[TV] LITTLE BRITAIN USA

[Emperor]

I have it DVRed to watch sometime this week.  Here are what the critics say...

 

USA Today give it four stars (out of four) and says:

 

… You can't expect every skit in a show like this to work, and of course, some don't. What's startling is that the vast majority do, and those few that flop are over so quickly, you're already laughing at something else by time you notice. Indeed, the only real downside of the program is that they've made only six episodes.…

 

 

Entertainment Weekly gives it an “B” and says:

 

… Funny, but better material ships next week, so hang on.

 

 

TV Guide says:

 

… a howlingly funny freak-show tour of America. It’s all very rude and often tremendously grotesque, but it’s a belly laugh a minute. …

 

 

The New York Times says:

 

… The team behind a hilariously raunchy British series turn their sites on America. The results are ... raunchy and hilarious. …

 

 

The Los Angeles Times says:

 

… Where once its wildly diverse sketches were politically incorrect glimpses into different facets of British life -- such as Vicky Pollard, the hilariously incoherent working-class teen, and Emily Howard, just an old-fashioned transvestite gal in denial -- now they are firmly rooted in genital humor, an endless fascination with homosexuality and fat jokes, often in the same sketch. … British satire at its broadest, nodding far more energetically to Benny Hill than to, say, P.G. Wodehouse. … But too often whatever pointed observation about American or British society Lucas and Walliams have in mind, whatever message about our hypocritical social mores and behaviors they're trying to send, gets lost in the adolescent guffawing about fat people and primary sex characteristics. …

 

 

The Chicago Tribune says:

 

… Even though the sketches on the HBO show are new ones—they're not simply recycling bits from the British original—the skits that work best are the ones that home in on British archetypes, so the show may be of limited appeal here. The bigger problem is, many of the skits just don't work. As the British version did, "Little Britain USA" often relies on predictable potty humor or takes on blindingly obvious targets (Americans like guns! Americans are fat!) with ineffective results. …

 

 

The Washington Post says:

 

… The sensibility on exhibit suggests collusion, or a collision, between "Monty Python" and the late, great Benny Hill -- witty and smart on occasion but also as broad as the lowest-browed burlesque. … An attempt is obviously made to savage Americans and Britons with equal malicious glee. The sketches, however, are not of equal hilarity. Some are too tasteless even for a celebration of bad taste. …

 

 

The San Francisco Chronicle says:

 

… some of it works, much of it doesn't. Even the wonderfully funny appearance by Rosie O'Donnell spoofing herself at a fat fighters club (a holdover skit from the Brit original) can't offset some of the more forced attempts. "Little Britain USA" may need a little more time for the boys to find their game. As it stands in the first couple of episodes, they seem more intent on shocking than on being wildly, but hilariously inappropriate. It's a fine balance - one they got right more often than not in England - but one that seems out of balance in the early going here. …

 

 

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says:

 

… The easily offended should steer clear, but viewers with an appreciation for outrageous humor are likely to have a good laugh …

 

 

The Boston Globe says:

 

… if you don't like comedy that pushes the boundaries of good taste, you have no business here. But the material is presented with enough comic skill, cultural resonance, and clever mockery to rise above. …

 

 

Variety says:

 

The American version of "Little Britain" shares several traits with Showtime's Tracey Ullman sketch comedy "State of the Union," yet virtually every comparison proves unflattering to the new HBO series. Whereas Ullman's comedy is clever, "Britain USA" is mostly just crude, reveling in mock condescension toward American stereotypes. Ullman plays multiple gender-swapping characters, but with more panache than the chameleon-like David Walliams and Matt Lucas. And Ullman's hit-miss ratio is simply higher, making the slog through "Britain's" gooey swamp to find laughs feel more arduous. … alas, "Little Britain's" laughs are as puny as its ambitions.

 

 

The Hollywood Reporter says:

 

… HBO has slotted the series to follow "Entourage," though there isn't much connective tissue shared by the shows. "Little Britain" should, nonetheless, attract a small but devoted following, including particularly those who once relished watching Tracey Ullman's "TraceyTakes On ... "

 

 

10:30 p.m. Sunday. HBO.

 

 

[Kaznen]

I watched it last night.  It was okay, certainly better then the first one (didn't like it at all) but I wouldn't say it was great.

[Paityr]

does HBO put their shows online? If they don't i'll have to wait for the DVDs to come out. The British version of this show rocks, although the third season did sort of digress into an endless series of gross-out fat and sex jokes.

 

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