Going Dutch

I don't expect a low budget comedy to deliver an accurate depiction of the Netherlands, but this is just downright lazy. It's one thing to take creative liberties, but to conflate Dutch culture with... German, Swiss, Austrian maybe? Who knows? Honestly, I can't even tell what they're aiming for. It's as if the writers skipped geography class entirely, glanced at a pack of stroopwafels and cobbled together the entire plot based on a handful of tired Dutch stereotypes. If at least the humor could be its redeeming factor. But alas, the jokes are flat, shallow and barely enough to elicit even the faintest hint of a smirk.

As a Dutch person, I was curious to see where the show was gonna go, It was somewhat ok for a pilot, some jokes were good but most fell flat. I like Dennis Leary but the others were kinda meh. What bothered me the most though is if you wanna make a show about Going Dutch, actually do that then. Besides the many (unfunny) typical stereo types, there wasnt much Dutch, I think its filmed somewhere in Eastern Europe with Eastern European people with wrong accents. Atleast try to get it right if you wanna make a show like this, otherwise just call it Going Eastern Europe or whatever country they made this in.

It has potential. The funnier characters start to open up as the season progresses, and the show will blossom if it's given a chance. Supporting cast has the comedy chops. It needs to find its rhythm but its a fun storyline of the contradictory national identities and how it impacts individuals at a small scale. The characters Jan and Papadakis especially shine. I think season 2 should start at a higher baseline of emotional intelligence, the adult children thing is too predictable. There are odd moments of magical realism, heartfelt portrayals of efforts at connection, non-insulting reflective humor about America, Green light Season 2, then decide!

The casting of Denis Leary is an insanely bad choice. He could have being awesome in the part but the writing gives him and the other actors nothing.

This is just pay check material for the better known actors. I can see no way they would have signed on otherwise.

Leary is the main problem, they give him nothing to work with other than bad reactions to bad jokes, and I don't think he is an actor who can bring it without a decent script and direction.

The script is from an era of canned laugh tracks to boost the vague comic element.

They pack so much into the first episode at a incredibly superficial level no idea has time to breath and I have no idea how they will come up with material for later episodes.

The first episode feels like a first draft or even story outline which they fleshed out in 5 minutes.

I have zero hope this will get better in later episodes, there is nothing good .. the casting, script, directing, photography it is all bad.

It is clearly a fictionalized version of an Army base in the Netherlands so don't expect too much or any realism. It reminds me a little like Hogan's Heroes; I just didn't think too hard about how implausible almost everything was and just enjoyed the banter and shenanigans. The cast has good chemistry and the show has enough heart to make me want to watch more. I haven't liked the complete cast of a show this much since Community. Similar to Community this show is more focused on the characters interacting then the basic premise which I consider a good choice considering the weakness of the premise and apparent lack of care in doing research.