Episodes s01e01 review

I watched the first episode of Episodes today. First of all, who calls a show Episodes? That just makes it really hard to Google. Maybe they did it so it would be hard to illegally download and hard to talk about without getting confused.

What’s it about, Joe? Well it’s about an English TV show that’s being remade in America. A simple enough concept and one that appeals to me as there are so many great English shows that have been ruined by an American remake. Wikipedia says that the BBC has something to do with making the show and it’s aired on Showtime on Sunday nights and the BBC on Monday nights. Has there been a transatlantic show that’s been made on both sides of the pond and aired about the same time before? I can’t think of one and I think it’s working well, at least in the pilot. Matt LeBlanc stars as himself, showing his really accepted that he’s never gonna play anything but Joey (from Friends and Joey) or himself, that guy who played Joey (from real life.)

The writers of the show within Episodes (see what I mean when I say the title is confusing?) are an English couple, the woman played by Fran from Black Books and the bloke played by that guy in the adverts for banking or some shit. The first scene is set when they’ve already made some of the show, things are going awfully and Fran walks out to head back to England. Her car gets hit by a car driven by Matt LeBlanc, who’s looking really old these days, and the show flashes back to six weeks earlier just before they get the offer to remake the Bafta award winning English show for American audiences. They agree after a little debate and move over from rainy London (it always rains in an Americans idea of London) to stay in a massive fake house that was used for a reality TV show (urgh) in Sunny LA. There’s a bit where they decide to have sex in the bath, but the massive bath takes too long to fill and they give up. I loved that bit ‘cause it shows everything I hate about baths. Even little ones take forever to run, is anyone ever in the mood for it by the time they’re finished? Then you just sit in warm water for a bit, its mind blowingy dull. Do I just not get baths?

What was I talking about? Oh yeah…

The show from then on shows the TV studio ruining the show with every move they make. The problems they run in to right from the off are there for comic effect, but I can’t imagine it’s too far off the mark. Our English heroes can’t cast who they want; the big boss says anything to get them to do the show even if it turns out to be a lie later on. Turns out the boss hasn’t even seen the show, which I think might happen a lot. What made the US Office great was that the writers really ‘got’ the English Office, but didn’t stick to the same situations and style. They just kept the feel of the show but made in their own. If anyone ever watched and loved Teachers, then saw the American re-make you’ll know how bad it can get.

In Episodes the make actor from the UK version auditions for the part just how he played it in the original and everyone’s laughing and loving it. Then the suits say it was ‘too English’, so the guy does the same scene in an American accent. As soon as they compromise even a little (changing the accent to an American one) things start to get fucked up, no one finds the same lines read again funny. The suits can’t see why the magic has been lost, but they cast blame away from themselves. You can really see this happening in real life.

By this time you’re thinking ‘is this the right show? I thought Matt LeBlanc was playing himself!’ I think the main point of the first scene where LeBlanc crashes the car was to show everyone that Joey totally is in the show eventually, you just gotta wait it out. I like that he’s not mentioned again to the very end, the tone of the shows been set and the biggest star haven’t really been in it yet. He is mentioned finally as the actor set to take the main role in the remake met with hilarious ‘what the fuck’ faces from our English heroes.

I’m looking forward to this show, I think LeBlanc might show himself to be an actor willing to make a fool of himself a little and it seems a good balance of English and American comedy. SIX THUMBS UP.

Wanna see Fran in something? Check out The Complete Black Books. Or follow Matt from the start in Friends: The Complete Series Collection. Or maybe you'd like to see how well re-makes can be done? Check out The Office: Season One