5 out of 5

Created by: James Corden, Matthew Baynton

covers season 1

It’s funny how simple it was to come up with an actual unique idea.  (Not that ‘The Wrong Mans’ is simple, which is a huge part of its success.)  But that Corden and Baynton started considering a comedy series charted with Lost-esque intricacy… And that it led to the maligned genre-mash-up that actually WORKED… well, that’s funny in itself.  This meets That, and emerged as its own thing.

The setup is just as simple: normal guy Sam picks up a cell phone he finds on the street (at the location where he witnessed a car crash), answers a call, and finds himself speaking to someone who is keeping someone else’s wife hostage.  Unable to clarify matters before the call ends, Sam reasonably assumes that the cell belongs to the man in the crash, and goes to give him the phone at the hospital… after having explained the situation to workmate Phil, who immediately spins the scenario into an action / thriller fantasy.  From there on out, ‘The Wrong Mans’ finds logical, plausible ways – given the setup – for Sam and Phil to continually be involved with the hostage situation, shady business deals, Russian spies, a ton of money, and etc.  Yes, Sam is the straight man and Phil is the over-eager bumbler, but neither role is played to the tropeish extreme; we can definitely believe in these guys, and the script smartly finds comedy from their general innocence in the scenario without rendering them completely sterile or as idiots.  And they both put themselves in hotter water, whether via Sam’s nervous rambling or Phil’s action movie theatrics, so it’s not so much “don’t go in that door!” as watching with glee as things spiral creatively out of control.  What further seals the deal was the creators’ decision to do right by the action and plot – the twists and turns were considered from the ground up and thus aren’t just spread on top of some basic premise, and the action sequences are as much fun as the comedy bits are funny.  Some of the fighting is shot in a clipped format to, I assume, avoid excessive choreography, but they don’t skimp on finding the right sets for scenes or big moments like a motorcycle or helicopter chase.

Shows like this make me thankful for the BBC’s willingness to do a short season; at 6 episodes you want more, but it would’ve been tough to maintain this type of quality without it starting to feel like things were padded out too much.  While there have been many quality action-comedies over the years, it’s rare that they don’t feel like just a vehicle for something else.  Even rarer is when that genre is smushed together with a mystery plot – several mystery plots… several interesting mystery plots – and that it all actually works.  On the surface, I think its easy to see Wrong Mans as another self-aware comedy, but the earnestness with which its vibe is presented won me over.