Episodes

There has been a lot of advanced publicity about the "return" of Matt LeBlanc - Joey from Friends - in the new comedy Episodes (BBC2). It was either a clever postmodern joke or a foolhardy gambit that the star of the show didn't appear in the first episode of Episodes, other than a brief glimpse of him driving a car.

I'm inclined to think it was a smart move, if only because it gave Tamsin Greig and Stephen Mangan a chance to establish themselves without the distraction of LeBlanc's comeback moment. They play a married couple of English sitcom writers who are wooed to Hollywood to make a US version of their hit British show. Once there, of course, all the promises they were made evaporate as quickly as a spilt cocktail in the Californian sun.

It's not a bad premise, the opener had some promising scenes, and Greig (who would be a shoo-in for the lead part if there were ever an Emma Thompson biopic) and Mangan strike a nice balance between insecurity and irony. But if there's one thing that Hollywood excels in it is sending itself up, and there was nothing in the first episode to suggest that Episodes (co-written by Friends creator David Crane) is going to deliver a fresh or especially funny perspective on a familiar scene.

Everything remained safely within the confines of established tropes, as though the novelty of having English leads would be enough in itself to give new life to an old joke. That may change with the introduction of LeBlanc, who is said to reveal a "darker" side of his real-life character. As no one knows what LeBlanc is like in real life, what that means is darker than Joey Tribbiani, the lovable dope from Friends now immortalised on permanent cable rerun. Which is like saying darker than Noddy.

For the show to gain the rocket blast that will take it beyond a comfortable observational orbit, it will need LeBlanc to draw on a mighty payload of bitterness lurking in a pitch-black soul. That's a tough challenge for a limited comedy actor who had the extraordinary fortune to become a multimillionaire global star.

Episodes, BBC2, Monday

It's a comedy about a comedy with precious little comedy - but just maybe, the joke's on us.

Midway through the first episode of Episodes, Tamsin Greig gawped in awe at the swish-pad-with-pool that Hollywood had made available to her and Stephen Mangan and said: "Crikey, our show's not this good!" Pretty brave of this comedy's writers to include that line, I reckon, because it's bound to be pounced on by anyone who finds Episodes a bit too cute, clever-clever and in-jokey. Like me.

See what I did there? Stepped out of the role of TV critic then stepped back in. Episodes steps out of the traditional comedy format then steps back in. I also presupposed you're interested in TV criticism in itself. Episodes presupposes you're interested in TV production in itself. A lot of shows do this now: they're shows about shows. Look at us, aren't we wonderful! Or they're full of actors playing themselves. Look at us, aren't we post-modern! There's been Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip and Moving Wallpaper and Grandma's House, but so far only one instant classic of small-screen self-referencing: The Trip.

Greig and Mangan play an award-winning English comedy-writing couple lured to Tinseltown by a top exec who showers them with praise ("I love your show! I wanna have sex with your show!") and loganberries. Greig's character's grandmother used to make jam with them; the exec (John Pankow) is touched by this story, especially since the only noteworthy thing about his grandmother is that "she lives in Morristown, New Jersey, and hates black people".

I laughed at this but, in the opening half-hour, not much else. Of course the exec hadn't actually seen Greig and Mangan's show (he loved its success, that's all). Of course he was going to dump its English star and replace him with an American (Matt LeBlanc, playing the as-yet-unseen Matt LeBlanc). And of course the dream home where our writers are installed has Greek columns made of papier-mache, having previously been the location for a reality show (How on earth could I have foreseen that? Okay, I didn't). I'll stick with Episodes, in the hope that the real fun will begin when LeBlanc looks in the mirror and, thinking about his post-Friends career, asks: "How you doin'?" But a key theme bothers me: does the average viewer really care if vulgar Americans make a mess of the odd British show? And anyway, doesn't the US make the best TV in the world these days?

Week two of the sitcom about two British scriptwriters who go to America to remake their TV series, only to find that clueless US studio executives seem hellbent on making a mess of it. Tonight, Beverly (Tamsin Greig) meets the former Friends actor Matt LeBlanc (playing himself) at a dinner party, and is pleasantly surprised by how charming he is - but it's not long before animosity rises to the surface.

Paddy Shennan's TV Review: Episodes (BBC2)

If I had a hat, I might take it off to Episodes (BBC2, Monday) - simply because it's a stylish and self-assured comedy which doesn't try too hard to make you laugh.

Episodes (Monday, BBC Two), a new Anglo-American sitcom, has a clever credit sequence in which a script takes off like a bird, flies across the Atlantic to LA, where it's blasted out of the air and plummets to earth. Unfortunately, this encapsulated the plot rather more succinctly than anything that followed.

Stephen Mangan and Tamsin Greig play a husband-and-wife writing team whose latest comedy is bought by an American network.

They're flown out to California and made a big fuss of, but everything soon turns predictably sour. The writers want the star of the British version - an unusually subdued Richard Griffiths - to star in the American one, and are horrified when the role is given to Matt LeBlanc. I know this sounds a bit picky, but as every British comedy that's ever been bought by Hollywood has been recast, it was hard to see what they were so steamed up about.

It also seemed odd, given that one of the perennial American complaints about British sitcoms is they're too slow, that this should have so many longueurs. OK, the show only lasted half an hour, so they weren't actually that long. But sometimes, to quote the ancient Chinese proverb, even a short longueur is quite long enough.

Matt LeBlanc interview

He found fame as the marvellously moronic Joey. Now the former Friends star is playing a poisonous celebrity... called Matt LeBlanc. So who is he really?

Episodes review

I'm glad I watched it. The performances were good. There were some jokes that made me laugh out loud. And before I had looked at my watch, it ended, which is a good sign. But am I going to keep watching it? Am I excited about watching it again next week?

Dear Joey from 'Friends', I'm very sorry for everything

Although my memory of the night's a bit fuzzy, I'm fairly sure Matt LeBlanc declined my offer to come home and drink coffee in my loft apartment, writes Bryony Gordon.

TV review: Episodes

Smart, funny, but ever so slightly irritating - Episodes is just like its stars.