I am a huge fan of the Aussie version of 'Kath & Kim', so I was a bit worried about how an American copy would turn out. And, true to form,they missed a lot of what made the original , well, original. A little too studied, not as fresh. I imagine that the 'thought police' were out in full force- where is the smoking, for a start? But I gave it a chance and it is not as bad as I expected. Molly Shannon is pretty good as Kath, but Selma Blair is not quite right for Kim. She has the languid behavior down, but not the utter selfishness, nor the weight issues. Teeny Selma missed the point. I got the feeling I was seeing 'acting', rather than real people behaving normally. Perhaps a bit of the old Hollywood-style elitism? That those who live in the suburbs are to be ridiculed rather than appreciated for their own style? We are meant to laugh at them and not with them. Part of the charm of the original, for Americans, are all the Aussie idioms, and I would have liked to see a bit more of that type of dialogue in the American version- we have our own quirks, too! Also, in the original, part of the fun was that the two were almost the same age. Selma Blair was too much the juvenile, age-wise. It took a while but I did warm up to this version on its own merit. The basic idea is still there. When you have to expand the season into so many more shows the writing seems to suffer. A shorter season usually means better shows. But,I would love to have a beer with the Aussie characters, odd though they are- just to see what they would come up with next-the Americans didn't come across as interesting or as compelling. A little too politically correct? Here's a radical idea- how about bringing American audiences the Aussie show?
