Andy Samberg

Have you been watching ... Cuckoo

BBC3's subversive, surreal Andy Samberg comedy is breathing new life into the family sitcom with its fresh execution and edge of awkwardness.

Cuckoo extends his sphere of spiritual influence to Ken's father-in-law, after he deduces that a visiting cat is in fact the reincarnation of Ken's dead wife, Debra. Again, everyone bar Ken and Dylan is taken in by Cuckoo's bullshit, perhaps giving the first glimmer that there might not be much else to this likable new sitcom. Cuckoo (Andy Samberg) and Ken (Greg Davies) hog most of the best lines as usual, but the setups humiliating Ken and venerating Cuckoo appear to be treading much the same ground as previous weeks.

Three episodes into the series, and Cuckoo is settling down nicely. The premise is exploited to the full, the scripts are consistently amusing, and the performances of Greg Davies, as the bumptious, blustering dad, and Andy Samberg, as the pseudo-spiritualist slacker son-in-law, complement each other perfectly. Plus, any show featuring Helen Baxendale is a good thing by definition.

BBC Three's Cuckoo was my pick of the week not long ago, but I never got around to reviewing it. The premise has middle class couple Ken (Greg Davies) and Lorna (Helen Baxendale)-from the Midlands, just to further stress how intermediate they are - discovering their beautiful daughter has married an American hippie calling himself "Cuckoo" (Andy Samberg) while on vacation. From there it runs through the expected culture clash comedy check list: dad hates that his baby girl's married a New Age loser; mum's initially concerned but grows to like her daughter's exotic other half; and Cuckoo is oblivious to the division he's causing in this close-knit suburban family.

The premise doesn't feel like it will last long before exhausting itself, and the first few episodes weren't particularly funny, but there are things Cuckoo has that rescues it from the doldrums: like a fantastic cast and oodles of charm. Samberg (a major star in the US, best known for appearing on Saturday Night Live) lights up the screen whenever he's around, and overcomes the fact Cuckoo's a rather thin caricature of modern-day hippies; while Davies is doing a superb job as the exasperated father desperate to get rid of his son-in-law without breaking his daughter's heart in the process. Davies had a memorable role in The Inbetweeners as the sociopathic teacher Mr Gilbert, but Cuckoo feels like it's truly announcing him to the world of sitcom. He's really good and has a fantastic dynamic with Samberg, which was largely responsible for the brilliant third episode where Ken and Cuckoo finally managed to bond thanks to recreational drugs.

I just wish Cuckoo was a touch funnier without relying so heavily on the performances of Samberg and Davies to raise smiles and pull it through, but I'll keep watching because it's well-made and has undeniable heart.

Cuckoo pats his jacket-potato van lovingly. "If a fast-food van can save the world," he says, eyes alight, "and I think it can, then this is the van to do it." There's little wonder Cuckoo's father-in-law Ken is at the end of his tether.

Larger-than-life comedian Greg Davies plays Ken and gleefully overacts, his face crumpling like a toddler's, mid-tantrum. American actor Andy Samberg is his vacuous foil Cuckoo, oozing sincerity as he spouts utter tosh. Unsurprisingly, the rest of the cast can't compete with these two caricatures and when they're off screen the gags flounder.

Tonight there's a party to celebrate Cuckoo joining the family - but he's the least of Ken's worries.

It has to be said: BBC3's comedies are getting less fist-bitingly awful. This latest effort, which stars Andy Samberg as Cuckoo - a braid-wearing, full moon party casualty who finds himself married to a Midlands girl and living with her parents - is very passable. Its trump cards are the performances of Samberg and the pleasingly deadpan Greg Davies. This week Ken (Davies) is infuriated by the suggestion that he remove the World War II books from his study, so that Cuckoo can use the room for meditation without having his mellow harshed. But Ken's attempts to manipulate a house vote have awkward consequences for Dylan (Outnumbered's Tyger Drew Honey). It's not clear how long the scenario can be sustained and the show seems unhealthily reliant on the slightly incongruous star power of its lead but, for now, it's good fun.

I've tried to like Cuckoo (BBC3), I really have. I like the premise - girl goes gap-year travelling, comes back with floppy-upper-lipped American new-age husband. He's not quite what girl's family had in mind for her.

People I know and whose judgment I trust (did trust) have told me they think it's funny. But the girl (Tamla Kari) is so dippy that it's hard to feel anything for her except annoyance. The comedy is mainly based around the generational/ideological gap and tension between husband (Andy Samberg) and dad (Greg Davies); but it's overdone, forced, not recognisable or real. Nor is it surreal, or bold. It's just a little bit silly really.

Cuckoo episode 1 review

The script's a little underpowered at the moment, but if the series delivers on the opening episode's promise, Andy Samberg's first foray across the Atlantic could well be one of 2012's highlights.

Back in the dark old days of 'children should be seen and not heard', there used to be a thing called the Generation Gap. I thought that, in these days when parents fall over themselves to be their kids' best mates, older sisters/brothers, anything but actually parents, that it had disappeared. But maybe not.

On the surface, Cuckoo (BBC3) was a gap year comedy, with a wacky middle-class daughter returning to her suburban home with hippy husband in tow. Cue much middle-class outrage. But for all its contemporary setting, Cuckoo is a throwback to 1970s sitcoms, parents and offspring beamed in from different planets, the old and new worlds banging heads in the hope of getting some dizzy laughs.

And there are some, thanks to a barnstorming turn from Greg Davies as the dad, Ken, appalled his daughter has hitched her wagon to New Age American airhead Cuckoo when he'd been hoping for a 'a doctor, a lawyer... an Aston Villa supporter'. It was hard not to feel Ken's pain.

There's the seed of a good idea here but the daughter is such a dipstick and Andy Samberg's Cuckoo so - Ken's description - vapid, it was hard to believe anyone, even BBC3's target youth audience, wouldn't have lined up on Ken's side of the gap. There'll be a journey - maybe they'll all learn to love each other, but it's going to be hard to swallow.

Ken and Lorna are two upstanding parents who want the best for their daughter so you can imagine their horror when she comes home from a gap year with a surprise husband - an idiotic American hippy - in tow. Helen Baxendale and Greg Davies (aka Mr Gilbert from The Inbetweeners) star in this promising new sitcom, with Saturday Night Live's Andy Samberg joining them as the antagonistic new son-in-law.