The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret

Reuniting David Cross and Will Arnett of Arrested Development fan, The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret is yet another tale of 'lost in translation' badly executed. Cross plays Todd Margaret, a hapless salesman from a generic American insurance company, who is mistakenly shipped abroad in the hope that he can mastermind the mass sales of a dangerously toxic energy drink within the UK, with Arnett playing his narrow-minded higher-up.

Whilst the combination of the two actors produces a fantastic duo in Arrested Development, it fails horribly here. Both actors essentially reprise their roles herein, except that both roles are more extreme versions. Margaret is hopelessly weak, ignorant and naive, whilst Brent Wilts is aggressively, uncompromising and selfish.

The real issue with the programme is its archaic approach to comedy. Whilst the 'American in England' idea has been done before (in Friends for example), the over-reliance of ignorance to 'foreign' culture to make gags work is extremely basic and crude in every sense. The initial jokes involve a mix-up over the use of the words 'fanny' and 'fag', whilst Margaret later wears a BNP shirt, believing it to be a statement of English pride. In a later episode, Margaret and Wilts, desperate for media coverage, storm the London Remembrance Day Memorial. Not only is this highly offensive on moral grounds, it's also done with little class throughout, and yet somehow it cleared the writing stage, and was allowed to be aired.

Farcical elements aside, there is nothing going for Todd Margaret. The dialogue is bland, the characters lack depth and the basic premise is far too simple by today's standards. Add to that the stereotypical blunders, and a script which is not in the slightest bit amusing, and you have a huge mess. 'Increasingly poor decisions' indeed...