It should be common knowledge that I will watch anything that Anthony Stewart Head has appeared in regardless of the quality of the show. I really need to stop doing that and just rewatch Buffy The Vampire Slayer instead of his portrayal of Stephen in Free Agents, the degenerate boss of a PR firm in the US version and of a talent agency in the UK version.
I initially watched Free Agents, the US version, which briefly aired on NBC before it was mercifully cancelled, about eleven months ago. I correctly thought that the UK version would be better, but because it is not available in US, I had to wait a considerable amount of time before discovering that the UK version was only slightly better than its American counterpart.
Both versions see humor as a way to push the envelope and boundaries, but do so with mixed results. The US version is largely unsuccessful because of the one boundary that it doesn’t push: the definition of success. The underlying premise of all the jokes is that success is directly correlated to money, career, sexual desirability or looks. It feels like it uses a laugh track. The two main characters are messed up because of the end of their most recent long term relationships, but it is unconvincing because they are still successful in business and squashing their competitors at or outside of work, particularly the male colleague constantly besting a younger, usually female competitor. The inherent premise of the show lies in the ultimate trope of what is successful: accommodating the stereotype of the desires of the heterosexual male and the ridicule of anything progressive (having education or power as directly opposed to sexuality), female (exploiting women as sexual objects as if the only audience is male) or ethnic (Ethiopian food as something that no one likes) usually by someone who is representing the other to make it permissible. In the US version, Stephen is seen as a master manipulator, debonair, successful and an aspirational figure despite or because of his ability to juggle business and his hyper-sexual lifestyle.
The UK version in contrast is largely unsuccessful because everything serves the romantic definition of success: not being lonely by finding your significant other. All the characters are more believably messed up, in denial, trying to cover up their sadness with busyness, work, good sex and platitudes. In Stephen’s case, he is like an overgrown child who sees sex as candy and is not easily satisfied, but is just as lonely and desperate to be paired off as the rest of the characters. It does not see sex in a conventional manner. In the end, using sexual explicit language or scenarios does not disguise the fact that this series just wants to get everyone a significant other as if it would solve loneliness.
In the end, both versions are not satisfying because there is no character growth; the stories are predictable; and the show creators are not nearly as edgy as they would like to be.