Okay, I’ll accept that someone somewhere thinks Lena Dunham is a god. So I can see if she turns something in, a network might want to make a series with her.  Jennifer Garner is popular, has a bit of a Disney comedy vibe going; David Tennant is awesome; Juliette Lewis can be amazing. Throwing them together is star-studded gold, right?

Holy crap, this shows blow chunks on the only level it has which is annoying. When I read the premise, i.e. mid-life crisis, high-strung wife, camping trip with cast, I immediately thought, “Umm, how about about cancelled?”. Now that I’ve watched the premiere, and knowing it is on HBO, cancelled isn’t really a “thing” in their parlance (the whole series premieres at once in this case), but omg it’s bad.

Garner and Tennant play a married couple, and Garner is some sort of uber uptight alpha-organizer who has organized a trip for four couples to a camping ground in the middle of nowhere where the campground sets up the tents for them, provides an open-air cooking centre with water, etc., to facilitate meals, and gives them a wide-open setup.

I could see the premise playing out if the four couples like each other, but Garner gets along with basically none of them, and it’s impossible to see why any of them would show up. One of them is a good friend of Tennant’s, so at least that is something, but the other two are just plain odd to show up. Maybe there’s some hidden plot, but honestly, it makes no sense. They know what she’s like, and she’s both bitchy and anal.

If the couples were somehow likable, or at least some semblance of wanting to see each other, you might get it, but it’s just plain bizarre. And while there are lots of shows out there with hard-to-believe premises, this one is hard to overcome for a very simple reason — I can’t figure out why they came because I can’t figure out any reason to watch any of them. I didn’t smile once the whole episode, all I wanted to do was stop it and move on.

Maybe someone likes this crap, but it is the worst show I’ve seen in years.