Molly Shannon and Selma Blair as America's 'Kim & Kim'.

It has been plagued with bad press, re-shoots and shuffling of staff behind the scenes, but now the American version is just under a week away and we have our first review of the NBC half-hour comedy.

While I was never a huge fan of the Australian series, I did have high hopes for the US adaptation of our foxy ladies. I thought if anyone could pull off an adaptation, it would be Ben Silverman and the folks over at Reveille Productions, the brains behind the American versions of The Office and Ugly Betty. Unfortunately for Kath & Kim, this adaptation of falls flat on its face.

I remember seeing the original bunch of promos that NBC ran earlier this year to promote the show, there were signs of the same ridiculous comedy that the Australian version strived on. But since the re-shoots it appears all those seemingly funny moments are gone.

What made the Australian version work so well, was that it was completely outrageous and over the top. The American version doesn’t even seem to have the same style. It’s not funny enough to be a laugh-out-loud comedy and its not well versed enough to be a good dramedy. It’s sort of stuck in this middle ground which doesn’t seem to offer anything remotely new or entertaining. I kept waiting for it to really pick up, having a few humorous moments throughout, but for the most part stayed pretty flat.

While I’ve always thought Molly Shannon was an great choice for Kath and Selma Blair as Kim was starting to grow on me, it’s the script and direction that really lets this pilot down. It wasn’t particularly clever or witty, but rather dull and lacking the outrageous comic prowess of the Aussie original. It often felt half baked or even restrained. I can only imagine how much more intriguing the original Paul Feig (The Office, Arrested Development and 30 Rock) directed pilot would have been.

One thing the script did get right was the pop culture references. There were some good one liners, but the execution was less praise worthy. I don’t know if it was poor direction or just bad comic timing on the actors behalf, but they just didn’t have the impact they should have had.

There were subtle hints of the original in the dialogue and John Michael Higgins plays a pretty great replacement for Glenn Robinns, but thats about it. It don’t think it really resembles enough of the original to be called Kath & Kim. Even Gina Riley’s cheesy soap operatic theme song rendition of “The Joker Is Me” has been replaced (with “Filthy/Gorgeous” by the Scissor Sisters). To top it all off, there are horribly done voice overs which sound more like after thoughts.

Perhaps because the show has undergone so many changes, it’s lost the original spark that attracted the American producers in the first place. Maybe the series will improve as it continues (like The Office did), but for now, I gotta say – It’s nothing nice, different or unusual. I don’t like it.

Kath & Kim premieres Sunday September 12 on Seven.