Reviewers slam Kath & Kim

October 9, 2008

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According to the following article from AP, the US version of the brilliant Australian comedy show Kath & Kim has been widely panned by critics :

American TV writers have stomped on the US version of Australian comedy show Kath & Kim, saying it’s bad enough to warrant severing trade relations with Australia.

Starring Molly Shannon and Selma Blair, Kath & Kim premieres on American NBC TV tomorrow night.

Chuck Barney of California’s Contra Costa Times describes the remake as “hammy, over-the-top and … utterly forced”.

“If you thought all those gag-inducing ads for Kath & Kim that NBC ran during the Olympics were awful, wait until you check out the actual show,” he wrote.

“Better yet, don’t bother.

“It is based on a comedy that originated in Australia and it might be just cause to immediately cease trade relations with that country.”

Meanwhile, Rob Owen of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette calls it a “dumb dud” and “an unpleasant way to spend a half-hour”.

In an earlier interview, the US show’s executive producer Michelle Nader, whose past works include Spin City and King Of Queens, said she had jumped at adapting the Australian version for an American audience.

“We wanted to really sort of get the emotional core of the show more than they did in the Australian version. The Australian version is very funny, and we’re absolutely going to be hopefully as funny as them,” Nader said.

“But they do eight episodes and we do 22.”

The American version would “dish out the level of reality in a different way”, she said.

The US version was made after the rights to the show was bought earlier this year by NBC, as in the case of a number of other shows during the writer’s strike. Some of these shows has been a runaway success and some less so. The show which was arguably the most successful of these was ‘Ugly Betty’, an original Columbian sitcom.

The original Australian version of ‘Kath & Kim’ is about the Fountain Lakes foxy morons created by Gina Riley and Jane Turner and it was a hit with Australian audiences. But a question has to be asked whether the unique humor is in the cultural context which is harder to translate into other countries.

Here is a montage from the original ‘Kath & Kim’, see what you think :