It's like fan-fiction, but true - fan-nonfiction.
Continuing my trip down The Guardian's Top 50 TV Shows of 2021.
#9 : Starstruck
In New Zealand comic Rose Matafeo’s lovable romcom, her character Jessie is having a strange old time living in London, with a titchy flat, tedious jobs – and the fact that she can’t stop bumping into a movie star named Tom Kapoor (Nikesh Patel) that she had a one night stand with.
I've heard this is smart and cute, which is exactly what you'd expect from Rose Matafeo - who I'd never heard of until I saw her on whatever season of Taskmaster she was on, where she was smart and cute.
And it's a neat set-up - and yes, it's very Notting Hill, but it explores/subverts the notion of fame and expectations pretty nicely with a lot of very neat and subtle touches. And it's funny - which is always a good idea for a comedy, isn't it? He doesn't really need to be a movie star - it's just a nice comedy about the awkward nature of relationships, both friend and romantic. I don't think I really need to say anything more about it - if you like a sweet comedy which is well acted with some cute lines, then you're sorted. Do fight through the downer of episode 5 - it's needed to tease the potential happy pay-off you're hoping for in episode 6. Obviously I'm not going to tell you whether it delivers it or not - but I will say the ending is well done.
Rose and Nikesh do a good job as Jessie and Tom, the mismatched couple - they have a good awkward chemistry, which is probably tricky to pull off. He seems a bit modest at times to totally pull off the movie star thing - but I guess some famous people must be nice. But it's Rose's vehicle really and she delivers the goods - her acting and comedy chops are top notch. Emma Sidi as Kate, Jessie's amusingly starstruck flatmate and Joe Barnes as Joe, Jessie's amusingly lovesick colleague also deserve a shout out for providing humorous backup. And Minnie Driver rocks it as his agent, although you're not going to get bored of seeing her, given that she only appears for about two minutes.
We interrupt this programme to bring you a random Wikipedia side track onto Rose's page - you do have to wonder how many of these are actually true...
- Her father is Samoan and her mother is of Scottish and Croatian heritage. Her parents are Rastafarians and Matafeo has described her upbringing as "quite relaxed".
- As a teenager, Matafeo participated on Franz Ferdinand message boards expressing her infatuation for the lead singer Alex Kapranos until she was kicked off for "being too racy.
- She is a fan of Burt Bacharach and named her cat "Bert Bachacat" after him
- Matafeo is an avid crocheter, posting photos of her completions on her Instagram including a Harry Styles inspired crop top.
Right, back with Starstruck - this is a mere two hours of your time that flies by without asking too much of you whilst providing some good laughs and bucketloads of charm - what's not to love about that? And you don't just have to take my word for it - it's got 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. And there's a second series as well, which came out in February this year and I suspect I will watch with the lovely Mrs Reed when she's caught up with this because I think she'll like it.
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