The “little round headed buffoon” is back and oh how we have missed him.

Karl Pilkington’s new series sees him go it alone without the great contribution of Gervais and Merchant. The first episode addresses the topic of marriage, seemingly inspired by Karl’s own lack of commitment to marry his own long term girlfriend and all in all The Moaning of Life does seem like a more personal affair.

Starting in Delhi, Karl finds himself in a number of ridiculous situations from almost getting himself into an arranged marriage to attending a pheromone party where you match yourself to your future love based on the smell of their dirty laundry. The Moaning of Life sees a watered down version of Karl’s idiotic nature that he’s become famous for and at first it begins to feel like this has taken away the essence of why many love watching him so much. It is perhaps this naivety that leads to a certain amount of criticism of his shows, but I still genuinely believe he has a heart of gold, and it is this aspect of his shows that have made him such a lovable character in so many countries.

There’s definitely enough of the old Karl in The Moaning of Life to keep his many fans watching and hopefully the series will develop along the same lines, with even more of his comedic genius. Ultimately it does seem like the Sky producers have taken Idiot Abroad and tried to make something almost the same. This is a bit of a cop out, yet the result is probably what the producers hoped for, that if you like Karl you’ll still like the Moaning of Life.

Karl Pilkington – The Moaning of Life is on Sky1, Sundays at 9pm.

Caitlin Williams

Photo: Property of radiotimes.com