”Camping” is not a show for people who crave joy, or sincerity, or watch television expecting the occasional rooting interest.
It’s a display of all of privileged humanity’s worst qualities, divided close to equally among eight adult characters. (One of them is a little more horrible than the rest.) To watch the HBO comedy, a remake of a British series by the same name, is to wish ill upon all of them. The only positive feelings manifest when they make each other suffer.
The new effort from Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner, two driving forces behind“Girls,”can be a very entertaining television show in 30-second doses. But as a series, it’s a chore to watch. There’s nothing true or telling about the 40-something generation it casts in a ridiculously self-indulgent glow. If “Camping” serves any function, it’s as a summit on human failure, so the viewers can feel a little better about their own flaws.
At the center is Jennifer Garner, an actress who can accomplish just about any onscreen challenge with winning enthusiasm — from Capital Onecredit card commercialstoher recent roleas an assault-rifle-wielding vigilante soccer mom in“Peppermint.”But it turns out there’s one thing she can’t do: convincingly portray a truly horrible human being.
Garner is the locus of self-involvement as Kathryn Siddell-Bauers, a protective and overly sensitive mother who has organized a camping trip to celebrate the 45th birthday of her meek husband, Walt (David Tennant). The other campers have an assortment of problems, but share one trait — they’re oblivious to their own flaws.
The campers include Walt’s passive free-spirit sister Carleen and her loser alcoholic husband, Orvis (Ione Skye and Duncan Joiner). Walt’s aggressively jerkish best friend George (Brett Gelman) is another standout, in a cast that commits to every over-the-top comedic moment.
The co-stars are mostly excellent, especially Joiner and Juliette Lewis, as flaky girlfriend Jandice, who manages about 40 percent of the best lines. (“I’m sorry,” she says brightly, after waking up half the camp during a long and complicated sex romp. “I never notice sound when I’m making love.”)
Singer-actressBridget Everettis wonderful every moment she’s onscreen, as the aggressively inappropriate but oddly wise camp manager.
Individual sequences have the memorable build, and uncomfortable peaks, of a “Curb Your Enthusiasm” episode. A trip to the emergency room with Kathryn and Walt’s far-from-injured son is filled with overwrought drama.
But the whole is much less satisfying. Garner in particular develops an artificial sheen — her string of horrible behavior includes no reflection or sign of awareness. She just doesn’t stop, no more or less realistic than the horror movie villain from a “Friday the 13th” or “Halloween” movie.
“露营”似乎是一个延续的旅程for Dunham, who had a lot to say during herexcellent first feature“Tiny Furniture” in 2010. Her content has arguably become more clever and polished over time, and also more thematically vacant.
The result is at best a very specific taste; viewers who found “Girls” a little too optimistic and sunny will love “Camping.” But the television formula of constant negativity and empty calories has little long-term potential.
Not every show has to lift the human spirit, but “Camping” does something that feels almost damaging: It presents a worldview in which such a spirit doesn’t exist.
L“Camping”:Premieres Sunday, Oct. 14, on HBO.
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