Episodes Returns, And 'Matt LeBlanc' Is Still A Pretty Bad Person

When it comes to the Famous People Playing "Themselves" On Premium Cable genre, it would be hard for any show to top Curb Your Enthusiasm, and I'm not going to sit here and say that Episodes does, because that would be absurd. But just because it's not as outrageous or cameo-packed as Curb doesn't mean that Episodes, which returns for its third season on Sunday, isn't a lot of fun.

Episodes is the story of Sean and Beverly Lincoln, married writers who created an acclaimed British sitcom called Lyman's Boys. After winning a BAFTA, they're approached by an American network president, Merc, about adapting it for U.S. audiences, and promised all kinds of creative control (not to mention a dumptruck full of money). Cut to: the American network executives destroying everything that made Lyman's Boys good and systematically chipping away at the Lincolns' authority. The greatest indignity comes when the network demands that they replace their original Lyman (played by "Julian Bullard" — actually corpulent sexagenarian Richard Griffiths) with former Friends star Matt LeBlanc.

Casting LeBlanc as a distasteful version of himself is kind of brilliant. It's credible that he'd be the kind of person a shortsighted TV executive would think translates to guaranteed ratings even in a poorly-thought-out sitcom: the post-Friends star vehicles of Matthew Perry prove that out. And because LeBlanc is so well-known for playing someone as dumb as Joey Tribbiani, of course people like Sean and Beverly would be prejudiced against him straight out of the gate. Yet even though LeBlanc is enormously famous and will be for the rest of his life, we don't actually know that much about him, which means that Episodes's writers can have a lot of fun fleshing out his character however they want.

LeBlanc is also having fun, and it's infectious. Though Sean and Beverly initially dismiss Matt as a philistine, they soon succumb to his charms: he's gregarious, generous, and pretty self-aware, and his seduction of the Lincolns parallels Hollywood's...right up until the end of the first season, when a non-metaphorical seduction occurs, and Beverly sleeps with Matt.

Obviously, the fallout from that bad decision took up most of the show's second season, which ended in a spectacular conflagration: Merc fired; his deputy/mistress Carol lined up to replace him AND finally moved to dump him; the truth coming out about the affair between Matt and Merc's wife, Jamie; and Sean and Beverly reconciled.

There's a lot to like about the way the show portrays Sean and Beverly's relationship; separated, they had to keep working together, and her S2 wish to make up with Sean changed her feelings about Pucks, the American version of their show, since if it got cancelled, she'd lose her only tie to him. And even after infidelity, they have a believable mutual respect for each other that's rare in married couples in sitcoms.

But Episodes is really LeBlanc's show. I never thought I could be so delighted by the exploits of an alcoholic goof coasting through life on his past successes and the confidence conferred by his enormous penis, but here we are. Not even real crises like the threat of losing access to his children can reform Matt, and not even the worst he can dish out can — at least in the season's first few episodes — alter Sean and Beverly's grudging fondness for him. Episodes is slight for sure, but a show that's light and goofy and full of swears is kind of the perfect way to end a weekend.

Episodes airs Sundays at 10:30 PM ET on Showtime.