Mammals

As every, and I do mean every, positive reviewer laughably believes a negative review is due to a dislike of Mr. Corden, let me assure you I am barely familiar with him other from a few Carpool Karaoke episodes many years ago, which I enjoyed.

Mammals was so painfully shallow. It reminded me of an overly dramatic, shockingly immature college freshman who sits in their window at night, gazing at the moon, penning horrible poetry. The desperation to be conceived as deep and meaningful, the awkward and heavy handed use of metaphor and beat you over the head symbolism was so off putting that by the sixth episode, when it looked like a character might harm themselves, I was rooting for them to end it. I was kind of hoping there would be a spate of incidents culminating in the characters no longer existing. The lack of finesse and subtlety was astounding.

James Corden will always be Smithy from Gavin and Stacey to me and I did like him in that role. Then he moved to the USA, got his own show and went all "Hollywood". When I saw that he was starring in this new series on Prime I was going to give it a miss until I saw Colin Morgan's name. I held my nose and pressed play so I could at least watch Colin. I have to say it was far better than I expected. JC was ok (a more serious Smithy) and Colin didn't disappoint (a very different and cute role for him). The first episode hooked me straight away due to the small twist at the end. The scenery, countryside and homes were beautiful. The Tom Jones cameo topped it off.

I rarely post reviews on imdb.

But having watched this with the preconception that I currently dislike James Corden and then seeing the average score.....I felt I had to.

I don't know if people are just on a hate campaign right now with Corden? Believe me I think he's been getting too big for his own boots......but the score for this os a joke.

Watch it....watch it without going into it already hating the Star of the show.......and he is the star of the show.

As much as I want to throw scorn on James Corden and the fact he's let hos SNL show and his US glory go to his head....with all things considered....he is really good in this.

If there is one thing I take from this drama...it has to be...James come home.....ditch the US...ditch the chat shows.....get back to what you obviously do best...acting.

Sorry, the Tom Jones cameo set me off (he sings Stoke's song and I'm a Vale fan).

Ignore the reviews, honestly it's just people who don't like Corden with a passion, which I don't really get tbh.

I'm not a fan of him nowadays either, I loved Gavin & Stacey and remember he's acted in a load of things back in the day, people seem to forget he was an actor and writer first, so I can't see how they can say his acting is bad.

But he's basically become a plastic yank and a caricature of an English bloke at the same time which is why I'm not a fan. I also think a lot of people don't like his political views (I don't know what they are) since a reviewer on here called him Corbyn...

Anyway back to the review; Genuinely this is pretty good, there is a few laughs and there's some proper drama and I think anyone who's in a relationship really should watch, no spoilers but honestly it will make you think and be warned it gets a bit dark and affected me in a visceral way due to past relationships.

It's filmed well, there's a good supporting cast and I prefer Corden as an actor than a telly host 100% and I think he did an above average performance in this. But there is always the essence of Smithy in there, I have to admit.

If the first episode doesn't grip you then don't bother, but I can almost guarantee it will.

Ignore the troll hate and make your own mind up, but at least give it a go.

7/10.

...from a totally illogical dislike of James Corden. I have no idea why. And it's been going on a long time. Long before he sort of proved me right becoming all ffar too americanny and then with the omelette incident. I've never seen Gavin and Stacey so I have no idea what he was like in that. I just saw clips of car pool karaoke and things like that which made me want to kick my TV screen in. However, he is excellent in this, as is everyone. Melia Kreiling was wonderful in Tyrant and she is equally good in this and sorry, but i have to say, she is truly beautiful to the point of taking ones breath away. I love the storyline, the Coco Chanel thread which is bonkers but works and whoever chose the music throughout has to be greatly commended. This show is really DIFFERENT and it works. I get the feeling it is what Gervais was aiming for with afterlife - the feeling, not the story - and this shows how badly he missed after series one. I put off watching this due to my Cordenophobia - I heartily reccomend you do not do the same as you will be missing a treat.