Going Dutch

Denis Leary is hilarious. Danny Pudi is hilarious. The missing part of both those sentences is "...but not in this."

On the surface, this should work. It's basically F Troop, and they hired two veteran comic actors who have lengthy histories that tell you they know comedic timing.

None of the side characters are memorable. None are funny. None are interesting. The jokes never land, and there honestly aren't even all that many jokes. The best comedies are incredibly efficient at setting multiple jokes at a time and then ripping off punchline after punchline.

Whomever the writers for this thing are, they're terrible. I strongly encourage someone to revisit the concept. A modern day F Troop would be great. Or a Sgt Bilko. A military unit that is dreadful and terrible, where each character has some over the top trait? This formula can work.

But you need to hire comedy writers who can write jokes. And they didn't.

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's funny but seems like a budget pilot. It has that Community kind of humor but lots of flaws. It misses some authenticity. The Dutch are some German crossover stereotype, Dennis Leary looks like a vampire and it often misses opportunities for cultural jokes. Still it has potential to be really funny. Danny Pudi saves the first pilot with his typical performance. Maybe a decent make-up artist can give Dennis Leary some spark, so the show can have a second star shine.

Without Danny Pudi's Community-input there's not much left worth watching. I'm wondering for which audience the show is made, what do you think?

As a Dutch person I think it's hilarious to see what these writers think is dutch.

Many reviewers already pointed it out and they are right, most things Dutch in this series are German.

So I made a little game out of it: spot the mistake and laugh at the correct things.

Just watched the episode about korfbal, really dutch game. And it was funny. Seeing the French flag, a Swiss horn and all the terrible accents.

There is just one thing that really irritates me and that is Katherine, a great British actrice/comedian, trying to have a Dutch accent. Just nope.

Just ask Dutch actors for these roles, even the best English speaking wil have that telltale's Dutch accent.