The Last Enemy and Little Britain USA: Skullduggery and Wig Jobs

Perhaps aware of a need to recharge the batteries (despite being the biggest comedy stars in the U.K.), Lucas and Walliams shot their latest installments in America for HBO and called it Little Britain USA. They’ve imported some characters, including queeny Prime Minister Sebastian Love, now sexually harassing the president (Harry Lennix); Vicky Pollard, now in a juvenile boot camp; and cruel-to-be-unkind weight-loss-group leader Marjorie Dawes, who asks guest star (and good sport) Rosie O’Donnell, “Are you fat because you’re a lesbian, or are you a lesbian because you’re fat?”

The oldies amount to a reset button in case you’ve never seen the show before, but it’s a toss-up if the umpteenth appearance of these loonies will make die-hards keep laughing. The new gallery of U.S.-born weirdos is slightly unremarkable — save for the always incredible costume/makeup/wig jobs — but has some bright spots, mostly coming from Walliams, playing a petulant old astronaut who feels insufficiently recognized for being the eighth man to walk on the moon, and a spinsterish woman named Phyllis with a disturbingly suggestive dog (whom Phyllis voices, of course). But even this latter character needlessly agonized me as I laughed. When Phyllis-as-Mr.-Doggy commands herself to poop in public, I was genuinely worried that some Pink Flamingos—level verisimilitude was mere seconds away. There wasn’t, and the bit was saved, but still, watching comedy shouldn’t also invoke a paralyzing fear of being disgusted.

Bombings in Pakistan are only the beginnings of trouble in The Last Enemy.

A couple of drags: Little Britain’s Walliams, left, and Lucas

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More About

• Peter Berry
• Matt Lucas
• David Walliams
• Robert Carlyle
• Vicky Pollard

Or should it?

 
THE LAST ENEMY | PBS | Sundays, 9 p.m., beginning Oct. 5

LITTLE BRITAIN USA | HBO | Sundays, 10:30 p.m., beginning Sept. 28