Camp - Series Premiere - Recap: Wet Hot Australian Summer

The cast is generally likeable, and the comedy lands just enough to make it worthwhile. Also in the show's favor is how it wears its heart on its sleeve, in many respects. You get exactly what you'd expect to get going in, and the show often relies on the viewer's familiarity with these sorts of stories to foster a sense of attachment with the situations and surroundings. "This isn't some coming-of-age movie," a young outcast says in the first two minutes of the episode, in a last ditch attempt to talk his father out of forcing him to attend Little Otter Family Camp. "This isn't going to be the best summer of my life!" But we've seen enough of these types of movies and TV shows to know that this is exactly what's going to happen. And there's a certain comfort in the familiarity of the scenario, and the pastoral quality of the setting, which feels like it's out of an entirely different era entirely. But that setting, and the premise that comes with it, somewhat hinders the series right out the gate.

Credit: NBC

The show centers on the teens and adults of Little Otter Family Camp, and while I'm not sure just how many of these camps exists (where parents and kids basically attend summer camp together for weeks on end), the division between the two separate halves of camp life -- teens and adults -- hurts the series from the start, I think. It's as if NBC was worried it would alienate its core adult audience by telling a coming-of-age tale, and thus rearranged the story to include adults in pivotal roles. Of course, this can't actually be the case, since the show's premise is tied to an adult. Hell, that adult is pretty much the show's lead character: MacK (Rachel Griffiths), the owner of the financially floundering camp, who is still reeling from her recent divorce while dealing with a moody, hormone-charged teenage son. Griffiths is excellent in "Pilot," yet I feel like it was a mistake to center so much of the story on her. Yes, reducing her role or removing her altogether would fundamentally make this a different show, but I wonder if that show might not have been a better one than this. It's probably worn-out territory to center a summer camp show on teenagers, but I feel like there's actually an arc there, such as how kids create their own short-lived family structures out of the people they meet at summer camp, energized by the prospect of their first experience away from their parents. By adding some of the teens' actual families to the proceedings, this becomes a series that, for the most part, could take place anywhere. Sure, it's a summer camp, but this has kids dealing with nagging parents, local jocks and college aspirations. It's to the point where the camp might as well have been a suburb.

Credit: NBC

Of course, with all that said, the cast really is terrific, and there are some wonderfully warm, human moments in this pilot that nearly justify the teens/adults conceit. For at least half the pilot, it seems like the show is going to portray Kip Wampler (Thom Green) as the cliched outcast who doesn't want to be there, who later realizes this place really isn't so bad after all. But that isn't really where the story ends up going. It may still end up at that point, but there's a lot more going on beneath the surface. Once Kip resigns himself to being stuck at the camp, he meets the cute, fun-loving Marina (Lily Sullivan), who's an outcast back home due to some racy pictures that got posted on Facebook. He also makes a friend in Mack's undersexed, overly-horny son, Buzz (Charles Grounds). They have the usual summer camp shenanigans: smoking pot, star-gazing, stealing beers, and getting into fights with the local preppie jocks. This latter bit is one of the best moments of the episode, as Kip levels one of the jocks with a punch and Buzz, in slow-motion, registers a look that goes from terror to gleeful joy in mere seconds. It's an outstanding little moment that the show could use more of, although the subdued nature of Kip's storyline serves a more dramatic purpose: he had leukemia.

Credit: NBC

One of the other solid moments of the episode sees Kip justifying his fight with the jocks to Mack, who worries about Kip's well-being. Kip declares that he punched the guy because he didn't want him to think he could just get away with whatever he wanted. Beyond that, however, Kip states that he didn't want to be pigeonholed as a coward for the entire summer, as he's spent enough time being weak. His leukemia is gone for now, but it could come back, and he doesn't want to go through life living in fear. With warm assurance, Mack comforts Kip and tells him that although she doesn't condone his behavior, off the record, she's glad he punched the jock. She then asks for details, and they chat together like old friends at a diner. It's great stuff, and if the show intends to make Mack into more of a Mr. Feeney-esque character who helps guide these kids on their path to adulthood, that's something I can get behind. I also appreciated that the show didn't get overly expository in dropping the bomb about Kip's leukemia. He simply mentions it without fanfare, as anyone would when talking to someone who already knows that critical detail about them.

Credit: Vince Valitutti/NBC

However, the show is a bit less successful in other areas. Mack is interesting in that she's a tirelessly enthusiastic woman desperately clinging to the memories of better days: of when her husband hadn't left her for a young Russian beauty, of when the summer camp they owned together wasn't floundering, of when the three of them were a family with Buzz. But those days are long gone, and though it should be interesting to see how she works through her conflicted feelings in the wake of all these life changes, it really isn't. She has sex a couple of times with her hated rival, Roger Shepherd (Rodger Corser), the director of the rich kids summer camp across the lake. And she briefly considers putting Little Otter on the market after her ex-husband pleads with her to buy out his stake in the camp so he can have kids with his new girlfriend. But her epiphany at the end that the camp still matters to her, a realization compelled by the teens and the camp counsellors coming together to hold her favorite camp activity (the talent show) despite her orders to have it cancelled, doesn't pack the emotional punch it probably should, given how much time we spend getting to know Mack. But Griffiths is the MVP of the episode, so I wouldn't put it past her to be able to make audiences care more deeply about her plight.

Credit: NBC

The smaller stories are hit-or-miss. Buzz's horndogging is amusing, as is his mission to seek forgiveness from his friend Grace (Charlotte Nicdao) after accidentally using two insensitive slurs. But I'm not sure I'm going to care all that much about the love triangle between counsellor Sarah, her summertime hookup Robbie (Tim Pocock), or the famous author staying in a lavish cabin across the lake. But the show is early in its run, and there's still time to flesh out all these stories. If nothing else, the cast is talented enough to make that happen. (Already, the mostly-Australian cast had me fooled with the effectiveness of their American accents.) But Camp, as it stands right now, is very much a work-in-progress. That said, in a summer full of high-stakes drama series where every episode is packed with dramatic intensity, it's befitting of the season to have a series that represents a nice little vacation from that kind of dramatic excess. Is Camp perfect? Far from it. But it's also far from bad. So I'd recommend at least giving it a look. There's as much to like here as there is to be uncertain about, and the aspects that inspire uncertainty could very likely be fixed over time. Who knows? This might become a camp worth the price of admission.