I love the British sitcom, “Miranda” starring Miranda Hart, who is also the brains behind it. She plays a version of herself who is funny, clumsy, quirky, witty, creative and lovable. Miranda Hart is a great actress and a great clown. She can make fun of herself and even of others in a completely endearing way.
This show also works so well because of the fantastic performances by not only Hart, but also the other main actors, namely Tom Ellis, Patricia Hodge, Sarah Hadland and Sally Phillips.
Hart created clear personae for her characters, and characteristics that make them lovable, laughable and unique, like Dreamboat Charlie’s (played magnificently by Adrian Scarborough) tagline, “I BLOODY love crisps!” Or Tillie’s signature, “Bear with…bear with…bear with…” every time her cell rings, not to mention her fantabulisimus expressions, many of which actress Sally Phillips (who holds a first in Italian from Oxford) presumably came up with herself. Tillie mixes prefixes, suffixes and silliness with unbridled enthusiasm to come up with such gems as: La Grande Pomme (New York); I’ve got to dasheroo, I have an announcementington, I’m starvington stations and could scoffulate a [name relevant dessert], Johnny Cashingtons (money). .
True “Miranda” fans will nod fondly at Miranda’s mother Penny’s “what I call” expressions, which are “Such Fun!”
“Language is perhaps the most underrated part of the show’s humor. Hart has a Pythonesque ear for what makes a word ticklish. “Posh name alert,” she’ll say, turning to camera to announce a frightful new character: “Clemency Twisterton Ott.” It reaches its apotheosis in the speech of Phillips’s “spiffulent” PR girl Tilly. “Marvellismus,” she’ll purr, or in one address to Miranda: “You have majorly let yourself go – slackeroni cheese!”
(From the Telegraph via: https://anglotopia.net/british-entertainment/brit-tv/bbc/brit-language-mirandaspeak-is-such-fun/)
The new Fox sitcom, “Call Me Kat,” starring Mayim Bialik, is based on “Miranda.” In fact, Miranda Hart is an executive producer. Unfortunately, for those of us dreaming of a Miranda fix, it seriously misses the mark.
The biggest problem with “Call Me Kat” is its charm deficit. Charm, of course is a very difficult attribute to define. It’s analogous to what Supreme Court Justice Potter said about pornography in Jacobellis v. Ohio, “I know it when I see it.” Miranda the character and all who surround her are charming and delightful. And the rapport between the characters is great. The attraction between hunky Gary and Miranda, who shops in big and tall shops, is real and palpable. On “Call Me Kat” it feels like the actors are merely reciting lines much of the time, often not very funny lines. Do we really believe that Max is into Kat the way Gary was into Miranda? I don’t think so.
Swoosie Kurtz, whose skeletal body and immobile face has many viewers cringing with compassion, is a poor substitute for Patricia Hodge, who manages to portray an annoying mother while at the same time exuding the aforementioned charm.
Part of the conceit of both shows is the breaking of the fourth wall by the main character. Miranda Hart is really committed to it and as an audience members we feel as if she is talking to us, such as when she tells Gary she goes to the gym “loads” but then looks at us and mouths, slightly ashamed, “Never.” I really like Mayim Bialik in “The Big bang Theory,” but here it sounds like she is reciting lines. Perhaps this is because Miranda Hart is playing a character that she created herself.
The relationship between Kat and her co-workers, Phil and Randy, cannot hold a candle to the unique and quirky bond that Miranda had with her best friend and co-worker Stevie Sutton. They have created a whole world of inside jokes that include Heather Small imitations, challenging each other to crazy contests and a special walk.
Sure, “Miranda” is camp, but the cast is so committed to it that they manage to pull it off and we the audience are left laughing out loud a lot of the time. I did laugh out loud once during “Call Me Kate,” when Kat inadvertently kicked Max in the face as they were about to go out to dinner.
Miranda Hart is a great clown. She knows how to fall: over chairs, off fences, into displays in her joke store. Mayim Bialik is light on her feet and a good dancer, but her clowning skills are much less developed than Miranda Hart’s; the kick to Max’s face was one of the rare well-executed clowning moves on the show.
“Call Me Kat” suffers from too much exposition, for example: between Kat and Max about their college days and about Kat’s friend Tara’s wedding. In “Miranda” we don’t need to hear every second, “Remember when we[fill in crazy college hijinks here] in college?” We can see and feel the strong bond between Gary and Miranda.
The closing credits is another place where “Call Me Kat” misses the mark. In “Miranda” it always seemed like an organic ending that gave the chance for the entire cast to break the fourth wall. A song would come up that was usually in some way connected to the story and the characters would be dancing and singing along. Sometimes they just waved, but often they were doing something else first and then morphed to a wave. And when they waved, their names would appear on screen. In “Call Me Kat” the closing sequences are truly cringe-worthy, as it appears that the whole cast has been instructed to smile broadly and wave madly without understanding why. We don’t see any credits, and often the closing seems unconnected to the rest of the show.
We should cut “Call Me Kat” some slack given that due to COVID restrictions it is not filmed in front of a live studio audience. If it were, it might make the fourth wall breaks more believable.
I really miss “Miranda” and wish it had gone on for more seasons, but unfortunately “Call Me Kat,” despite its best intentions, is not going to scratch that itch.
The main cast of “Miranda.” Sally Phillips, Tom Ellis, Miranda Hart, Sarah Hadland and Patricia Hodge.