Us and Them

I have seen more than my share of UK comedies translated to the US. For every Steptoe and Son (Sanford and Son) there's a Coupling. For every The Office, there's a The Inbetweeners. I thought I had seen the worst that could be done... until just now. I found this monstrosity by accident today and there's not enough mind-bleach in the world to take it away again. Gavin and Stacey was a beautiful, gentle, hilarious comedy. This? This has taken the basic conceit and stripped away everything that made it work. Was this some condition of taking James Corden off our hands? "Jimmy, come over, do a late night talk show, we love you - one thing though, we want you to agree to us destroying what you love most. Just sign here." It's taken us over fifty years to forgive Dick Van Dyke for his accent in Mary Poppins; this may take millennia.

Don't waste your time with this robotic remake of a very good U.K. show. Go to the original. I really don't have more to say about this show because I don't want to give anything away. I've read the other reviews and you can clearly tell that some are written by people with a vested interest in the show. I can't stand poor remakes and transparent reviews. Apparently I need more lines but I really don't want to give anything away in the show but I can tell you that if you watch the original you have to take into account that it is a U.K. show so a lot of the jokes are geared to a British audience. Again they want more lines so I have to fill space. I'm sorry about all the filler but in order to warn you about the horrors of a bad remake and U.S. copycat shows I have to make up something.

Stacey (Alexis Bledel) is a small town girl from Dillsburg, PA. She has a first date with email friend Gavin (Jason Ritter) who lives in NYC. They bring along their outrageous best friends Nessa (Ashlie Atkinson) and Archie (Dustin Ybarra). It's the start of a long distance relationship, at least a four hours drive apart. Gavin and Archie lives in the first floor apartment under his parents (Kurt Fuller, Jane Kaczmarek). Stacey lives with her widower mother Gwen (Kerri Kenney) who often hangs out with her brother-in-law Uncle Brian (Michael Ian Black).

This is a British import adapted from Gavin & Stacey created by James Corden and Ruth Jones. It never made it on the air. It's surprisingly fun if not that original. I don't know anything about Gavin & Stacey. That probably works to my advantage. I have no expectations for the show to fulfill. The first obvious problem is the title. Friends & Family is much better although I don't know why it couldn't be called Gavin & Stacey. Us & Them sucks. Basically, this all depends on the cast. As a network TV sitcom, this is mostly standard with a bit of heart. The cast has good chemistry and this has a solid mix. The only questionable one is Bledel. Stacey should be a country gal and she needs to be goofier. In the comedy to drama range, Bledel leans more towards drama. In a simple comedic move, Stacey should be doing shadow boxing as she and Archie get into a girlie fight. Also, is it weird to be dating a mother and then the daughter? That's Hollyweird for you. This is better than most failed network shows. I don't know the behind-the-scene reasons for not getting on network TV. It's too bad that it didn't even get a chance.

Wasted Cast becuz of bad script. The pilot is actually not too bad, but then it all went down hill from there.

So first off I am one of the biggest Gavin and Stacey fans out there. My partner and I watch it on repeat throughout the year and even more so at Xmas. I can't remember how I heard about Us and Them but thought I'd check it out, even after all of the reviews on here.

I found it strange that they changed some of the names but not all and the fact that they didn't change Gwen was even stranger. Unfortunately she just isn't funny nor sincere. Gwen West was loving, caring and funny without meaning to be. This one just feels like a non character.

Archie is no Smithy but he is still funny and I found him entertaining.

I think we can agree that Matthew Horne is the only thing that lets the the original show down and Jason Ritter is 100% better, but he just seems.... boring.

Stacey is hot. Hot hot hot. And brings a different type of humour than Stacey West, my favourite scene still the bar fight in E03, but like Gavin, she's just boring.

Nessa is great. She's entertaining and funny without trying too hard.

No one could ever better Rob Brydon's Bryn, but I think Brian did Bryn a solid and is a solid character who could easily earn his own spin off.

My favourite part of the show is definitely Gavin's parents; Michael and Pam. They are are by no means Larry and Alison but are original and hilarious. They deserve their own spinoff or they should relaunch this show as Michael and Pam.

If you accept this show for what it is and do not try and compare it to the original, it's still worth a watch, as a GnS fan or not. Definitely no where near as bad as I expected and still pretty funny. I ended the 5th and last episode with a hunger for more. Shame.

7/10