Episodes Season One

Showtime’s Episodes ended last night, and it was a pretty fun little show. The last episode was perfect. We loved that the husband didn’t sleep with Morning. We loved how Matt LeBlanc handled the situation at the end. It definitely didn’t need to be more than seven episodes, but we can see a short season two working. The fight between Matt and Sean was about as good as physical comedy gets. The show improved as it went along, and the last few episodes were the funniest and least mean. Focusing on the shallow Neanderthal that was Matt’s “character,” rather than cutting up on TV execs, helped the show actually become funny, rather than superior. If you only saw the lame first episode, you saw the worst of it.

The show was Matt-less during the first episode, but once he showed up, it was witty hilarity. We loved his ability to make fun of himself by becoming a parody of an average Hollywood TV star. We realized at the end that we actually cared about the British couple at the center of the show. Beverly was always hard to like, because she was a stereotypical serious female shrew, but after she slept with Matt, she became a better character. Also, if you really think about it, every time she was being a buzz kill or judgmental, she was totally right. Overall, this was subtle, enjoyable and pretty original. We are glad it found its voice before the finale. But we sort of wished we were watching Lyman’s Boys instead (the British version, of course).

Season grade: B