It is easy to be negative about this show. There are some glaring faults, especially in early episodes, that make Spun Out difficult to enjoy. However, the show does have some genuinely funny moments and some of the cast do give strong performances that elevate the humour and bring some needed depth to the show.
I'll deal with the negative elements first. The main office set feels like a set. Lots of sitcoms have that problem, there's no way to completely hide it, but you usually are able to forget it. This set you just can't do that.
The writing needs to tighten up it's focus. There is rarely a main story to an episode and the cast are divided up into two or three unrelated stories. The show would benefit from allowing itself to focus on one story and allow cast members to sometimes play smaller roles for an episode instead of giving nearly everyone equal time.
On the positive side, some of the cast are great. Dave Foley and Holly Deveaux stand out and help bring out better performances from their co-stars. This is most obvious with Rebecca Dalton, who, despite looking nothing like Foley, seems totally natural as his daughter and has genuine rapport with Deveaux. But she has little chemistry with Paul Campbell, especially early on. Campbell has grown into his role, but early on he really did struggle with the focus the show put on his character. Al Mukadam is solid and clearly enjoys it when he's allowed to go a little over the top.
The writing can be genuinely funny and occasionally heart-warming. But it does lack consistency which I believe is due to it trying to force comedy over narrative. Of course the goal is to make us laugh, but sometimes a sitcom needs to back away from that and allow itself time to develop it's characters. Spun Out can do that and is stronger when it does.
I'll deal with the negative elements first. The main office set feels like a set. Lots of sitcoms have that problem, there's no way to completely hide it, but you usually are able to forget it. This set you just can't do that.
The writing needs to tighten up it's focus. There is rarely a main story to an episode and the cast are divided up into two or three unrelated stories. The show would benefit from allowing itself to focus on one story and allow cast members to sometimes play smaller roles for an episode instead of giving nearly everyone equal time.
On the positive side, some of the cast are great. Dave Foley and Holly Deveaux stand out and help bring out better performances from their co-stars. This is most obvious with Rebecca Dalton, who, despite looking nothing like Foley, seems totally natural as his daughter and has genuine rapport with Deveaux. But she has little chemistry with Paul Campbell, especially early on. Campbell has grown into his role, but early on he really did struggle with the focus the show put on his character. Al Mukadam is solid and clearly enjoys it when he's allowed to go a little over the top.
The writing can be genuinely funny and occasionally heart-warming. But it does lack consistency which I believe is due to it trying to force comedy over narrative. Of course the goal is to make us laugh, but sometimes a sitcom needs to back away from that and allow itself time to develop it's characters. Spun Out can do that and is stronger when it does.