In "Mammals," premiering Friday on Prime Video, James Corden plays Jamie, a London chef on the verge of opening his own restaurant. He is married to Amandine (Melia Kreiling), who is French and works in market research, a job that exists here, for the space of a single scene, only to demonstrate that it is not interesting. (It is not beside the point that she is also extremely beautiful, where Jamie is James Corden.) Jamie's best friend Jeff (Colin Morgan) is also his brother-in-law, married to his sister Lue (Sally Hawkins). Jeff is an academic, specializing in veterinary neurobiology; Lue works in a second-hand store. They live in a nice place in the country with goats out back and a giant stag in the vicinity. There are children, who are either heard of but not seen, or are used to advance a plot point.
(The topical irony of Corden, recently in the news for being rude to the staff at a New York restaurant, playing a chef, is hereby duly noted.)
As the six-part series begins — parceled out like a comedy, which it sort of is, in 30-minute episodes — Jamie and Amandine are spending a celebratory holiday in a rented cottage overlooking the ocean. On the way there, despite the fact that Amandine is pregnant, Jamie encourages her to drive fast for fun on a winding cliffside road. This struck me as a strange way for an expectant father to act, and doesn't really align with what we'll come to know of him, but it is not the last instance of unaccountable behavior over the next three hours.
