SunTrap – It’s Probably a Review

I knew very little about SunTrap before some Twitter recommendations earlier this week. I’m pretty sure they were from sources I would ordinarily trust, so I set up a recording. In the spirit of trying to stay current, I thought I’d watch it on premiere night and share some thoughts.

I imagine this show will be reviewed very harshly. In fact, in trying to find the above image, I came across two very negative reviews. I can see what it might be trying to do, an attempt to have a fun, fast-paced sitcom full of one-liners. The problem it seems to face is that the writing is not there to support it. Fast paced one-liners burn through your jokes at such a rate that you require the weight of numbers – a large team of writers (or, of course, a smaller number of unnaturally talented writers).

There were a few very good jokes (“Goodbye in Russian”) but the relentless torrent of predictable, forced or lazily delivered punchlines masked them. Kayvan Novak has stolen scenes in many sitcoms and does his best to inject life into a succession of tired scenes but no-one else is anywhere near his level of commitment.

So that’s the comedy. But the situation is also a problem. I cannot imagine caring about any of the characters and I can’t see many possible variations on the plot from the first episode: some contrived incident to investigate, probably to do with as uninteresting a character as the supremely bored looking man on the boat, leading to a few accents and costumes for Kayvan Novak plus extra lifeless flirting with Emma Pierson. I may be surprised and indeed I hope to be. Let’s see what happens next week.

Let me know if you’re watching too, and what your thoughts were.