Seasons – 1 (of 2); episodes – 6 per season.
Watched on Amazon Prime.
Rating: 3.5/5
The story takes seven characters from different backgrounds, sticks each of them in a red tabard, hands them a sweeping brush and watches as the inevitable culture clashes take place. “Everyone’s a type,” says Rani, the self-proclaimed “studious Asian good girl”, whose penchant for shoplifting earns her a hefty number of “community payback” hours. (In New Zealand, we call this “voluntary” unpaid work Community Service – where you’ve done something bad, but not bad enough to get put on trial and sent to prison.)
It has the appeal of a prison drama, in that you learn how each of the main characters’ lives is going wrong. But as they are doing community service, you get to see their homes and families, too.
Christopher Walken is the biggest star here, playing Frank, a well-worn ex-con recently released from prison on an ankle tag, and staying with his daughter. She refers to him, not with affection, as “a lying, thieving, selfish old bastard”.
There’s a “rightwing blowhard” John, a struggling businessman who sarcastically apologises for not being “a jihadi bride” and clashes with almost everyone in the group because he won’t stop going on about the “right-on lefty liberal brigade”.
Naturally, he has a counterpart in the form of “lefty militant” Myrna, who rolls her eyes at every slogan that leaves John’s mouth.
I’ve enjoyed it enough to carry on (eventually) with Season 2.
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