Time Bandits: The Series Official Trailer (2024)

I didn’t find it flat, and casting someone like Alex Kingston (I.e. someone Kirkishly competent) would have turned it into an action adventure series not a comedy show.

I found it reminiscent of Our Flag Means Death.

That is fair if you find it not flat. I was pretty surprised by how off it seemed. Alex Kingston was just a suggestion because she can do comedy but is also a good leading dramatic actress. But there are any number of actresses who I think would be a better fit here.
 

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She has no presence. She plays great quirky side characters
That is fair if you find it not flat. I was pretty surprised by how off it seemed. Alex Kingston was just a suggestion because she can do comedy but is also a good leading dramatic actress. But there are any number of actresses who I think would be a better fit here.
Kudrow's style is a different permutation of comedy than we've seen recently. Kind of a comedic character-actor given main-character billing*. It's interesting to watch her play effectively the same character in two shows-- in Mad About You working off of general-actress-in-a-comedy-role Helen Hunt and standup-comic-playing-mostly-himself Paul Reiser; or in Friends off the rest of the straight-up-sitcom-actor cast. It's interesting how differently the role lands, mostly due to who it is landing upon (how comedic/exaggerated they are, whether she's a foil/obstacle to the protagonists or a friend/member of them, etc.).
*so Bruce Campbell, but without the physical comedy. Or maybe Wallace Shawn's character in The Princess Bride.

All of which is a roundabout way of saying that what she does is highly dependent upon the interplay of her lines with the rest of the cast. It's different from, say, Zoe Saldana in GotG, where her funny lines are funny in isolation (or with the immediate previous line set-up). And I don't think I have enough from this trailer to really form a judgment. Yes, her lines aren't lighting up, but they wouldn't. I'll have to wait until we get at least parts of scenes on Youtube or review shows before I'll be able to get a better bead on whether I like this or not.
 

Kudrow's style is a different permutation of comedy than we've seen recently. Kind of a comedic character-actor given main-character billing*. It's interesting to watch her play effectively the same character in two shows-- in Mad About You working off of general-actress-in-a-comedy-role Helen Hunt and standup-comic-playing-mostly-himself Paul Reiser; or in Friends off the rest of the straight-up-sitcom-actor cast. It's interesting how differently the role lands, mostly due to who it is landing upon (how comedic/exaggerated they are, whether she's a foil/obstacle to the protagonists or a friend/member of them, etc.).
*so Bruce Campbell, but without the physical comedy. Or maybe Wallace Shawn's character in The Princess Bride.

All of which is a roundabout way of saying that what she does is highly dependent upon the interplay of her lines with the rest of the cast. It's different from, say, Zoe Saldana in GotG, where her funny lines are funny in isolation (or with the immediate previous line set-up). And I don't think I have enough from this trailer to really form a judgment. Yes, her lines aren't lighting up, but they wouldn't. I'll have to wait until we get at least parts of scenes on Youtube or review shows before I'll be able to get a better bead on whether I like this or not.

And to be clear, I am not knocking her, I like her in the shows I have seen her in and in person she is always good to in interviews. And like you say, the trailer may be missing context where those lines land better, but it feels like a miscasting to me for the reasons you site (and so if it doesn't my inclination isn't to blame her but the casting director). I was just honestly surprised when I saw the trailer, because it seemed so off, and generally with trailers they are giving you the gems.
 

Stipulation: We all get that you aren't impugning Kudrow's talent or as a person. This is about role/casting.
I was just honestly surprised when I saw the trailer, because it seemed so off, and generally with trailers they are giving you the gems.
Well, they try. It doesn't always work. Going back up to my Wallace Shawn example, I watched the original trailer for The Princess Bride, and I would love to be able to view it without my knowledge of the movie behind it. It seems like Vizzini gets what might be happening here -- some of his better lines are present, but without the context they aren't really funny and I don't think if I were going into them blindly they would convince me that this character is an interesting foil.
 

Stipulation: We all get that you aren't impugning Kudrow's talent or as a person. This is about role/casting.

Well, they try. It doesn't always work. Going back up to my Wallace Shawn example, I watched the original trailer for The Princess Bride, and I would love to be able to view it without my knowledge of the movie behind it. It seems like Vizzini gets what might be happening here -- some of his better lines are present, but without the context they aren't really funny and I don't think if I were going into them blindly they would convince me that this character is an interesting foil.

True. I am very open to it being a trailer issue. I share trailers a lot because I talk about movies on my podcast and I am often struck by how terrible a trailer can be at conveying what is good about a given film
 

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