Going Dutch

Denis Leary is hilarious. Danny Pudi is hilarious. The missing part of both those sentences is "...but not in this."

On the surface, this should work. It's basically F Troop, and they hired two veteran comic actors who have lengthy histories that tell you they know comedic timing.

None of the side characters are memorable. None are funny. None are interesting. The jokes never land, and there honestly aren't even all that many jokes. The best comedies are incredibly efficient at setting multiple jokes at a time and then ripping off punchline after punchline.

Whomever the writers for this thing are, they're terrible. I strongly encourage someone to revisit the concept. A modern day F Troop would be great. Or a Sgt Bilko. A military unit that is dreadful and terrible, where each character has some over the top trait? This formula can work.

But you need to hire comedy writers who can write jokes. And they didn't.

I don't expect a low budget comedy to deliver an accurate depiction of the Netherlands, but this is just downright lazy. It's one thing to take creative liberties, but to conflate Dutch culture with... German, Swiss, Austrian maybe? Who knows? Honestly, I can't even tell what they're aiming for. It's as if the writers skipped geography class entirely, glanced at a pack of stroopwafels and cobbled together the entire plot based on a handful of tired Dutch stereotypes. If at least the humor could be its redeeming factor. But alas, the jokes are flat, shallow and barely enough to elicit even the faintest hint of a smirk.

It's funny but seems like a budget pilot. It has that Community kind of humor but lots of flaws. It misses some authenticity. The Dutch are some German crossover stereotype, Dennis Leary looks like a vampire and it often misses opportunities for cultural jokes. Still it has potential to be really funny. Danny Pudi saves the first pilot with his typical performance. Maybe a decent make-up artist can give Dennis Leary some spark, so the show can have a second star shine.

Without Danny Pudi's Community-input there's not much left worth watching. I'm wondering for which audience the show is made, what do you think?

As a Dutch person I think it's hilarious to see what these writers think is dutch.

Many reviewers already pointed it out and they are right, most things Dutch in this series are German.

So I made a little game out of it: spot the mistake and laugh at the correct things.

Just watched the episode about korfbal, really dutch game. And it was funny. Seeing the French flag, a Swiss horn and all the terrible accents.

There is just one thing that really irritates me and that is Katherine, a great British actrice/comedian, trying to have a Dutch accent. Just nope.

Just ask Dutch actors for these roles, even the best English speaking wil have that telltale's Dutch accent.

It is clearly a fictionalized version of an Army base in the Netherlands so don't expect too much or any realism. It reminds me a little like Hogan's Heroes; I just didn't think too hard about how implausible almost everything was and just enjoyed the banter and shenanigans. The cast has good chemistry and the show has enough heart to make me want to watch more. I haven't liked the complete cast of a show this much since Community. Similar to Community this show is more focused on the characters interacting then the basic premise which I consider a good choice considering the weakness of the premise and apparent lack of care in doing research.