Jennifer Garner has, by now, established her own character type. After breaking out in ABC’s “Alias” she played a superhero (“Daredevil” and “Elektra”) and a rom-com heroine (“13 Going on 30”), but was soon pigeonholed into motherly roles, from “Juno” to this year’s “Love, Simon.”
Her big return to TV, in HBO’s “Camping,” seems to be a deliberate skewering of all the khaki capri-clad moms she’s played. The series (Sunday, 10 EDT/PDT, ★★½ out of four) is adapted from a British comedy about a group of middle-aged friends who go on an ill-fated camping trip to celebrate a birthday. The new version, from “Girls” creators Lena Dunham and Jenni Konner, amps up the cringe humor exponentially, with a cast of characters so loathsome they make Hannah, Jessa, Marnie and Shoshanna look saintly by comparison. Sometimes it’s funny, sometimes it just makes you cringe.
Garner anchors the cast as Kathryn, an overzealous Instagram mom who organizes the camping trip for her pushover husband Walt (David Tennant) on his 45th birthday. Along for the weekend are her meek sister Carleen (Ione Skye) and her boyfriend Joe (Chris Sullivan), a recovering alcoholic with some anger issues; Kathryn’s ex-best friend Nina-Joy (Janicza Bravo) and her brash husband George (Brett Gelman); and their recently single friend Miguel (Arturo Del Puerto), who surprises the group by showing up with Jandice (Juliette Lewis), a woman who checks all the boxes of a “free spirit” stereotype.
Kathryn comes with binders, to-do lists and an intense schedule, and is completely thrown by Jandice’s improvisational style, not to mention her sudden popularity within the group. That tension, along with alcohol, drugs and a group of people who aren’t so in touch with the outdoors, leads to conflicts and cataclysms that come fast and furious.
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