The Increasingly Poor Decisions Of Todd Margaret

David Cross interview

Comic and actor David Cross talks the unsurprising rise of Donald Trump, the stupidity of George W. Bush - and playing some of the dumbest characters ever written for TV.

American network IFC orders Series 3 of Todd Margaret

Sharon Horgan is among the series regulars confirmed to be returning for Series 3.

The second series of this comedy about a hopeless salesman (played by co-creator David Cross), has been hanging around for two years before finding a home on FOX. It's nowhere near as good as its excellent line-up of stars.

The superb Will Arnett (from 30 Rock) makes a brief appearance and Sharon Horgan is woefully under-used. Mad Men's Jon Hamm also turns up in a cameo role. It's very chaotic and silly, and contains some ill-advised rape "gags" that should never have reached the screen.

As if it wasn't hard to enough to embrace a show where the lead ends each episode doused in some bodily fluid or other, this week Todd Margaret's cluelessness about jolly old England sees him draped in a BNP T-shirt. David Cross, it appears, will do anything to get a laugh and most of the time his total lack of fear pays off. This week, Todd searches for a celebrity to endorse his toxic energy drink, resulting in a special guest appearance that must be completely baffling to the US half of this co-production.

The Incredibly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret stars David Cross as a bumbling, ineffectual US middle manager given to outrageous bluffing, who is mistaken for a hard ass sales dynamo by his sociopathic boss. Promoted way beyond his capabilities, Todd is subsequently sent to the company's London office to spearhead a campaign promoting a toxic Korean energy drink in the UK.

On arrival he finds his office dilapidated, his luggage blown up by anti-terrorist officers, unrequited love with a kind hearted cafe owner and his entire sales team consisting of a solitary, bone idle assistant who delights in challenging and undermining what miniscule authority he has.

The first thing to say about the show is that it doesn't skimp on energy or jokes. But the energy is unfocused and the quality of the jokes fluctuate wildly throughout, depending heavily upon contrived, slapstick set pieces. Moreover, Todd's trademark haplessness frequently topples over into outright irritating, never an attractive quality in a sitcom lead character.

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.

Todd Margaret review

But for me, there's an unshakeable feeling Todd Margaret's a very run of the mill comedy, belying its impressive cast and international DNA.