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Foxy ladies back to Fountain Lakes

The good news on Kath & Kim: New episodes coming for Jane & Gina. The bad news: The American reviews

As the US series of Kath and Kim gathers disappointing reviews, Gina Riley and Jane Turner are turning their attention to new Australian-made episodes.

The show’s executive producer said Jane Turner and Gina Riley were in pre-production mode.

“Certainly they’re keen to do another Kath and Kim project,” Rick McKenna told the Herald Sun.

“At the moment they’ve got 4 1/2 episodes in their heads.

“They’ve got their own style of creating,” he said.

“It’s like sitting at the Vatican waiting for the smoke to come out of the chimney.”

Meanwhile, the first reviews are building in the US.

Entertainment Weekly said: The core problem with K&K is that there’s no character to root for. These days, we don’t need to identify with sitcom characters or even love them. (Garry Shandling and Ricky Gervais proved that, immortally.) But we do need an occasionally recognizable — if silly — human, or a compelling relationship, to keep us coming back. For all of Shannon’s luminescence and Blair’s intense glower, neither Kath nor Kim is alive in this way. C–

Daily Telegraph’s Peta Hellard in LA said: Veteran comedy star Molly Shannon does an able job as effervescent, ever-cheery mum Kath, but her considerable talent seems wasted – with the rare comic moments coming across as contrived and awkward. Her co-star Selma Blair is nothing short of disappointing as spoilt daughter Kim. Blair, who has previously shone in small roles and stolen films like Cruel Intentions and The Sweetest Thing, seems to be over-acting the whole episode – all obvious glares and exasperated sighs.

TVGuide’s brief review was savage: Dreadful. Worse even than those awful Olympics promos. What seemed outrageous in the original Australian sitcom comes off as vulgar, forced wackiness that’s deeply unpleasant and desperately unfunny. Overplaying in Saturday Night Live mode, Molly Shannon mugs and sashays as Kath, a perky suburbanite who’s miffed when her grown psycho-brat daughter moves back in. As pouty princess Kim, the sullen Selma Blair sucks the energy out of each scene, making me think I’d lost the ability to ever laugh again. This isn’t chemistry. It’s tragedy. 1/10

So far Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, The NY Times and LA Times are yet to publish a review.

Source: Herald Sun

15 Responses

  1. Showing the Australian version over there would be a huge mistake. If people think the new version will tank there, our version would do so much worse. People should just wait until they actually see it along with the ratings, then judge one way or the other.

  2. NBC should just show the Australian version and dump plans to even air their version. I’m sure it would do better than the lackluster ratings the US version will get.

  3. Look. What it will come down to is the American viewers. They will utilmately decide if Kath and Kim is good or not. Don’t listen to one reviewers opinion and say ‘ohh he said it’s bad so it must be bad’. if you like it then it’s a success to you.

    so let’s hope americans tune in to see the fascination of shannon and blair and then keep watching as they find it interesting and funny. still i agree they needed a sharron character so blair and her could fight and call each other fat and stuff. would have made the show a bit funnier but hey they didn’t.

    Also you need to remember that Gina Riley and Jane Tuner are executive producers on the american version so they have some say in what goes on (not all the say but some) and if they didn’t like some part of it they would have fought to get it right. so don’t say ‘ohh it suck compared to the australian version’. stop comparing it to the aussie version and treat it as a completely new show.

  4. Im not surprised about the US Kath and Kim. I had my doubts when I heard about it and when I saw the promos. Glad to hear we might see new episodes of the Australian one soon.

  5. Tribe, just because you don’t get it, doesn’t make it shite. I love it, and so do many aussies (its been quite successful in case you haven’t noticed). It doesn’t make Aussies look stupid, that’s like saying My Name is Earl is a typical view of America.

    I also liked the US version 1st episode of KK, I think it will grow into something good if it ever gets that chance (probably won’t).

  6. You could tell this was going to be crap from the moment the announced it was going ahead.

    You cannot transpire Australian comedy to an American audience, especially something as ‘niche’ as Kath and Kim.

  7. Tribe – Your grammar is making Australians look stupid, Tribe. The show does well in Australia, it’d be stupid to remove it.

    I’d rather it on ABC though.

  8. so so glad re new aussie episodes. And re the US version, perhaps we should try and butcher one of their classic shows? Australian ‘Lost’ or ‘Desperate Housewives’. I hear re-make!

  9. i told you it wouldn’t work in the US. Fact is the aussie version isn’t that funny anyway these two are flogging a dead horse. 4 and a hlf episodes god they get their money easy they should have written about 12 by now shows how non-creative they are.

    AXE kath and kim please it makes Aussies look stupid!

  10. Incredible news.

    I guess thanks to the American series season 4’s rating success is overshadowed so now they need a successful season 5 to go out with a bang.

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