Kath & Kim Is Floppy Seconds

Aussie remake misses satirical mark
By Ambreen Ali,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 9, 2008 12:16 PM CDT

As if Knight Rider wasn't bad enough, NBC continues to look like a college kid "furnishing an apartment out of mom's hand-me-downs" in debuting the "witlessly Americanized" sitcom Kath & Kim, writes Robert Bianco in USA Today. The Australian remake wastes Molly Shannon's talents while "exposing the limits of Selma Blair's comedy range." The show "jerks from comedy to cautionary tale," making it a "horror show," Mark A. Perigard agrees in the Boston Herald.

The comedy that can't "decide what it's satirizing" has poor timing in debuting among financial and political turmoil, writes Mary McNamara in the Los Angeles Times. But the real problem is that the mother-daughter sketch between Shannon and the poorly cast Blair "is drained almost immediately of any comic value." It 's not the Aussies' fault. Quite simply, the "US version doesn't measure up." (More network television stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X