The Duchess Review: Brash British Humor Fails To Deliver Laughs

Lately, Netflix has been swinging for the fences with their original content and knocking it out of the ballpark. However, with their newest British sitcom — The Duchess — it’s a swing and a miss.

From the very first moment of the very first episode, this sitcom throws us right into Katherine’s life and doesn’t really stop. Much like Katherine, this show is a disjointed hot mess that takes story directions which rarely make sense.

You would think that the story of a single mother who is trying to balance a relationship with her boyfriend against a parental relationship with her daughter’s father would be fascinating or at least worth some of our time.

Unfortunately, from the very first moments, nothing about this woman comes across as even the least bit fascinating.

It’s clear from the writing that Katherine Ryan wants this commentary on her own life to come across as brash and bold. And maybe I’m just not appreciating her brand of humor, but none of the jokes in the first episode interest me.

To make matters worse, there is no interest in the antics of Katherine’s life until we reach The Dutchess Season 1 Episode 4. This is when she really starts to show some kind of positive growth toward creating some stability in her life.

For a show that only has six episodes, that is a bit late in the game for any rising action to take place. Three episodes of stagnant storytelling are hard to muddle through and simply painful to watch.

The only bright spot in those first episodes is Katy Byrne as Katherine’s daughter, Olive. This precocious little girl has a sharp tongue and says things that make you stop, contemplate, and laugh out loud.

While she does get a bit grating at times, it’s easier to dismiss than with Katherine because Olive’s grating personality moments are merely in response to her obnoxious mother and father — but mostly her mother.

This girl has to occasionally turn on the bratty behavior because her mother is acting like a selfish spoiled brat. 

The women around Katherine are supposed to boost her feminist persona, but end up dragging her even further down the “don’t care” lane. Her business partner, Bev, is in a boring loveless marriage that not even PTA mom Jane can help her spice up. 

Normally, an independent feminist trope works well to empower female viewers to see themselves portrayed. However, with The Duchess, the feminism at times seems to be more along the lines of shock value joke material.

This makes the humor come across as trying too hard and completely missing the mark.

The plot itself sounds good in theory — a single mom wanting another child and trying to decide who will father the child — but the execution falls short due to the above-mentioned humor and the bland two-dimensional characters.

Katherine’s behavior towards both her boyfriend, Evan, and Olive is seen as unfair and selfish. It shows early on that her actions are hurting those around her in big ways but she either doesn’t notice or doesn’t care.

Seeing this version of her from the beginning makes her a bit hypocritical in the final episode when she tells Evan that she values her daughter and that is how she is raising her but at the start of the season, she is acting more as her daughter’s best friend than as her mother. 

Katherine lies straight to her face about pretty much everything and while she claims to encourage her daughter’s independent spirit, she shows a lack of trust through all of her falsehoods.

Katherine acts as though she makes sacrifices for her daughter and yet we see her time again dragging Olive into situations no 9-year-old has any business being involved in — such as late-night visits to the pub.

Which ultimately makes her rant and anger at Evan laughable. Should he have lashed out at her through her daughter? Probably not, but she doesn’t really have a leg to stand on because he only told her daughter things the child should know in the first place.

Maybe, that makes me in the minority with regards to Evan then. I don’t believe the guy deserved such harsh treatment from Katherine.

I’m glad they didn’t end up together because, despite his faults, Evan is a sweet man who deserves so much more than Katherine’s chaotic drama. He is lucky to break free from her and move on — she would’ve probably dragged his whole world into disarray.

To be quite honest, The Duchess would’ve been much more fascinating if half of the creepy, cringy semen exchanges between Katherine and Shep’s — Olive’s father — new lady were cut out.

In fact, that entire secret cheating storyline is one that is done so often it needs to be retired.

Juggling two separate and secret lives is not funny unless there is some unique spin present to make it less hurtful. Cheating is never okay and yet, time and again, sitcoms think it’s fun or fresh to put a character into such a situation.

There is nothing funny about planting nudes in a woman’s home to get back at her daughter for being mean to your child. It does nothing but ruins innocent lives — and for what? To get one over on another child? Grow up!

Humor that is hurtful in any way has ceased to be funny and for that, I feel this show fails to deliver on the laughs.

As previously stated, Olive is the only character with even an ounce of appreciated humor.

When a show fails to create any redeemable characters — although a few have interesting storylines on occasion — it fails at its heart.

What did you think of The Duchess? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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The Duchess is now streaming on Netflix.

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