Kath e Kim

There is something about this show that keeps me watching and hoping for the future of it. In the writing, the jokes are few and far between, and the story lines are a bore, so I figure it must be the physical comedy and the visuals.

I do enjoy the camera movement, set dressing, and wardrobe. It's amusingly highly contrasted against the dullness that reigns. And I'm pretty sure every time I have laughed it was because of John or Molly's physical comedy. The two of them make a sickeningly cute couple that make me laugh and want to puke at the same time.

So here I go ready to sit down to Kath & Kim one more time tonight to see what path this production will go down (or up as the case may be, looking forward positively).

I watched the first episode and I found it to be a very wooden performance.

I have watched the original from it's early days on Big Girls Blouse to the last series on Channel seven. Kath and Kim was a great Mocumentary and it's humor is something that most people get.

However in this American version I found it to be dull, Molly Shannon is to fashionable to be Kath Day, Kath's wardrobe is supposed to be stuck in the 80s with her frizzy perm. While Selma Blair's figure hugging clothes isn't as good as what the original Kimmy wore. I also found that Selma seemed to be puffing her belly out a lot, she is obviously a (Australian) size 12 where Kim should be (Australian) a size 16/18.

The exchanges from Molly and Selma is obviously so scripted and there is pauses where there shouldn't be pauses or the pauses are a bit long, as someone suggested there could be a laughter track in there during those pauses. It's like Molly and Shannon are not used to each other, there is no Mother/Daughter chemistry.

Phil was okay he had the eccentric air around him like Kel. However Craig was to handsome and not the sweet plain humble Brett from the Aussie version.

I found watching this was like watching a very bad stage play. The acting was pretty much wooden and the exaggeration of Selma's expressions wore the funny off after ten minutes. Especially her sulking scenes.

To sum up, I find this show to be a waste of time, the script obviously has been dumbed down for Americans which most on the board say they prefer the original. If NBC wanted to show Kath and Kim why not pay the producers the money to screen the original.

All I can add is Magda you are one smart cookie for not letting the producers use your character of Sharon.

Me being from Australia and loving the series, I wasn't expecting much from the American version of Kath and Kim but I thought I'd watch the first episode to see if it was really that bad.

Well,whats there to say. Its nothing special.Selma Blair is OK as Kim and actually had a few good lines, Molly Shannon is not a good Kath though. The good thing about Jane Turner's Kath is that when she speaks with all her funny accents (such as when she says Yumor or Noice) it sounds like its just the natural way that she speaks, but when Shannon has a go at the accent, its clear that she is acting and trying to be the same as Turner. And the show really misses Sharon or some one else to give us something to laugh about, because the Kal and Craig characters in this version are really not funny.

So far only the first episode has aired and it is clearly not up to the standards of the Aussie version, although if it was a stand alone television show with a different name, not being compared to the Aussie version it would perhaps be viewed as being a little bit better. But if there is nothing else to do on a Sunday night (or Thursday night in America) then you cant do much harm in watching it, or better put on some of the Aussie version if you've got it.

Not sure why Americans needed to remake an Aussie classic. It's an Aussie series with very Aussie humour. The nuance of the jokes don't translate into American humour. This show tries to replicate what it simply cannot. It should not have been made.

...but I came away pretty cool on this.

I have not seen any of the Australian sitcom that this show is based off of so I have no real way of comparing. I've checked the message boards and the comments and read enough remarks doing such and it seems in the majority that the original series is held in better esteem than this production.

What I can do is rate THIS show,and I must say that it seems to hold a fair swath of talent but seems to be uninterested in making itself particularly clever or very likable. Instead,it's just Molly Shannon(for whom I was very stoked to see back on television)and Selma Blair(maybe not quite as much)basically trading one-liners between two very vapid and dense characters and laboring VERY hard to be funny(all while modeling sexy,slinky Florida-inspired casual-wear). John Michael Higgins(as KAth,Shannon's character's earnest,sandwich store manager boyfriend)seems to shine the best,as his lines seem authentic and there's something likable,albeit in a nebbishy way. Mikey Day feels one-dimensional as Kim(Blair's character)'s ex-husband,though he can play stupid quite effectively. Maybe TOO much so.

NBC publicized the heck out of this,rolling the dice and as such,it seems to have crapped out at least for now. Maybe some writing re-tooling and character changes might infuse some inspiration here. Not really sure,and from what I've seen so far,not real certain I want to find out.