Toast of Tinseltown

I love Matt Berrys work. While I agree this was not as funny as Toast of London I still really enjoyed this series. It's a totally different type of funny; it's silly, it's inoffensive and has some great laugh out loud moments. I especially enjoy Toasts over pronunciation of words such as Mo-t-ion Picture and Tele-vizzz-ion (tv). I look forward to the next series and hope Toast made it out alive.

So I've binged all six episodes and here's my conclusion.

Taking esteemed British actor Steven Toast to LA was clearly intended to generate a new angle for the jokes. But it's the American influence that is the series' greatest weakness.

You get the sense that the writers were so star-struck by the cameos they managed to secure - most of which are literally "phoning it in" - that the usual humour of Toast is completely disrupted. I won't spoil who appears in the show - but it's certainly impressive. Perhaps the producers have one eye on international sales?

Episode one is a waste, creating an un-Toast-like situation to force him to leave for the States.

Episode 2 is stuffed with American cameos and a complete failure.

However all is not lost.

Episode 3 loses the American cameos and is all the better because of it. Episode 4 and 5 return to the classic "Toast" format and are right up there with anything from London, while Episode 6 is a fitting climax to his adventure across the pond.

There may not have been any actual filming overseas because the two US stars that have more than a cameo only appear on one set. This is London masquerading as California, with a great cast of British actors and comedians masquerading as Americans.

Stick with it. It has some brilliant moments. But it doesn't reach the sustained peaks of Toast of London.

This show is like a sine wave in that it's up then down. But being a big Matt Berry fan I'll ignore the downs. I have only watched through episode 2. Crazy amount of cameos as well as some of Berry's former collaborators. But I was most happy when I got to hear again, "Hello Steven, this is Clem Fandango. Can you hear me?"

The Toast Of Tinseltown ..

Matt Berry leads the cast as the washed up, flaky thespian on the search for work more interesting than voice-over work, that appears to be matched with his limited skills.

He pursues his particular brand of quirky surreal situation comedy and it's a winning and inventive formula.

I'm giving this a firm 8 outta 10.

A continuation of Toast of London - the same disorder continues into Tinseltown. One-off episode characters are good additions as the contrast between the UK and US can be mocked, but the new characters that span the series are simply irritating. Repeated jokes and callbacks, Toast is an excellent character in the new setting, and whilst still not hilarious, certainly amusing and wacky enough for easy entertainment.