S1E1 is perfection, with all the right ingredients in place: The wake of Bertie's drunken shenanigans; Jeeves to the rescue; the lovely Art Deco bachelor pad; the inane goings-on at the gentlemen's club; Aunt Agatha the "nephew-crusher", the trip to a stately home in the countryside and its marriage-minded, somewhat androgynous female residents, etc. Etc.
From there on, the quality goes down a little. Some of the supporting cast in particular can be quite a letdown. It's as if they walked on for what they thought was a bit of improvising, to be televised one late Sunday evening and never watched again. (Did the lavish exteriors and interiors not tip them off as to the true scale of the production, I wonder?)
If I were to rate the main protagonists' acting skills, it would be something like this:
Bertie: 10. Let's face it, he carries the show, and seems to up his game just when the rest of the cast can't seem to be bothered anymore.
Aunt Agatha / Honoria / Lady Glossop / Tuppy / everyone at the gentlemen's club: 9. Outrageous yet so very believable. They capture the very essence of what the show and its post-WWI English Zeitgeist are about.
Jeeves: 8. A one-trick pony; that's how he is written and delivered.
All the New York characters: 6. They drive vintage cars and wear vintage hats; and that's that. No one brings anything remotely startling to the table.
Anatole, Spode, the replacement Madeline, the replacement Gussy: 1. Just No. Terribly unfunny caricatures that fall utterly flat. Yelling and screaming, over the top, in every scene, is not comedy. Speaking like a two-year-old is not comedy. Speaking with an exaggerated lisp is very poor comedy.
All in all, a pleasant show with some unfortunate and highly visible weakest links.
From there on, the quality goes down a little. Some of the supporting cast in particular can be quite a letdown. It's as if they walked on for what they thought was a bit of improvising, to be televised one late Sunday evening and never watched again. (Did the lavish exteriors and interiors not tip them off as to the true scale of the production, I wonder?)
If I were to rate the main protagonists' acting skills, it would be something like this:
Bertie: 10. Let's face it, he carries the show, and seems to up his game just when the rest of the cast can't seem to be bothered anymore.
Aunt Agatha / Honoria / Lady Glossop / Tuppy / everyone at the gentlemen's club: 9. Outrageous yet so very believable. They capture the very essence of what the show and its post-WWI English Zeitgeist are about.
Jeeves: 8. A one-trick pony; that's how he is written and delivered.
All the New York characters: 6. They drive vintage cars and wear vintage hats; and that's that. No one brings anything remotely startling to the table.
Anatole, Spode, the replacement Madeline, the replacement Gussy: 1. Just No. Terribly unfunny caricatures that fall utterly flat. Yelling and screaming, over the top, in every scene, is not comedy. Speaking like a two-year-old is not comedy. Speaking with an exaggerated lisp is very poor comedy.
All in all, a pleasant show with some unfortunate and highly visible weakest links.