sean and Beverly may find themselves in. The man at the top of the television dream killing factory was Merc. I found him to be average at best as an all round character. He never displayed an ounce of empathy or sympathy towards anyone else in his life (not even his blind wife), and all too often came across as a bit of an arse - meaning that as a viewer it was all but impossible to have any kind of connection with him. Granted, that was his role, but I think it may have been a little bit overplayed. The points at which he was the centre of the comedy (of which there are actually quite a few), I wondered whether it would have been even funnier had he not been trying so hard. Merc was heartless and fake, and this where I found Matt le Blanc to be such a good character. He and Merc are actually pretty similar, but there are regular moments where Matt shows that he does in fact have a heart and is capable of emotion to a reasonable degree. Unlike Joey, and unlike Merc, sex wasn't always on Matt's agenda. This doesn't mean that his penis won't come out to play though...I'll say no more. Other characters in Episodes seem to grate a little bit with me, but that's because I get easily irritated by American accents. Another particular highlight of a character for me, and it's a shame that she doesn't get more screen time, is Myra. She has little in the way of actual lines, but her gurnings and wild face contortions made me laugh on several occasions. I'm not sure whether she was sucking on a lemon or passing wind, but the expressions are priceless.
Episodes isn't necessarily a laugh out loud comedy gem. Nor is it especially creative. However, it does enough to set itself apart from the crowd, and you'll probably find that like me, you'll be sitting on the sofa again ready to watch the next episode, curious about what will happen next. It's no award winning drama, not at all, but it's oddly compelling in a way that I find difficult to describe. It's not hilarious, but it's funny. It's not quite great, but it's certainly good. The characters don't 'click' at all times, but they more than work - particularly the mini ongoing 'bromance' that went on between Sean and Matt. It'll be interesting to see where Episodes can go from here, because the finale certainly does change up the dynamics between the most prominent 3 characters of the cast. Thankfully the ending does strongly hint at a second series, so with any luck before too long we'll be able to see what happens next in LA. If you've not seen series 1 of Episodes yet, I highly recommend it. Check out BBC iPlayer.
I guess I should loosely assign a score out of 10 to Episodes...as though it matters
7.5
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10
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