The American remake of the BBC3 2017-2020 mockumentary This Country "is nowhere near the misfire that a show like NBC’s Coupling was, but it’s also definitely nowhere near the success that the American version of The Office came to be," says LaToya Ferguson. "Developed by executive producer Jenny Bicks, with Paul Feig (an alum of The Office) also serving as executive producer (and director of a few of the season’s episodes, including the pilot), something is definitely lost in this new approach to the mild-mannered series. Like This Country (created by brother-sister duo Daisy May Cooper and Charlie Cooper, who also starred as cousins Kerry and 'Kurtan'), Welcome to Flatch centers on young adults in a rural setting, specifically cousins-slash-codependent best friends Kelly (Chelsea Holmes) and 'Shrub' (Sam Straley). And where This Country took place in a small village in the Cotswolds, Welcome to Flatch is set in the fictional Ohio town of Flatch. With this rural living comes town rituals, eccentricities, legends, and other mundanities, with everyone knowing each other’s business. But the biggest change between the two series, right off the bat, is that Welcome to Flatch is much more of an ensemble show, compared to the two-hander approach to This Country. And to that end, Welcome to Flatch is able to create a fuller and bigger world not unlike the character-rich universe of NBC’s Parks and Recreation. But turning Flatch into an ensemble proves to be the show’s biggest strength and weakness when it comes to its cast of colorful characters."
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TOPICS: Welcome to Flatch, FOX, Jenny Bicks, Paul Feig