Summary
Mammals had plenty of potential to be good, but it fell short due to the bad casting of James Corden as the lead.
We review the Prime Video series Mammals season 1, which does not contain spoilers.
Prime Video is one of the streaming services that aren’t afraid to take a risk within their series selections. Mammals follow the story of a Michelin-starred chef whose world begins to unravel after discovering a secret about his pregnant wife. Is this bound to be another hit for Prime Video? Let’s dive in.
Early on, we find out that Amandine loses her baby during the pregnancy. However, while calling her family to tell them about the news, Jamie sees she gets a text from someone who looks like she has been cheating on him. From here, we see Jamie attempt to peel back all the layers of the affair. The who, what, when, and where. However, the more he dives deeper into this rabbit hole, the more he realizes Amandine has been cheating on him with more than just one person.
As each episode passes, we start seeing more about Jamie and Amandine. From the exposing of the cheating to the foundation of where they met and, of course, the ending. The biggest problem with all of it was it was completely disjointed. I don’t mind if a show is out of sync to tell its full story, but when the story is trying to make you emotionally care about people after not caring about them for three episodes, that’s where I see massive issues. None of these characters are even remotely likable. Especially our main character, who we are supposed to care about, is so pretentious and tangled in a web that he started himself.
Speaking of Jamie, MAYBE, just MAYBE, this series would’ve been worth watching had it had someone else in the lead role. For some reason, James Corden continues to get jobs, which baffles me because he simply can not act. You have this character that has a multitude of layers that when you dig deeper into Jamie, you SHOULD care about what he is going through. Instead, there isn’t a fiber of my being that cared for five seconds what Jamie had to overcome. Corden might give it a go and be good if this was a comedic role, but when you try to take him out of his element and make him a dramatic actor, that’s when he is exposed.
For the rest of the cast, I LOVED Melia Kreiling as Amandine. Honestly, I feel bad for her because she acted in circles around Corden in every scene they were in together. If you were to watch this show, SHE would be the reason to check it out. Another baffling decision, how do you have Sally Hawkins on your show and barely use her? It was downright criminal to have this talented actress on your show and use her as little as they did.
One trend that I’ve noticed that I haven’t been a big fan of is seeing drama series adapt to these half-hour episodes. Early this year, we had The Patient do it, and I didn’t love it. I feel like just when you might have such emotion happening, it comes to a complete stop. Sure, I understand that we are binging and moving on to the next, especially on Prime Video, but it doesn’t work for me.
Overall, Mammals fails to connect the dots, making this a rather forgettable series. Bad people do bad things to each other that end up happening to themselves. Sadly, they don’t do anything to make you feel empathy which wastes the potential the series might have had. As a result, I can’t recommend checking this show out.
What did you think of Mammals season 1? Comment below.
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