Mammals

“An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind” is a notion no one in Amazon Prime’s new dramedy series, starring James Corden, seems to understand. Instead, everyone is wrapped up in high infidelity, struggles with identity and historical remapping. Mammals explores the struggles of making relationships work, loyalty and dishonesty, with a side of ambition and high-class fashion and cuisine. It starts simply: the loss of a child opens a rabbit hole of tangled secrets that leads Corden’s character, Jamie, to find a different side of his wife, Amandine (Melia Kreiling). From there, he and best friend Jeff (Colin Morgan) track down every single one of Amandine’s affairs. Mammals as a title is befitting of all the characters’ senseless and sex-craved actions with no justifiable reason.

While the script is clever and has a lot of promise, it often sacrifices logic for the sake of comedy. The characters are also lacking in many ways, and the subplot with Jamie’s sister, Lue (Sally Hawkins), is unnecessary, derailing the otherwise perfectly fine pacing of the show. None of the characters are very likeable; there’s sympathy garnered for both Jamie and Jeff, but neither character do anything of significance to deserve any of it. That said, Amandine is the most hypocritical of them all – even when her reasons for cheating are revealed, she still maintains a villainess air that stems from the fact that there’s very little time given to her development. She remains a femme fatale with no added depth, therefore viewers won’t find anything of substance to invest in her as a person.

Mammals hangs on by excellent comedic execution; from the timing to the expert use of awkward silences that edge on uncomfortable and intimate. The series also subverts the stereotypical association of the French with love – emotional and depressing moments play sad French music to depict heartbreak instead. Centre framing enhances the effect of loneliness and isolation, further emphasising the fact that no one is happy or satisfied in any of their respective relationships. Even in Lue’s lacklustre storyline, at the very least the visuals and environment are intriguing.

Overall, Mammals has some very interesting concepts that have the potential to bloom in a second season. It’s funny, witty and the production side of things has a lot of promise, but it’s still a little messy, and the characters aren’t interesting.

Mae Trumata

Mammals is released on Amazon Prime Video on 11^th November 2022.

Watch the trailer for Mammals here: