Mammals is listed as a comedy. And there are some laughs. In fact there are some fall over in your chair tears in your eyes laughs. But Mammals might be the most mournful comedy that I've ever seen. But you should watch it. You should definitely watch it. Mammals is wonderfully original and evocative and it is a show that will stay with you long after watch it. It is smart and it is charming despite having an overwhelmingly sad patina to it. Many of the best British comedies are like this. But Mammals has a charm that is all its own. I only knew of James Corden as the talk show host who was always doing musical bits with his guest before watching this show. It turns out he's a wonderful actor who can be funny but also is capable of serious pathos. Maybe having never watched his talk show freed me from the expectation of his just being funny. I don't know. The show is extremely well written and very clever with recurring background themes, such as the 1960's popstar who appears at the beginning and whose image keeps reappearing in the backgrounds, or the use of the idea of Mammal, which is used in various ways for different characters right up until the very end. There are some things that I'd argue with: The big reveal at the end, in fact both of the big reveals at the end, seem to go against the established character and do not seem earned or fleshed out. Normally that would be a big issue for me. I hate unearned twists. But the show, the writing and the acting is so well done that I found myself, despite myself, inclined to just let that slide. Maybe I've gotten soft. Or maybe the show just drew me along so completely that it earned the final cheats. I'm inclined to think it was the latter. So I'm telling you that you should watch a show that is ostensibly a comedy that really isn't a comedy that cheats its twists at the end and is going to leave you feeling terribly sad. Except that you don't feel sad at the end. Well, you do. In fact you will mourn for these characters. But you will also feel a kind of satisfaction. Perhaps the satisfaction one feels at looking at a troubled painting or listening to a really good sad piece of music. Or, more accurately, the satisfaction one feels at watching a Buster Keaton or a Jackie Gleason at work. You do laugh. You will laugh. But your laughter is tinged with the knowledge that you are witnessing a kind of comic tragedy, perhaps the highest form of comedy there is. Anybody can make you laugh by playing the fool. Only a select few can do what Robin Williams once described watching Richard Pryor was like: "You want to laugh and cry at exactly the same time.". Mammals is that kind of experience. Maybe not everyone wants that. Maybe most people like pratfalls and banana peels. This in not a show for them. In fact I would advise them to run away from this show. But if you are ready for the charm that carries heartache and grief at exactly the same time as laughter then Mammals is a show for you. If you're tired of the same old sitcoms, even the great British ones, and you're ready for something deeper and more emotionally challenging then Mammals is for you. You may even agree with me that the twists at the end are forced. But I think that you'll also agree with me that the rest of the show, the bulk of the show, is more than worth the watch.
Review of Mammals
