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mertonfuton
Reviews
Huge in France (2019)
Middle of the road, uninspired but passable eye candy sitcom
See, the problem with celebrity "based on my life" sitcoms, is their inauthenticity. Bojack Horseman, a cartoon, is far closer to the real needy dysfunction roller-coaster of competitive vanity, haute vivre and self-aware lunacy that's modern fame.
No doubt Gad Elmaleh has an interesting backstory - but we're not seeing any of it here. His own current "real-life" family dynamic is mirrored in the TV show - but it's only offcuts making their way into the C-minus script.
To make a show about wealth and fame that's both funny and relatable demands either brilliant writing or relying on an inventory of comedy cliches. Huge In France mostly goes for the latter, e.g. it presents the Hollywood fame industry as mostly incompetent and parochial, so the audience gets cheap self-congratulatory laughs, when in truth, Los Angeles is one of the most knowing, cynical and cosmopolitan places on the planet. Dodging having to take on subjects like this - and face handling uncomfortable implications - leaves very little substance for the sitcom to stretch out across eight episodes. Stretch it does, however, and with resolute professionalism start to finish.
If you've 4 hours to kill, and you're an unabashed Gad Elmaleh fan (is anyone?) or an uncritical Francophile or you're a patient fan of this show's particular eye-candy, watch Huge in France and good luck to you! If not, there's a thousand better shows in the Netflix repertoire.
Archer (2009)
"Archer is top of the animation second division - agreeable grist for the mill"
Archer is a passable long-running animated series, first season 2009, hitting its stride by the third in 2012. Later seasons (7 onward) are less enjoyable: tired storytelling, jokes further apart. Familiarity has obviously bred contempt in the Archer writer's room.
Animation isn't the most competitive genre once a show's novelty value is spent and only a handful of superb paradigm shows stay at the top of the food chain - The Simpsons, Family Guy, South Park, maybe Bojack Horseman. Archer isn't at this level but it's watchable, fairly consistent, good production quality and enough attention to sitcom story arc to keep an episode's momentum going between the jokes. Archer's humor is a familiar blend of undergraduate smart-assery, Generation X TV Land reverence, leavened with half-hearted Millennial offcuts for students, interns and technogeeks. There are other shows doing all these things better, but not so many that Archer isn't one of the better choices if you're looking to agreeably pass a few dozen hours you'll never get back. Grist for the mill.