niles-warren

Season one: Samuel Barnett (Dirk Gently) is a genius comedic actor, Max Landis is proving to be to be a great comedic screenwriter - and their combined talents pull together Douglas Adams' amazing books into the funniest wittiest thing I've experienced this decade - or this century, for that matter. Great job by other cast members too, but wow. Out of the park amazing job, Samuel Barnett.

Season 2: Very entertaining - very unique and funny I still rate it 10, but by comparison on the same scale season one should be a 13 or 14.

Great actors and comedians clowning around. The writers are brilliantly funny and amazingly talented and probably working full-time for other series but having a lot more fun getting together and writing this one. And nailing it. Probably only care that they're cracking each other up and not going for the lowest common denominator in the audience. They're going for the lowest common denominator in the writing room room and I love it. A lot of high-profile big budget comedies try harder and screw it up (Avenue five being a prime example).

Gets much better starting episode 3. Becomes actually funny. I change my rating from a three (very generous based on the first two episodes) to a seven (stingy based on a much improved writing in episodes three and four). I hope it continues to improve, because I really like the premise and it has so much potential (and the set and production value is phenomenal).

Aside: I like Josh Gad in general. That said, one of the biggest problems is that Josh Gad's character (Herman Judd) is to unlikable and unfunny (and silly and cliché ridden and poorly written). That he's unlikeable and clueless appears to be a deliberate choice on the part of the shows creators and writers (and hair, make up and costuming). It's as if they were trying to create a character like Basil from "Fawlty Towers" or Michel Scott from either version of "The Office." But it doesn't work, because Basil and Michel WERE likable and funny, and Gad's portrayal of the clueless Billionaire owner Judd lacks the magic of a John Cleese, Ricky Gervais, or a Steve Carell (and, again, the character is written so poorly). But by episode three, the other characters and actors and plot reveals suddenly becomes funny enough to tip the scales and make it a good show, and you are able to just ignore the poorly written and poorly portrayed character of Herman Judd.