Camping

A very funny, quasi-cringy series that takes the Sartre-esque point of view into the great outdoors.

Fine actors, one and all, saddled with playing caricatures who have one or two thinly drawn storylines apiece.

The comedy of social discomfort can be exquisite, like a deep-tissue massage that hurts until it feels good. Camping has moments like that. But too often it shoots past cringe comedy into straight-up cruelty without relief or enough redeeming laughs, becoming a “No Exit” experience of watching the terrible be terrible to the terrible.

As a series, it’s a chore to watch. There’s nothing true or telling about the 40-something generation it casts in a ridiculously self-indulgent glow. If Camping serves any function, it’s as a summit on human failure, so the viewers can feel a little better about their own flaws.

Garner gives Kathryn a nicely manic energy and a comically absurd kind of shrewishness. But Dunham and Konner, who co-wrote the first two episodes, seem to want to comprehend Kathryn’s awfulness rather than to present it as a simple reality in a comic setup. ... Otherwise, Camping has a zany mood and typically sharp writing that makes it more watchable in later episodes (particularly when Busy Philipps suddenly shows up). ... Camping isn’t bad either, necessarily, it’s just filled with a kind of empathy that’s rather out of place.

It’s a waste of a fine cast and a bucolic setting. One possible upside for the series is that Camping might inspire people to go camping themselves, just to get away from TV for awhile.

What is the point of this show? If it’s not laughs or personal growth, is it just a slice-of-life comedy about unlikable people? That’s not enough, especially in this overcrowded TV landscape. ... Despite high hopes for this combination of Dunham’s writing talent and Garner’s charisma, there just isn’t enough over the first four episodes to really make this a comedy worth tuning into. You can skip this Camping trip.