Blandings

British comedy can be hit or miss with me. Its humor is oftentimes very dry and contains a specific degree of wit. Blandings follows the everyday life of Lord Emsworth (Timothy Spall) as he reigns over his castle and its variety of occupants. As the title suggests, the show comes off as a bit bland and requires a certain taste for British humor that seems to escape me.

The premiere episode deals with Lord Emsworth and his prized fat pig, the Empress of Blandings. He wants to win the local Agricultural Show but the man in charge of fattening up the Empress has been sent to prison and she won’t eat food from anyone else. There’s nothing particularly fascinating about watching a pig get fat, but the show likes to focus on these obscure scenarios through the series.

The comedy is spread thin across the 30 minute episodes and struggles when it matters most. The interactions between Lord Emsworth and his butler, Sebastian Beach (Mark Williams), are some of the more memorable moments, but they are few and far between.

Maybe it’s just not my style, but I found it difficult to enjoy Blandings altogether. There are a few great scenes but not enough to warrant anything noteworthy. It’s very much a character driven comedy, but with characters as bland as these, it doesn’t quite pan out as well as it could.