Jeffrey Klarik writes his most persuasive comedy around difficult people and those obliged to endure them. We recommend his work with David Crane on Episodes for its actors and growing warmth, despite some predictable industry satire.
Fi1m perspective
The security-guard gag in Episodes (2011) keeps returning after its point is clear. We grew impatient because the repetition took the place of fresh trouble for the characters. Jeffrey Klarik and co-creator David Crane know this business, but the early writing too often relies on recognising its habits. They are better when somebody behaves badly and the person opposite has to sit there and endure it.
Before turning network interference into a subject, Klarik had worked inside network comedy, writing and co-producing Mad About You (1992). He created Half & Half (2002), about estranged half-sisters, then co-created the former-classmates sitcom The Class (2006) with Crane. The latter supplied experience of executive meddling that helped prompt Episodes.
Episodes concerns a British television programme being remade for an American network, with creative compromise supplying much of the trouble. Tamsin Greig, Stephen Mangan and Matt LeBlanc are often sharper than the industry jokes, and their company makes the uneven comedy worth trying. LeBlanc plays a version of himself, but that device is less important to our enjoyment than the friction between the characters. The dialogue works best when it gives a performer somebody else's behaviour to react to, rather than another point about network interference to explain.
Klarik and Crane wrote every episode across five seasons, working as a pair rather than with a writers' room. Their practice of writing scripts in advance allows them to plan longer storylines, although it does not prevent an early shortage of laughs. We cannot sensibly separate their contributions, and there is no need to invent a Klarik joke and a Crane joke. What matters is that the later writing lets feeling into the comedy without stopping to announce it, which earns some patience with the opening stretch. Try Episodes for the actors; impatience with familiar industry jokes is a fair reason to look elsewhere.
Biography
Jeffrey Klarik is an American television writer and producer. He studied at Carnegie Mellon University and began his career writing for series including Dream On (1990–1996).
Klarik wrote for and co-produced Mad About You (1992–1999). With his partner David Crane he created Half & Half (2002–2006) and co-created The Class (2006–2007) and the BBC/Showtime series Episodes (2011–2017), on which he also served as writer and executive producer. Episodes received four Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series.
Klarik and Crane were recognised for their contributions to television at the Nantucket Film Festival in 2017.
