Review: 'Red Oaks' is sturdy Amazon comedy

You'd better be ready to binge Red Oaks (Amazon Prime Instant Video, Friday, *** stars out of four), because it probably won't work for you any other way.

Viewed individually, the first few installments of this 10-episode, 1980s-set comedy would never convince anyone to commit: they're too wan and too familiar. But taken all at once, or at least a handful at a time, the story, the show and the characters have enough shape and weight to take hold.

If you like, you can think of this coming-of-age tale as a five-hour movie, sort of Dirty Dancing without the dancing or Breaking Away without the bikes. That does, of course, raise an obvious issue: It's unlikely anyone ever wanted a five-hour version of those movies, dancing and bikes included — which is why Red Oaks could have benefited from some healthy pruning. But perhaps that's another advantage of this new streaming age, the ability to use that fast-forward button as your own shears.

Oaks centers on David Meyers (British actor Craig Roberts, who seems effortlessly American), an NYU student who longs to escape his suburban New Jersey home and the accounting-office future his father has planned for him. His ticket out is a summer stint as an assistant tennis pro at the tony Red Oaks Country Club, a job he hopes will earn him enough money to get his own apartment in Manhattan.

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It soon becomes clear that this is a big summer for David. Thanks to his dad's tennis-court heart attack, he knows that his father (Richard Kind) and mother (Jennifer Grey) may be headed for divorce. And from his first encounter with the club's ultra-rich president Getty (Paul Reiser) and Getty's Bohemian daughter Skye (Alexandra Socha), he knows that his plans are about to change — and that includes any plans he has with his long-time girlfriend Karen (Gage Golightly).

But David isn't the only one facing a turning point. His best friend Wheeler (Oliver Cooper) has a plan to win the girl of his dreams. His boss Nash (Ennis Esmer) has a plan to win Getty-sized riches. And his mom has a secret desire she may not be ready to face, but which is spelled out for us with an unfortunately heavy hand.

And so we spend yet another summer in the '80s, complete with the bad hairstyles, ugly aerobics outfits, and hit-friendly soundtrack we've come to expect from such projects. What you may not expect is the generosity with which most of these characters are drawn, even the ones who initially come off as one-note saints or sinners.

Excellent performances help, starting with Roberts, who holds the series together, along with Kind and Reiser, in one of his best recent roles. But give a special shout-out for Esmer, who through force of will and charm makes you believe the club membership would be as enthralled by Nash as Nash is.

Paced like the lazy days of summer, and built around such sturdy landmarks as the Fourth of July picnic and the country club summer wedding reception, Red Oaks is never much more than pleasant, but it's also seldom much less. The episodes may not make you laugh out loud, but with a few clanging exceptions (led by an inexplicable Freaky Friday detour) they generally feel both warm and true.

Binge away.