Funny Woman

The fixation is really on her [Gemma Arterton's] performance in the astonishing “Funny Woman,” a sort of sitcom about a sitcom and a beautiful woman’s triumph over presumptions about beautiful women. Set in the ’60s, it is, in a sense, a reverse “Mrs. Maisel.” It is also one of the more surprising things to find on PBS.

Funny Woman isn’t as strong as The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, but it’s not without charm.

Rather than a compelling character study, it now resembles a classy soap: the storylines driving the action along feel superficial and tacked on. The result is a comedy-drama as obviously contrived as the old-school sitcoms it eulogises.

The Marvelous Mrs Maisel trod similar ground: a woman being funny! In the olden days! But that show had a much snappier script. The charm of Funny Woman rests on Arterton, who makes the six episodes worth watching.

The dialogue is knowingly pastichey, which is unfortunately not something all of the cast have the confidence to carry off. But if the show feels less than the sum of its parts, there’s something in its celebration of a plucky, bold heroine, in the vein of The Marvellous Mrs Maisel, that feels comforting, like a warm hug.

It tuts at the misogyny of the grotesque beauty contest boss, and of the entitled married man who thinks a shop assistant is his own personal prey; but it also carries a fondness for the spirit of the era that, realistically or not, Barbara manages to tame for her own purposes. It’s TV as comfort food, and I was happily sated by it.

The show suffers from not being hilarious enough to work as comedy while coming off as too slight to succeed as drama. Arterton delivers a convincing portrait of underdog gumption – but Funny Woman’s inability to strike a coherent tone is no laughing matter.