Episodes

Radio Times review

In this episode we meet Matt LeBlanc's dad, his imaginary screen dad, in the best scene of the series so far. Stories have appeared on TMZ that Matt has gone into rehab, and Matt knows where they came from: he forgot to send dad his cheque, and this is revenge. So he storms round there - with Sean and Beverly in tow - to confront him.

What follows has more comic voltage than the entirety of some previous episodes, as the pair trade insults in front of the mortified Brits - and few actors do mortified better than Tamsin Greig and Stephen Mangan. It's a cracking set piece and elsewhere the plot is coming to a boil nicely. Also, look out: in the delightfully tasteless mental health storyline, unbalanced network boss Castor is off his meds.

Just when Bev and Sean thought they were out, the vacuous Hollywood telly system is trying its hardest to pull them back in, thanks to the super-perky new agent who's latched herself on to them and got them a potential new series at Fox. Bev is out, Sean seems persuadable; this being near the end of series three, could their tenure in LA be extended? Meanwhile, Carol and Castor's predominantly sex-based relationship is continuing at a sweaty pace, but she wants to take it to the next level, despite his towering indifference.

Radio Times review

Another instalment of Episodes potters along enjoyably without ever quite firing into comic life. Sean is more tempted than Beverly to entertain offers for their other script now Pucks! is doomed, but she can't wait to leave Hollywood and head home.

We know this is leading up to something, but boy, do the writers string it out. Meanwhile, there's more sobering, midlife misery for Matt when he bumps into his stalker, Labia (Sophie Rundle), and realises she's over him, leading to a nice heart-to-heart with Sean: "It's just weird knowing I'll probably never have another one... Do you think Harrison Ford is still getting stalkers? Warren Beatty? There's a window..."

Damian Lewis tried out for Episodes

Damian Lewis auditioned for Stephen Mangan's part in Episodes, Matt LeBlanc has revealed.

Three seasons in, Brit writers Bev (Tamsin Greig) and Sean (Stephen Mangan) are still trying to acclimatise to the bewildering world of Hollywood, and Matt LeBlanc is still bumbling around like a bear with a bees' nest on his head. But Episodes does feel like a sharper, snappier creature this time around, less interested in the internecine workings of the showbiz industry and more in the venal, shallow bubble around Los Angeles - new-age therapy, partner-swapping et al.

RIP Pucks!, the show within a show featured in the brilliant Episodes.

Having failed to compete with a rival channel's talking-dog sitcom, Pucks! was left to wither and die in the wasteland of the Saturday-night schedules.

Meanwhile, Matt LeBlanc (played by Matt LeBlanc) was busy trying to jump both ship and co-star Morning's younger sister, who was actually her daughter.

LeBlanc also found time to launch an embittered diatribe against British actors moving to Hollywood, mastering the accent and stealing all the best roles. You know who you are Elba, West, Laurie, Lewis, Pattinson, Lincoln, Sheen, Freeman...

Radio Times review

In the final shot of last week's episode, something momentous happened: that grey plastic strip representing Pucks! in the network schedule was tossed in the bin. So the limping British/US sitcom around which this British/US sitcom is built is for the chop: "Even though nobody is willing to put a tag on the toe, this thing is dead," crows Matt LeBlanc to writers Beverly and Sean, even as he scrambles to get a part on another show.

But humiliating Matt has become Episodes' favourite blood sport and there's worse to come, as a young fan forces him to relive his Friends heyday in circumstances only this show would dare dream up.

Pucks! is out of luck. The struggling sitcom has been bumped to Saturday nights, which presents awkward moments for Matt LeBlanc at the network's press party. Elsewhere, sex dominates the agenda of seemingly everyone, with Merc still battling his addiction, and Sean and Bev visiting a sex therapist and becoming all coy, mumbly and British in the process. Still not the barbed Hollywood satire it thinks it is, but Tamsin Greig and Stephen Mangan have an easy rapport and LeBlanc is clearly having loads of fun portraying his fictional self.

Radio Times review

The comedy hovers below the waist as Sean and Beverly visit a couples counsellor (a straight-talking sex therapist, it turns out) to address their problems "fornicationally". "If your vagina could speak, what would it say to Sean right now?" wonders the therapist, an invitation Beverly responds to with a beautifully eccentric piece of comedy - top work from Tamsin Greig.

But while Sean has difficulty upping his game, as it were, network boss Castor has the opposite problem, as an admiring Carol has very much noticed. Beverly thinks sleeping with the boss (again) would be a mistake: "I think he's the cliff and you're Thelma and Louise," she warns. But when did Carol ever listen to what anybody else said?

Pucks! gets bumped to a crappy slot on Saturday night, which in turns means that LeBlanc is bumped to a second-place slot on Jay Leno's Tonight Show. Unsurprisingly, he's not all that happy about it, but it does mean Leno gets a pleasingly filthy line during a cameo. Meanwhile, Merc is back at the network, but has to pitch ideas to Carol in a rather dramatic turning of the tables. New boss Sotto, who is experiencing an unusual side-effect of his psychiatric medication, swerves the meeting, much to Merc's molten chagrin.