The Wrong Mans, Hulu's latest original series, switches from espionage drama to workplace comedy to art heist to buddy cop adventure and back again — all within six episodes. The show, a co-production with the BBC, is also very British. That's either a pro or a con, depending on your affinity for dry, awkward comedy (and accents).
Most importantly, though, The Wrong Mans is good.
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When Sam, a town council planning adviser, faints after witnessing a car crash on the way to work, he wakes up with a stranger's cell phone and subsequently becomes embroiled in the ultimate case of mistaken identity — or, rather, cases — as he and his underachieving coworker Phil stumble their way into a hostage negotiation, a kidnapping, a government conspiracy and more horrible situations in the countryside.

The Wrong Mans stars comedy duo James Corden (Phil), one of the comedy minds behind the delightful Gavin and Stacey (a U.S. remake, titled Us and Them, is currently scheduled for midseason on Fox), and Mathew Baynton (Sam), Corden's Gavin and Stacey costar and a lead in British children's series Horrible Histories.
"I'm intrigued to see what the difference in response from an American crowd compared to the British one and whether they'll laugh louder or less during certain scenes," Baynton told Mashable. He admits that since Hulu was involved from the start, he and Corden tried not to include anything "too absurdly British or niche."
Phil and Sam are unlikely bumbling action heroes. As in many other British comedies, the main characters are painted as down-on-their-luck losers : Sam has trouble moving on from a recent breakup, Phil is a 31-year-old mail clerk.
They're not really losers (well, not both of them), and they're not exactly dumb — in fact, they can be pretty clever at time. However, they sometimes say stupid things or waste time heating up microwave food at the convenience store when in a life-or-death time crunch. They're relatable everymen, at least to the kind of people who would watch a British action comedy on Hulu.
As in Gavin and Stacey, Corden once again plays a useless idiot character, the foil to a slightly nerdy, attractive leading man. Here, Baynton inhabits that role quite well. The two men have great chemistry as friends, which makes sense since they wrote the series together and presumably are pals in real life.
The Wrong Mans has a distinctly British sense of humor amid all of its action, with few laugh-out-loud jokes. It's funny when Phil doesn't realize how to properly play a movie quote guessing game or when the office drones don't have the foresight to realize taking a hostage means having to dispose of his excrement in a plastic bag.
"I'm gonna miss all this: running around, having a hostage," Phil says during a happier time, before the hostage situation goes awry.
Or perhaps the jokes only land with a chuckle because they're cloaked in such slick, cinematic-looking direction. Pooling resources with the BBC allows for increased production value; there's a spectacular car crash in the first three minutes, a gasoline fire in episode two, a jump onto a moving train in the finale and some wonderfully choreographed fight scenes in practically every installment. It's more of a thriller with comedic elements than a full-on comedy, with the half-hour run time an awkward length to fully highlight either element.
The Wrong Mans is a good show, but it's not a great one. It's well produced, well acted and well plotted, but it's not necessarily well-paced.
There are certainly pros and cons regarding Hulu's staggered release schedule versus Netflix's all-at-once dump. In this case, Hulu's approach may be more appropriate. The Wrong Mans is entertaining, but it doesn't benefit from a binge watch , although all six episodes are available immediately for Hulu Plus subscribers.
Thirty-minute doses are just fine, thankyouverymuch. Some audiences would probably appreciate three solid hours of explosions, chases, kidnappings and cliffhangers, but for the most part, mainlining this show at once means the cliffhangers aren't very effective. At a certain point, Twitter seems much more interesting than learning the outcome of said cliffhangers. Even six episodes can get tedious after a little while. Hulu is a logical home for The Wrong Mans, since the site already exclusively hosts other popular UK series such as Misfits and The Thick of It. Now that Hulu Plus is streaming Doctor Who, Sherlock, Top Gear and more, Anglophiles should recognize Hulu as a bonafide British TV hub.
But it hasn't found quite as much luck as Netflix in the original series department. It doesn't have as high profile a project as Arrested Development, nor has it had any out-of-the-gate hits such as House of Cards or Orange Is the New Black.

Hulu is hoping The Wrong Mans is its shot at legitimizing its efforts with some award show consideration. But there's something that doesn't quite land here. It makes you smile at times and it certainly looks great, but it doesn't have that addictive, watercooler conversation quality it needs to garner any sort of critical or viral buzz.
Corden and Baynton, with the help of their production team, have created a solid series in The Wrong Mans. It's amusing and gorgeous, and the title adeptly expresses both the espionage element and the comedic tone. The show did well on the BBC, and the duo has expressed interest in making a second season.
"Regardless of whether we want to do a second season or if anyone is asking us to do it, which they are very kindly, we wouldn't do it until we had something right," Jim Field Smith, the show's writer and director, told Mashable. "But how do you revisit that world without feeling like you're retreading the same material? The moment we come up with a story or a hook we really like, then we'll really start in earnest, but at this point in time we're just kicking around ideas."
There's potential for a sequel, but it's not necessary. A comedy thriller is a difficult genre to nail; perhaps that's why there are so few examples in existence. Coming up with another story that would be just as engaging seems like an impossible feat.
The first two episodes of The Wrong Mans are available for free now, and subsequent episodes will roll out weekly. For Hulu Plus users, all six episodes are available now.
Images: Hulu