HBO’s new series, Camping, premiered this Sunday. While we’re only one episode in, there’s little hope of redemption.
With executive producers Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner — who gave us the hit HBO show Girls — the series sounded promising. But frankly, by the end of the pilot you’re hoping for a Chris McCandless scenario where all the characters get lost in the woods. At least then you wouldn’t have to watch them bicker senselessly at each other for half an hour.
Camping follows Kathryn (Jennifer Garner) and Walt (David Tennant), who take their friends on a outdoor adventure to celebrate Walt’s 45th birthday. During the weekend together, friendships and marriages — and viewers’ patience — are put to the test.
It was painful to sit through the entire thirty-minute show — and that’s coming from someone who stuck with Glee for three seasons after it got bad. With an unlikeable, irritating, anal-retentive lead and lackluster performances, this show gives us no reason to set up camp and sit down to watch it.
Jennifer Garner is particularly disappointing to watch. She seems to be the sweetest, genuine, most lovable person in real life, but Dunham and Konner force her to play a character so obsessive-compulsive and aggressively controlling that it’s almost unbearable to watch. Having a main character that’s so unlikeable does not bode well for the show.
Dunham and Konner intentionally made their leading character unlikeable, as they did with their lead in Girls, but what they failed to do this time around was surround that displeasing character with funny, agreeable supporting roles. Instead, the other characters were given about as much personality as one of the gnats at the campsite.
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The only redeeming quality of the series is the character Harry (Bridget Everett), who is the butch campsite owner. The best way to describe her is if Melissa McCarthy’s character in Bridesmaids were out of the closet. Everett’s charm and persona adds a level of entertaining relief to the otherwise dull and high-strung cast. The only problem I have with Everett’s character is that she is not featured more in the show.
A group of unlikely friends all with their own personal baggage spending a weekend together in the woods has a lot of potential to be an engaging and hilarious ordeal, but there was no follow-through. Instead, Camping’s pilot episode was incredibly lackluster and unrealistic. The only semblance of plot we get is when Kathryn accidentally shoots Miguel, the free-spirited divorcee, at which point the show turns from boring to just plain stupid as Harry comes in and personally removes the bullet without any medical equipment or bloodshed. If you’re going to have a gun go off, you’ve got to have the theatrics in the aftermath to make it believable.
The most, if not only, interesting part about Camping is that it’s listed as a comedy. I laughed harder after reading that than I did the entire episode. Do you know how bad of a show it has to be to have Bridget Everett and Chris Sullivan featured in it and not get a single laugh?
Come to think of it, Camping is the perfect title for this series. Much like sleeping outdoors, this show is boring, messy, unsupported and extremely dry.
0.5/4 shells.
