Goes Wrong Is So Right

More than a year ago, I wrote in praise of The Play That Goes Wrong -- or at least, the touring version of the Broadway adaptation of the original British show by Mischief Theater Company. A hilarious mix of intentionally bad acting, cleverly designed sets, and smart writing, The Play That Goes Wrong was one of the funnier things I saw that year.

Now, the "Goes Wrong" brand is available in your own living room, as the same creators and original performers have a television series on BBC, The Goes Wrong Show. The six half-hour episodes are available for streaming in the U.S. on Amazon Prime, and I found them every bit as enjoyable as the play.

The Goes Wrong Show features the same actors every episode, ostensibly in a new "play of the week" being performed for an audience and then broadcast. The real actors are playing fictitious actors with consistent behavior and personality quirks, but those actors are one week in a legal drama, the next in a wartime "epic," and so on.

In all cases, everything does as the title promises and "goes wrong." Sets are destroyed, props get scrambled, actors forget lines, and more. It's perhaps bordering on cringe humor, particularly if you've ever participated in live theater, except that (for me, at least) it manages to steer clear by how well-executed the staged collapse always is. The appearance of a production absolutely falling apart is in fact orchestrated down to the smallest detail, and it's as hilarious as it is precise.

I will say, though, that this is one television show you do not want to binge-watch. The plays each episode are different, but the formula is fairly similar. I loved the first episode so much that I wanted to watch another one the next night. That next episode I found to be the weakest -- still good, but not nearly as hilarious. This may not actually have been the case, because once we settled into watching one a week (or sometimes even every two weeks), each remaining episode again became a delight.

The episodes each stand alone and can be watched in any order. (Indeed, the order that Amazon Prime has them is not the original broadcast order.) With that in mind, I write about the series now because the last episode (but actually the first, as BBC One aired them) is a Christmas-themed installment that is probably best watched in December. You might start with it to sample the show -- or you might start with "The Lodge," which I found to be the best episode. (I suppose that's why Amazon Prime arranged it first.)

In any order, though (and at the right pace), I found The Goes Wrong Show to be hilarious. A second batch of episodes has been ordered, and I am both eagerly awaiting them and glad to have a bit of a break so as not to tire of the formula. I give the series overall an A-. It's clever fun.