and so I can enjoy even a distressed imitation of a Wodehouse work if it includes a good cast, adequate sets and settings and some recognizable associations with the original. Well, I can enjoy it if I have not read Wodehouse recently, so that the comparison is not acutely felt.
The usual complaints, spattered throughout the reviews here like the results of sneezes or holy water sprinkles, depending on your mind, are:
1. It's not a fair copy.
No, it's not. The show demonstrates the difference between burlesque and farce. I have to take the episodes on their own merits in order to enjoy rather than suffer them. Anyone who has attempted to watch any Shakespeare film ever made is familiar with the rigors required. However, the result is that I smiled at much of what I saw and heard.
2. The earl and Lady Keeble do not evidence the manner of the manor.
No, they do not. Some charm is missed in the characters lacking THAT demeanor. I would have enjoyed a more committed attempt towards the exquisite hauteur of the country nobility, the complacent superiority infused with the scent of manure. But at a time when even the actual country nobility cannot manage the pose, is it reasonable to demand it of mere actors? And Jack Farthing's Freddie does hit some good notes as a more urban variety of the posh fool.
3. Not only are the episodes not Wodehouse, they're NOT Wodehouse.
No, they are not and the others are NOT. One must accept the episodes on their own terms or one must do something else rather than watch them. Such as reading Wodehouse and not imagining other situations into which the characters might have wandered.
4. The humor (Excuse me. Humour.) is too coarse.
Yes, it is. The point here is that country life does not find anything especially funny in excrement and digestive noises. They are a part of life. I tolerated the contemporary lowness of the jokes because I live in a country where presidential candidates disparage the size of their competitors' genitals. A mere fart joke is something I can tolerate, the way I tolerate the real thing occurring in my presence.
5. It's not Wodehouse.
No, it's not. We've covered that. And, you see, that is the principal complaint and the one reviewers keep returning to, like people whose minds have been branded by trauma and the loops of PTSD keep them reliving it. I have been lucky enough not to be branded in this way, and so I have enjoyed the show for what it is - a silly, well-made, well-acted, loose and slapdash farcical turn on rural ways in a farcical British past that may for some bear a resemblance to P.G. Wodehouse works. This resemblance could cause pain for those who notice it.
When such discomfort occasionally rises in me, I try to concentrate on something else. Such as the question of whether Mr. Small intentionally avoided dental and orthodontic care throughout his life for the sake of his craft, or he just didn't get around to it. That gets me through the pangs of disappointment.
