I totally didn’t see Episodes coming

I’m not someone who looks to evaluate the success of our various friends from Friends. People like to rate them all, but the truth is that, despite how successful the series was, they were only as good as they were when in a unit. Group success says nothing about individual talent. Lisa Kudrow as an individual actress surely isn’t worth $32 million a year.

But I think they’ve actually all done fairly well for themselves, considering. Jennifer Aniston has a solid movie career going for her — despite people’s complaints, she’s not doing too badly for herself. Courteney Cox has found success on the small screen, even if I wouldn’t say so myself. Lisa Kudrow … right. David Schwimmer’s a great cartoon giraffe, and I loved him on Entourage. And Matthew Perry, by far my favorite and easily the most talented, was half of the awesome show that was Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. And no, I’m not being sarcastic. For his sake alone I’m looking forward to Mr. Sunshine.

Then there’s Matt LeBlanc. After the failure of Joey, I would have written him off on TV, and I don’t think I would have been alone. In fact, even after hearing about Episodes I wasn’t feeling very positive about his prospects. Plus Showtime and I have a very unpredictable relationship, with many more misses than HBO traditionally has, and I find the worst offerings to be the network’s comedies (aside from my favorites!). Needless to say I wasn’t expecting a lot.

So not only was I pleasantly surprised, but I was also exceedingly pleased to discover that Episodes is, in a word, awesome. Matt LeBlanc shines as a variation (I hope) of himself, with all of the intelligence and charm that we never came to expect from Joey Tribbiani. I feel like I’m befriending a star while watching him on TV, much like I got from season one Hank Moody on Californication.

Stephen Mangan as Sean Lincoln is great. He can be a bit pathetic, panting after LeBlanc the way he does — I’d love to see him meet some famous British actors — but I enjoy his innocence and his attempts at humor. He’s never better than when he’s coming between Matt and Sean’s wife Beverly (Tamsin Greig).

Beverly, meanwhile, was hilarious in the first episode or two. I loved the way she responded to everything and everyone around her, particularly Merc (John Pankow) and the gatehouse guard. Since then she’s become a tad unpleasantly bitter, which colors most of what she does, but I expect that eventually “Betsy” will come around again.

Speaking of Merc, I really can’t stand him. The idea of him is funny, but then I was never much a fan of Ira Buchman, so maybe it’s Pankow himself … must he really be so cliche? For some reason it’s just not funny coming from him. Making fun of your blind wife? Come on.

Carol (Kathleen Rose Perkins) is amusing, and I appreciate that she’s usually the one dealing with Sean and Beverly, and also translating for Merc. The rest of her team is expendable; why bother when they’re superfluous?

There’s something simple, subtle, and extremely funny about Episodes that totally took me by surprise. There aren’t many shows that I don’t review that I bother watching the night they air, but my wife and I find ourselves rushing to watch Episodes every Sunday night. It’s another solid comedy from Showtime to add to my roster of Californication and Weeds.

What do you think? How are you finding this latest offering from Showtime? How’s Matt LeBlanc doing without his safety net?

Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Feb 01, 2011 @ 13:00 EST5EDT