TV -- The Worst Week of My Life (2004-2006)

Imagine, for a moment, that Meet the Parents spawned into a television series, and that series actually stayed funny all the way through (stretch of the imagination, I know). Add some of the charm and one of the stars of Coupling, and you've essentially got The Worst Week of My Life, a BBC series that chronicles the misadventures of young bridegroom Howard Steel on the way to wedding fiance Mel, played by Sarah Alexander, who has more wide-eyed over-reactions and yells in her bag of tricks than Sammi Sweetheart. Playing Howard is, ironically, Ben Miller (rhymes with another name, doesn't it?), who can't seem to win over his fiance's father.

Murphy's Law rules this comedy: anything that can go wrong, does. Every step, every decision Ben makes seems to lead him further and further down the path of self-embarrassment. However, unlike Meet the Parents, which sometimes asks us to suspend disbelief a bit too much to get its laughs (Robert deNiro's character is a spy? The cat uses the toilet? And don't even get me started on the whole "Gaylord Focker" ploy), TWWOML stays more or less in the realm of believability: for instance, the first episode begins with a seating chart mishap, a dislike for lamb stew, and the family's heirloom ring being sized small enough to fit Mel's finger. It winds up with the ring being fished out of the sewer, lamb chunks resembling feces landing on the skylight, and a weak table leg quickly spilling the seating chart all over the floor in one swift motion. I once had a teacher of acting tell us something to the effect of "real life is so real that even unreal situations seem really real," and Ben Miller carries off all these bizarre happenings with the subtle charm of Hugh Grant, as opposed to the mugging and carrying on of one Ben Stiller. I've yet to see how the relationship progresses - or should I say, deteriorates - between Howard and his prospective in-laws, but The Worst Week of My Life kicks off in grand style, leaving us wondering just how much worse it can all get. For my part, I can only imagine...