Classic Britcoms haven’t made their way to these shores a lot lately, despite the presence of streaming services like Acorn TV and BritBox. Yes, there have been comedies, but we’re talking about the classic Britcom format you might have watched with your parents on public TV. Small casts, a bouncy remake of an old tune as the theme song, a boisterous audience/laugh track, and very few sets. The new BritBox import Kate & Koji strongly recalls Britcoms of yesteryear in its format. But is it funny?
KATE & KOJI: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
Opening Shot: In a seaside town that’s seen better days, a woman who owns a cafe is trying to say her name — Katherine Abbott — into a voice response menu on the phone. She goes “Oh, Jesus,” then suddenly responds, “No, my name’s not Jesus!”
The Gist: Kate (Brenda Blethyn) runs a cafe in a working-class seaside town. The only customer in her cafe (which she pronounces as “caff”) at the moment is a smartly-dressed man wearing earbuds, doing a crossword puzzle and nursing a cup of tea. Kate tries to give him a refill, but he claims there’s a drop left, mainly because he doesn’t want to pay for that refill. He asks where the “mid-morning rush” is; Kate cites that some of her older customers don’t come when it’s too windy. Either way, she will never change her crusty ways, despite the presence of a more friendly and trendy cafe coming to town.
When she asks the man, named Koji (Jimmy Akingbola), if he works, he said he can’t; he’s seeking asylum and isn’t allowed to work or his application will be rejected. He can’t go back to his home country, or he’ll be killed. “I’d rather not be killed; call me a snowflake.” He also doesn’t have a lot of money; when Kate humphs that he’s taking government money, he reveals he gets all of 37 pounds per week to live on.
A handyman named Medium Dan (Blake Harrison) comes in and claims he can solve the crossword clue that’s been vexing Koji. As Dan probes, an aggravated Koji reveals that he was doctor in his home country, but can’t practice in the UK. That doesn’t stop Dan from asking about the weird bumps on his tongue, which Koji tells him are just his taste buds. Dan then texts his steroidal buddy Nick (Kris Saddler) to come by. Despite his exasperation, Koji diagnoses Nick’s bicep pain, but he then says that the bump on his leg is a sign of DVT and that Nick should go to the emergency room.
After that, word gets around, and when he goes to the cafe the next day, it’s packed with people who have various maladies that don’t want wait months to see their GP. It gives Kate an idea: Koji can hold daily clinics in the cafe every day, bringing in the foot traffic, in exchange for free meals. Reluctant to practice medicine but also knowing that he can’t live on tea, he reluctantly accepts the offer, but stipulates “No one calls me doctor, no undressing, and I’m definitely not looking at any urine samples.”
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Kate & Koji has the feel of a classic Britcom, one that mostly takes place in one spot, and it reminds us of classics like Are You Being Served?, that feel more like plays than even classic American sitcoms do. An American sitcom analogue might be Bob Hearts Abishola if the story was just about Bob and Abishola.
Our Take: Kate & Koji, written by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin, is a decidedly retro show, with interiors mainly consisting of the cafe set, a multicamera setup and a studio audience/laugh track. People come in and out of the cafe while Kate and Koji more or less stay where they are, and all of the story takes place there. It’s almost refreshing in its simplicity; Blethyn and Akingbola have a good chemistry that will make this premise plausible.
The first episode wasn’t super-funny, but it does a good job of setting up Kate’s right-of-center working-class persona and Koji’s posh but practical personality. Both need each other, and the pair will become unlikely friends over the season. But by the end of the first episode — a classic premise pilot — we have an idea about the characters and where the humor about them will come from.
What we found refreshing is that out-and-out gags were at a minimum, and even things that were gags were intelligently dealt with, like we saw in a callback to the “Oh, Jesus” first scene. The show takes its digs, at the BBC (it was developed for ITV), pedophile priests and vegetarians, but the digs are more like pokes. There is also some promise that Koji’s story will be more closely examined, which is a good source for fleeting dramatic moments amongst the laughs. All of this gives the show just enough of an edge to establish a promising first season.
Sex and Skin: None.
Parting Shot: Koji and Kate negotiate on how long the clinic will be open for business. He says one hour, she says three. Then she says, “Let’s compromise at three hours,” which is no compromise. Then she goes to three-and-a-half-hours.
Sleeper Star: We liked the fact that Blake Harrison plays Medium Dan (he got the nickname in high school) as more slyly intelligent than he lets on. There’s also Barbara Flynn ad Councilor Bone, with whom Kate has been waging a psychological war since both were schoolgirls.
Most Pilot-y Line: Kate takes three or four different beats before she finally finishes her pretend phone call when Councilor Bone walks into the cafe. Seems like a joke extended a bit far.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Kate & Koji showed us enough in its first episode to indicate that it’ll end up as a good sitcom, despite its very retro style.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.
This post first appeared on Nypost.com
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