Sharon Horgan

I had hopes for The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret, a new US sitcom starring David Cross (the bald one in Arrested Development) as an incompetent, deluded bluffer who, to his astonishment, is mistaken for a sales genius and gets sent to open a UK office for the launch of an unpalatable Korean energy drink.

It had a promising start. The boss (Will Arnett, the unsuccessful magician and womaniser in Arrested Development) was encouragingly sociopathic; there was an amusing scene in which Todd demonstrated his grip on reality by explaining to his cat that he had to go away but would be leaving a month's supply of tuna in the washing-up bowl ("Don't eat it all at once, all right?").

But events in London felt a touch understaffed, too loosely handled, too dependent on Todd's calamities: a mishap trying to get the lid off a jar using steam, a controlled explosion involving his suitcase, an uproarious... um, sales pitch. His blag started to flag. Sharon Horgan (of Pulling fame) was fine as the molecular cook with a heart of gold, but the script neglected her comic gifts. Likewise, Blake Harrison (the tall, thick one in The Inbetweeners), as Todd's factotum, had little to do except laugh loudly at the unfolding hijinks. If only I could have joined in more often.

TIPDOTM really ought to be pressing the buttons. It's got the cast (David Cross, Sharon Horgan, Will Arnett) and the prestige but, two episodes in, it's sorely lacking gags and sympathy for its protaganist. As an American selling toxic Korean energy drinks, Todd could be a new Tobias Bluth for Cross - but he's more annoying than amusing. Never a great sign for a character. There's too little nuance here, and giving him a pregnant working-class neighbour with a penchanct for White Lightning doesn't help on that front.

The Increasingly Poor Decisions Of Todd Margaret flashes back from its protagonist in the dock, facing a list of farcically extreme charges and dressed (I think) as a jockey. This is, after all, a sitcom co-written and starring the American comedian David Cross from the absurdly underrated and sadly short-lived Arrested Development, one of the funniest, most ingenious TV sitcoms of recent years.

He plays a hapless lackey from an American corporation mistakenly chosen to front a sales campaign for a corrosive energy drink in the UK. It's a standard fish out of water scenario in which our idiotic anti-hero wrestles with a culture he knows nothing about while hopelessly trying to impress an attractive café owner played by Pulling's Sharon Horgan.

The basic gag is that, in an effort to mask his inadequacies, Todd continually digs holes for himself with a torrent of preposterous lies. Cue slapstick farce and Gervais-esque cringe humour (it's co-written with Shaun Pye who appeared as Gervais' nemesis in Extras) which, although well performed by the gifted Cross, often feels forced and underwritten.

Though spottily amusing, it's a disappointment overall, especially given the track record of Cross and Will Arnett, a fellow Arrested Development alumnus who cameos as Todd's monstrously priapic, foul-mouthed boss.

First shown as a pilot in Channel 4's Comedy Showcase last year, this fitfully amusing series opener stars Arrested Development's David Cross as the titular Todd, a schmuck who goes from temping in an American office to heading up the sales team launching an energy drink to the UK. In truth the sales team is him and a callow youth called Dave, stuck in a deserted office space. It has a decent cast - including Sharon Horgan as a kindly café owner and Will Arnett, who is gloriously unhinged as Todd's boss - but they have to struggle with an uncertain tone that pitches awkwardly between embarrassment and the broad comedy of pratfalls.

The increasingly good decisions of Sharon Horgan

Comedian Sharon Horgan on starring in new comedy series The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret, and why she's finally ready to play the love interest.

Stanley Park clearly aspires to the E4 mould of teenage comedy like The Inbetweeners and Misfits. Though Morwenna Banks plays a mum, as in Skins, these are not the angst-ridden, articulate youths of that show, but more gormless, ordinary adolescents who snog people at the swing park and argue about Twitter.

It's hard to sum up the premise and the plot didn't seem to have much scope, as confident, doll-faced Debbie who believes that she's sex on legs got off with the virginal twit that her more gothic friend liked. The characters seem to have more going on than could be fitted in here, perhaps because they originate from a stage play. There were some funny lines though: when the boy's parents walked in on him and Debbie, who had been snacking on crisps during underwhelming kitchen sex, his mum wailed: "I've just had that table varnished... wait, are those my chargrilled chicken crinkles?" "I couldn't help myself, they were more-ish," shrugged the vamp.

Having had her own fine sitcom, Pulling, pulled by BBC3 for being too old for the channel's demographic, poor Sharon Horgan has had insult added to injury by being cast as the past-it, lonely auntie. Ouch.

In the first of tonight's two BBC3 pilots, Leo Richardson's stage play transfers to the screen in a riot of txt speak, Lambrini and adolescent angst like a teenage Sex And The City set in the suburbs of Croydon.

Holliday Grainger plays the beautiful but slutty Dirty Debbie, whose scatter-gun approach to love wreaks havoc among her more sensitive friends and neighbours.

Among the grown-ups look out for Sharon Horgan, unrecognisable as Debbie's Auntie Pat, while the young cast are all eye-catching and plausible, like a walking manual to noughties etiquette. "I can't follow everyone who follows me (on Twitter)," complains the lovely Ben. "How would that look? That's like Facebook."

Sharon Horgan talks BBC pilot Stanley Park

Sharon Horgan is a comedian, writer and actor. She's best known for BBC Three's cult hit Pulling. You can next see her on screen in Stanley Park, in which she plays Aunty Pat.

Sharon Horgan on the Pulling Special

With the Pulling Special nominated for three British Comedy Awards including Best Television Comedy Drama, we asked star and co-writer Sharon Horgan to tell us what it was like to get the gang back together one last time.