Toast of Tinseltown

What's with the one star and ten star reviews?! If it's "I liked it, ten stars," why are we using a 10-point system? It's not a 1 star show either, man, sheesh. It's thoughtful and humorous, and has Larry David appear in the first two minutes. Come on. Ten stars tho? How about saving that for something transcendent and amazing and, well, perfect... I always enjoy Stephen Toast (and pretty much anything Matt Barry is in) so I'm biased in giving it an 8, but if you like absurd, exaggerated comedy- aka British humor- it's probably worth your time.

ToT sees the return of Steven Toast in a new setting - sort of.

The original Toast of London was pure genius and the best comedy I've seen on tv in the last decade. Well, Steven is back but this time he's across the pond - as the title implies - with some of the old supporting cast but quite a few new faces too, some of whom in my opinion work, some don't.

Matt Berry and all the old cast still sparkle but there a few too many dud performances amongst the new faces to make this quite as good as the original series, which is a shame.

Head back to London Toast, you're missed :)

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.

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.

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.