Mammals
By Joyce Slaton,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Beautiful, mature drama has language, strong emotion.
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Mammals
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What's the Story?
Everything's going great for MAMMALS' Jamie (James Corden) as this drama starts: He's a successful chef with his own restaurant, and a loving family that includes wife Amandine (Melia Kreiling), sister Lue (Sally Hawkins), and a baby on the way. But when he makes a terrible discovery on a weekend away with Amandine (and when fate intervenes to send their family on a different trajectory), things start to slowly fall apart…and so does he.
Is It Any Good?
If you're mainly familiar with James Corden as a showboating karaoke singer on video clips, or an uncanny valley feline from Cats, his subtle, moving performance in this drama is a shock. As a man betrayed by those closest to him, whose life has suddenly swung from enviable to unmoored, he's relatably fragile and edgy, his pain revealed in small moments: a beer left undrunk in front of him at a pub, a vacant stare when everyone around him is laughing and chatting. Indeed, Mammals is a drama that makes a meal out of small moments, whether they're tragic (the phone calls Jamie makes to his family to let them know of a loss) or comic.
English viewers familiar with the stage works of British playwright and film writer/director Jez Butterworth know to expect deft characterizations and layered nuance; those who haven't seen Butterworth's productions may know his voice through his best-known movies: 2014's Edge of Tomorrow and 2015's Spectre, both genre pictures that were much better than expected. Here, Butterworth's writing is unnerving, surprising; characters are disconsolate one moment, full of rage the next, in ways that ring true. You'll want to know what happens to these characters, both in the moments we see played out, and the life it feels like they'll go on living now that this beautiful, emotionally involving TV show is complete.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about how sex tends to be portrayed in the media. Do you think many real people are as sexually active as many movie and TV show characters?
How does Mammals communicate how Jamie and Amandine feel about their marriage? What information does the show give you besides what the characters literally say to each other? How is the inner life of characters revealed without it being literally said aloud?
Are we supposed to like all of these characters? Or just certain characters? How can you tell?
TV Details
- Premiere date: November 11, 2022
- Cast: James Corden , Sally Hawkins , Melia Kreiling
- Network: Amazon Prime Video
- Genre: Drama
- Character Strengths: Compassion , Perseverance
- TV rating: TV-MA
- Last updated: December 1, 2022
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