David Tennant Starred In One Of The Worst HBO Miniseries Ever

The 2018 HBO miniseries "Camping" was created by Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner, and was based on the 2016 British series of the same name. The series ostensibly focuses on a character named Walt, played by David Tennant, who is celebrating his 45th birthday by going on a camping trip in the California woods. His wife, Kathryn (Jennifer Garner), however, is the real protagonist, as she is a famed influencer and is immensely shrill and controlling. Joining them on the trip are Kathryn's sister (Ione Skye), a mutual friend named Miguel (Arturo Del Puerto), Miguel's woo-woo girlfriend (Juliette Lewis), and a few others (Janicza Bravo, Brett Gelman, Chris Sullivan). 

The series starts well enough, but it's a comedy of errors wherein awkward feelings will come to light, and sexual mishaps occur. It's about testing marriages, but in a comedic way. It was the first TV project that Lena Dunham worked on after her hit series "Girls" came to an end, and it seems like a strange choice for her. I suppose Dunham and her co-creator Jenni Konner were just big, big fans of the original British series. Dunham's success at the time was vast enough to attract many notable actors who were eager to work with her, even if she was just a writer on the series. 

Sadly, the cast didn't woo audiences. "Camping" was largely trashed by critics, and the series only has a 27% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 51 reviews. Critics agreed that the characters, when not being obnoxious, were thin and not very well drawn-out. Although it's ostensibly about Walt, Kathryn is the only one who has any kind of character development, and it's so minor that no one really needs to bother.  

HBO has a long tradition of quality miniseries and high-profile, short-lived TV productions. This isn't one of them. It should be noted that HBO has been making original miniseries since the late 1970s, and their output includes some highly celebrated shows like "Tanner '88," "From the Earth to the Moon," "Band of Brothers," and "Angels in America." Beginning around 2008, they stepped up their output and started putting out multiple miniseries and limited shows a year, most years. An HBO series is a banner event, as they often boast impressive production design and talented filmmakers. 

"Camping" boasts those things too, but it didn't make for a great show. Reviews were all pretty negative, even the positive ones. Melanie McFarland, writing for Salon, said that some shows can be both irritating and watchable, but that "Camping" was just the latter. "[R]arely does one encounter an irritant as potent," she wrote. McFarland really hated Jennifer Garner's character, adding: 

"Kathryn is, in a word, horrid. She is the worst version of an entitled yoga-obsessed urbanite who, one suspects, goes through health scare phases like a flu-sufferer plows through Kleenex. She constantly whines about the state of her pelvic floor, dissolves into a sputtering fit when the partygoers deviate from her carefully planned schedule of activities and freaks out at any sign that her child may be hurt."

McFarland noted that the entire miniseries was about fortysomethings, but that it was written by one author in her early 30s, meaning that the author was forcing older, wiser actors to enact her own awkward fears of growing up. It sounds like "Camping" was what 32-year-olds think 45-year-olds talk like, without interacting with many in real life. 

What's this show really about? One might argue it possesses some kind of innate snobby prejudice about the act of camping. Which, to be fair, can have a classist bent. For many, camping is a posh activity, enjoyed by well-moneyed people who have the resources to bring all their home comforts out into the wilderness for a few nights. That notion of class may be lurking somewhere in "Camping," but critics didn't much care. The most damning review came from Gwen Ihnat of the A.V. Club, who called it the worst England-to-America adaptation since "Coupling." Ihnat also hated Garner's character, writing: 

"So we're left with Kathryn, and she's awful: Deeply unkind, and entirely humorless. She has a number of health issues that border on Munchausen syndrome, complaining about her pelvic floor (to her child) and flipping through fibromyalgia magazines. If her health issues were an attempt to make the character sympathetic, it doesn't work." 

Ihnat wonders why Garner, who hadn't starred in a TV series for many years, decided to come back to the medium with such a terrible role. She also noted that "Camping" is a great advertisement for camping for audiences, "just to get away from TV for a while." Harsh indeed. 

Few people have mentioned "Camping" since its initial run, and Dunham moved on to other projects. Most recently, she co-created the Netflix miniseries "Too Much," which was much better received. All the actors also moved on to other things. The show is now a footnote in HBO's catalogue.