CORDEN BLUES (MAMMALS)

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Earlier this year, James Corden announced he would be giving up his chat show in the United States.

During his eight year stint on CBS's 'Late Late Show'. the Englishman has carved out a place in the US as a leading TV entertainer with his star studded 'Carpool Caraoke' segment.

Appearances in films like 'Into the Woods,' the 'Peter Rabbit' movies and 'The Prom' have boosted his profile.

But he has also done this knowing his place in British entertainment is relatively secure.

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As the co-creator of the BBC sitcom 'Gavin and Stacey,' Corden had prior going to the US built a career on the back of numerous appearances in British TV shows and films.

He was the presenter of a popular Sky One panel show 'A League of their Own' and also had a Tony award-winning stage career,

It hasn't all been rosy, though, for the Londoner.

Corden has always tended to have a Marmite effect on audiences, as the recent controversies over his behaviour in a New York restaurant demonstrated and his almost word for word parroting of a Ricky Gervais stand-up comedy routine on his show.

Gervais hasn't held back as well in poking fun at Corden as anyone who watched 'Afterlife' on Netflix will tell you.

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And let's not even mention 'Cats'.

While Corden plots his return to the UK, he has taken a bit of a gamble on a six-part London comedy drama 'Mammals'.

The Amazon Prime show comes with a decent pedigree, hailing from the imagination of Jez Butterworth and James Richardson.

Butterworth has built quite a career as a playwright.

With 'Mojo,' 'Jersusalem' and 'The Ferryman' under his belt, he has become one of England's most respected writers.

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So the prospect of him teaming up with Corden, Sally Hawkins, Colin Morgan and Tom Jones is intriguing.

'Mammals' begins with Corden's chef Jamie Buckingham and his pregnant French wife, Melia Kralling's Amandine speeding along the coast so they can catch the sunset by the beach side cottage they have hired.

They make it just in time and all is going well until the following morning when Amandine has a miscarriage while Jamie is raving about spotting a whale and Tom Jones in the cottage next to them.

Rushing her to hospital, the couple are devastated to lose their baby.

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As they wrestle with their grief, Amandine hands Jamie her phone to let family and friends know what has happened.

Returning to the cottage while his wife recovers in hospital, Jamie sets about making the phone calls when Amandine's phone buzzes with sexually explicit texts from someone calling themselves Paul.

As he reels from this discovery, he also confirms the man in the cottage next to them is indeed Tom Jones and pukes while talking to the Welsh singer.

With Jamie curious to know who his wife is having an affair with, he starts to follow her when they return to London and recruits his brother in law, Colin Morgan's Jeff to hack into her phone for clues.

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Their probing, however, reveals Amandine has been having multiple affairs with different men, with Jamie becoming increasingly suspicious of every man who she encounters.

However, while he is able to identify some of her lovers, he is none the wiser as to who Paul is.

Stressed to the max by this revelation and the imminent opening of his new high end restaurant, Jamie's life starts to unravel.

So enamoured has he been with Amandine, he has even named his restaurant after her but the lustre of that romantic gesture has fallen away.

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As he dives deeper into investigating her, will he break and expose Amandine's infidelities?

Or will he try to resolve matters?

With Stephanie Laing on directorial duties, 'Mammals' examines the institution of marriage and the concept of monogamy.

With each episode sitting just shy of 30 minutes, the show gets off to a strong start with a tightly written, pacy opener.

However it quickly goes off the rails, as Jamie's trials and tribulations just becoming boring and irritating.

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Corden throws himself enthusiastically into a sweary, manbaby role but sometimes, you cannot help being aware that he is "acting".

Morgan and Kralling occasionally succumb to this failing, although the one bright spot is Hawkins as Jamie's distracted sister Lue who escapes her unhappiness by daydreaming about the designer Coco Channel.

While Hawkins is a welcome presence, it is an odd role that often feels disconnected from the central drama.

Veteran actor Karl Johnson also feels underused, occasionally poppung up as an elderly farmer who lives near Lue.

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Butterworth peppers 'Mammals' with flights of fancy like recreating Lue's daydreams, a flashback episode that explains how Jamie and Amandine got together and characters having recurring encounters with animals.

But while these are intended to reinforce the point about humans and monogamy, these moments tend to come across as heavy handed or gimmicky just like the opening episode's Tom Jones cameo.

This is especially true in the final moments of the series where an extraordinary event happens but it just rings false.

With its accomplished writer and decent cast, 'Mammals' is one hell of a disappointment.

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Often it comes across as too self-satisfied, convincing itself of how clever it is.

Unfortunately for Corden and Butterworth, while the show is too busy congratulating itself, it has already lost some viewers.

Many will have little appetite for another series.

(Series one of 'Mammals' was made available for streaming on Amazon Prime on November 11, 2023)