Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Hard Cell’ On Netflix, Where Catherine Tate Plays Multiple Roles In A Women’s Prison Mockumentary

There’s no denying that Catherine Tate is funny. She was one of the few bright spots during the late run of the U.S. version of The Office, and she’s been making people laugh on both sides of the Atlantic since the mid-’90s. So why not make a show where she plays six different characters?

HARD CELL: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A shot of HMP Woldsley, a women’s prison. Laura Willis (Catherine Tate), the prison’s governor, looks at the camera and says “I’m changing the way women’s prisons are run.”

The Gist: Laura feels that she can improve the lives of the women in her prison through the arts, instead of the usual method of cracking down on inmates who violate rules. To that end, she’s mounting a prison production of West Side Story, and has invited documentary cameras in to film it all.

Her “number 2,” Dean (Christian Brassington), thinks she’s completely ineffective; he resents that she used to be an event planner, and that his goal is to get her to say “number 2” on camera as much as possible. Laura doesn’t even recognize her celebrity director, Cheryl Fergison from EastEnders, confusing her for an inmate at first, then telling her she’d fit right in because “you have the look.”

Cheryl tries to get people to pay attention, but can’t get the inmates to stop calling her by her EastEnders character’s name until she calls the group the c-word. Martin (Duncan Wisbey) tries to warn Laura about the plumbing, but she’s too entranced with the leather-bound librettos that she made for the production to care.

Also at the prison is Ange (Tate), who is new and thinks that her lawyers will get her off the charges against her; Ros (Tate), a veteran prisoner who gets tats according to her mood; and Big Viv (Tate), who goes homicidal at the slightest provocation. Guarding them is Omar (Tate), who makes sure that everyone’s hairstyles are culturally appropriate.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Hard Cell is a cross between The Office (the American version featured Tate late in its run), Orange Is The New Black, and Summer Heights High.

Our Take: It’s pretty obvious that Hard Cell is a showcase for Tate, who is also the creator, co-writer and director. She’s been a comedy star in the UK for close to 30 years, so it’s not like this show is introducing people to her ability to play broad and subtle, often in the same scene. This is more of a Chris Lilley-style tour-de-force that tries to cram Tate into as many scenes as possible because she can play so many different characters. But the sideshow of all the roles Tate plays distracts from what could have been a pretty funny story.

One of the problems is the tired mockumentary format; sure, it worked this year for Abbott Elementary, but more often than not, the format is utilized and then forgotten, with cameras in places that don’t make a lot of sense (read Ken Levine’s anti-mockumentary essay and see if you don’t agree). The other problem is that Tate more or less played Laura in seasons 8 and 9 of The Office‘s US version, so seeing her playing the clueless, befuddled boss isn’t anything new for her.

Of the other characters that Tate plays, only Ange really has the potential to build a story around; she’s in this strange environment and thinks she doesn’t belong there, and is already getting bullied by one of the inmates. The rest are more cartoonish and best taken in tiny doses, including Omar the guard. We wonder if Tate and her co-writers, Alex Carter and Nicky Wardley, will be able to resist the temptation to keep going back to Tate’s silly characters at the expense of letting some of the other inmates shine.

Most of the laughs we had in the first episode came from the non-Tate characters, like Cal (Lorna Brown) and Sal (Caroline Harding), who are “gay for the stay,” or the pregnant Charlee (Jola Olajide) who hates the choice of singing about “Sharks and Jet Skis” or taking boring parenting classes for her unwanted baby. Then there’s Dean, who deals with his distress over Laura being his boss by making fun of her to her face in a way that she doesn’t even realize it’s happening.

If Tate and company are smart, they will concentrate on those characters and keep Ros, Big Viv and Carlos in the background. But we’re not sure that will be the case.

Sex and Skin: None, except for pixelated shots of showering inmates unhappy when the water goes out.

Parting Shot: When a water main breaks, the inmates start to get agitated when they realize there’s no water for the entire prison.

Sleeper Star: Fergison is a good sport for playing herself, and poking fun at the fact that people know her most for a character she hasn’t played in six years.

Most Pilot-y Line: When she finally recognizes Fergison, Laura says she’s not a prisoner, but “a prisoner of your own talents.” Oof. Awkward and unfunny.

Our Call: SKIP IT. Between the tired format and the idea that Tate is playing most of the featured characters, Hard Cell becomes a lot to take, even after the first 30 minutes. We can’t imagine it getting much better during its first season.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.