Turkeys?

Episodes

I am one of only four people in the entire population of the UK & the USA who can lay claim to the statistical anomaly of never having watched an entire episode of enormo-hit sitcom Friends. I watched about three quarters of either the first or second episode of the first season, decided it was full of self absorbed smug self satisfied arseholes who in normal life one would cross the street to avoid, and never watched it again. Not that I've anything against self absorbed smug self satisfied arseholes as I thought Ricky Gervais in The Office was marvellous, it's just that in the twenty minutes or so of Friends I watched not a glimmer of an inward smile could even be detected. Enough reason to not watch it, after all I had a life back then!

The fact that new BBC2 non-comedy Episodes is written by the writers behind Friends initially put me off, but starring as it does Tamsin Greig & Stephen Mangan reprising a partnership first forged in the mad C4 comedy drama Green Wing, which I loved, was enough reason to give it a go. The first  - ahem - episode as scene setter introduces us to a husband and wife writing partnership Sean & Beverly Lincoln (Mangan & Greig) who are transported to LA in order to recreate their hit UK sitcom for American audiences. Matt Le Blanc, who apparently was a star of Friends, playing himself, is briefly introduced in the first scene when his car collides with an oncoming car being driven on the wrong (UK) side of the road by Beverley. It is also apparent that Sean harbours fantasies for one of the American TV company's hot totties. Then we go back "Two years earlier" to the real beginning when they were first approached by the US TV executive at a UK awards show.

Although there were no laugh out loud moments, Episodes shows some promise, but the running gag with the guard at the entrance to the gated Hollywood community Bev & Sean are staying not recognising them, and the electronic voice that lets everyone know "The front door is ajar" each time it's opened are already tiresome. I can see it disappearing up its own anus in a fog of self reference, but I might be wrong.

Episodes will have to go some to even come close to BBC2's last two quiet comedies, Roger & Val Just Got In and the excruciatingly good The Trip.

Is Episodes a turkey? Very possibly, but watch this space.
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Primeval

This load of old guff on ITV, involving time travelling dinosaurs and time travelling ex-wives with a grudge was scrapped in 2009 for being, well, shite, has, for some inexplicable reason been given a reprieve. With the help of, among others, BBC Worldwide, who know a thing or two about exporting TV shows, it has had a load of cash thrown at it, so the special effects now at least merit the first part of the description, and the HQ of the Anomaly Research Centre has been given a complete makeover and now looks like a modern era Star Trek set.
An extra £5.36 has been spent on the script and there's now evolving sub-plots centred around an enigmatic academic looking chap who seems to live in a country pile in the middle of The Lost Gardens Of Heligan, along with another featuring a strange couple from the nineteenth century, the male of whom could well be a Victorian serial killer. Primeval still seems to be a "Monster Of The Week" fest for all that.

A turkey? Most certainly, but entertaining in a mindlessly bonkers fashion.