Welcome to a new Wildcard Wednesday! This week, I’m looking at a bizarre single-season single-cam from the 2008-2009 season that doesn’t deserve its own pop-out from the Potpourri series but really doesn’t fit anywhere else. It’s the American version of the Australian cult classic Kath & Kim — which became yet another flop on NBC’s Must See TV Thursday lineup.
KATH & KIM (October 2008 – March 2009, NBC)
Premise: A lazy slob breaks up with her husband and moves back in with her peppy, newly engaged mom.
Cast: Molly Shannon, Selma Blair, John Michael Higgins, Mikey Day, Justina Machado, Melissa Rauch
Writers: Michelle Nader, Liz Astrof, Wil Calhoun, Jessica Lopez, Dana Klein, Adam Barr, Jim Dubensky & Steve Gabriel (based on the Australian show, including several scripts by Gina Riley & Jane Turner)
Thoughts: Like The Office, this adaptation of a foreign sitcom also met with bad reviews from critics who compared it unfavorably to the original, setting it up for failure with viewers both aware and unaware of its predecessor. However, unlike The Office, Kath & Kim was never able to tweak itself to American tastes or cultivate the kind of quality that could then prove its early doubters wrong. I think there’s a foundational reason – although it first seems to be just a low-concept buddy comedy about a wacky mother and daughter, the Aussie original had a sense of social satire via its understood lampoon of a specific type of people: the expanding group of suburbanites who had risen to achieve money but still lacked class. That idea is lost in translation with U.S. audiences, for whom money and class are more synonymous and thus only spoofable when contorted via bigger juxtapositions (with more specific incongruities). Without this same cultural context, Kath & Kim loses its intended sense of parody and seems instead like an unsure mess — one of those overly broad sitcoms that fails to reconcile its big, cartoonish characters with the more literal brand of reality implied by its low-concept premise and single-camera framing. It doesn’t make sense, and indeed often plays less like a sitcom than an overextended sketch – with SNL’s Molly Shannon leaning into that ethos, where something is being mocked but we don’t know what. This sketch-like bent also speaks to the key difference between American and British/Australian sitcoms that we’ve recently discussed: U.S. sitcoms have more episodes per season, which means they need situations, and therefore characters, who are stronger — better designed to uphold and inspire many more stories. I’m afraid Kath and Kim, even setting aside the broadness of their portrayals, just don’t possess the dimension or clarity typically demanded of leads on low-concept U.S. sitcoms. And while the show eventually tries to latch onto the tangential notion that maybe these tacky women are interested in fame or showbiz glory (which is spoofable), it’s not central enough to create expectations surrounding these otherwise vague oddballs, leaving the American Kath & Kim – despite having a funny cast with capable writers – a weird disappointment, failing to make its cultural jump.
Episode Count: 17 episodes produced and broadcast. | Episodes Seen: All 17.
Key Episodes: #2: “Respect” (10/16/08)
#13: “Celebrity” (02/12/09)
Why: One of the episodes that’s original to this series and not based on a script from the Australian version, Kath & Kim’s second aired entry is also one of the few that pairs Kath and Kim together for an A-story where they can bounce off each other per the premised design, and within a narrative set primarily in the local mall – a venue that speaks directly to the show’s intended parody about commercialism and class. #13, meanwhile, is another original offering from later in the run that posits showbiz interests as a defining attribute of the characters via an A-story that features the recurring (and funny) Maya Rudolph, while the subplot pairs two regulars in a story where they directly interact within some premised particulars.
Come back next week for another Wildcard! And stay tuned Monday for a musical rarity!