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Episodes offers another Anglo-American comedy partnership, and we all know how well The Increasingly Poor Decisions Of Todd Margaret turned out. I suppose we should be flattered Americans want to cross-pollinate with UK talent, if only to scratch their Anglophilia, but the results rarely justify the effort. This seven-part Showtime/BBC comedy essentially retells the joke behind Extras, when Ricky Gervais’s character found himself writing and starring in a low-rent, catchphrase-orientated sitcom he’d intended to be more highbrow and insightful, called “When The Whistle Blows”.

The big twist in Episodes is that husband-and-wife writers Sean and Beverly Lincoln (Stephan Mangan and Tamsin Greig), fresh from winning a BAFTA for their sitcom Lyman’s Boys, starring revered actor Julian Bullard (Richard Griffiths), get the opportunity to remake their show for America, after Us exec Merc Lapidus (John Pankow) invites them over to Los Angeles. It’s not long before...