Channel Surfing: Hello Ladies - "Pilot"

Stephen Merchant

Welcome to a new column called Channel Surfing, in which I sporadically look at current TV shows and talk about them. These are not ones that I care to write weekly recaps for and are instead reflections either on the episode, the series, or particular moments. This will hopefully help to share personal opinions as well as discover entertainment on the outer pantheon that I feel is well worth checking out, or in some cases, shows that are weird enough to talk about, but should never be seen.

There was a time not too long ago that a new show with the name Stephen Merchant attached would guarantee success. Going as recent as An Idiot Abroad, he has been the less vocal creator of the Office and has starred in his share of Hollywood fare, including Movie 43 and Hall Pass. To say the least, he may be more consistent in trying to crossover without offending than Ricky Gervais, but he hasn't captured the zeitgeist without his assistance at all. His previous project, Life's Too Short, lacked any energy or fun, and it showed that there was a need for change for the Office duo to prove that they are not one trick ponies. Gervais attempted drama with Derek on Netflix. Merchant, stepping away from his partner, brought us HBO's latest comedy Hello Ladies.

In a way, Hello Ladies felt doomed to fail because Merchant hasn't been that successful on his own. Just look at his cinematic resume. Nonetheless, he has a chance to strike out on his own and possibly make a name for himself in the awkward comedy genre that made his career. As the lead character Stephen, he resides in Los Angeles with the goal of finding the woman of his dreams. Along with two weird sidekicks (Nate Torrence and Kevin Weisman), he hits clubs and drops the title with some frequency. There's aspects of his life that are socially maladjusted and you can bet that some big comedic disaster will happen at some point in the show.

The universe feels established enough, as Stephen spends the first episode trying to help Wade (Torrence) find a new girl after his wife of 11 years dumps him. Along with being a web programmer, he has all the charm of a British man, but terrible timing on everything else. He'll interrupt people to get his point across and drive around playing Cypress Hill. As the episode opens on Stephen stating the title to women who shut them down, it pretty much sums up the episode in great detail in very little effort.

The episode isn't necessarily terrible. In fact, it is entertaining at points largely because Merchant has plenty of charm. The issue more lies in the familiarity of a veteran trying to continue making comedy in a genre that has since sprung into the zeitgeist on almost every network. Being rejected by women and having no sense of social behavior are all well and fine, but when strung through a refined British person, it comes across as sad once you reach the third or fourth time that he has been rejected by a woman. If the premise given is any indication of what is to come, we are doomed to just have the joke be every week that nobody likes him.

At very least, the episode promises more of the same. While Merchant manages to have charm, his obnoxious behavior does feel familiar to those who watch their share of TV comedies. Even the fact that it is paired with the final season of Eastbound & Down is problematic mostly because of how comparative they are. Where the Kenny Powers series has built this obnoxious behemoth over time, it worked because it came from Danny McBride, whose humor was only beginning to be appreciated in films like Tropic Thunder and Pineapple Express around that time. With the help of dark mastermind Jody Hill, the Powers character quickly evolved to be more than a baseball bad-ass. He was kind of depressing and was fine with ruining his own life to keep up his image. 

Maybe in time Hello Ladies could come halfway to the charm of Eastbound & Down, but it doesn't seem likely. We have seen enough from Merchant to know whether or not things will go smoothly. Even if this is his first time solo, the understated formula doesn't do him much justice. He is trying to be cool, but failing miserably. It is definitely uncomfortable humor, but maybe it is on the verge of being outplayed. The first episode doesn't provide us much in the way of clever thought beyond the conception of his job and coworkers. The rest of the time, he is getting rejected, and who can blame them? 

I don't claim that HBO has the best luck with comedies, but they have made a niche towards these type of characters in the past. Besides Eastbound & Down, their flagship program Curb Your Enthusiasm lacks self-awareness and still brings in a bunch of inspired episodes. Maybe it is because things happen that are unexpected and more tied to ego than premise. Watching Stephen towards the end of the episode place a chair on top of a table to get into a conversation only to fall off when he leans too far forward may be set up for a great slapstick joke, but the character is already too pathetic to have the fall be nothing more than depressing.

I do wish better for Merchant, who isn't having the best luck with projects lately. After a great start, he has done more of the same, and while it hasn't been terrible, the returns are somewhat diminishing and Hello Ladies feels like a five minute gag made into a series. Unless the series focuses more on Merchant trying to be a redeemable character with interesting ideas, this may as well have started as soon as it ended. It leaves you wondering what the point was and sure enough, putting Eastbound & Down on the same block only adds insult to injury.

The problem with Hello Ladies is that it isn't memorable in most ways. It hits all of the comedic beats, but doesn't quite land them. The people are sexual predators, but never seem to do more than brush off the crass nature. Maybe it is something lost in translation, but this is specifically an HBO show. Unlike most of the other projects, it wasn't released on the BBC first. That should mean nothing, but it does feel like maybe the show's decision to pit him into Los Angeles is supposed to show a fish out of water mixed with an unlikable lead and produce a halfway intriguing premise. It doesn't. While it isn't Dads or the Goldbergs terrible, it does still feel like a waste of great talent.