I'm sorry, but your flower girl is a prick.

Continuing my trip down The Guardian's Top 50 TV Shows of 2022.  

#35 : Am I Being Unreasonable?

The opening scene of Daisy May Cooper’s comedy-drama was horrendous: <REDACTED>.  It set the bizarre tone for this story about a woman, Nic, who is secretly <REDACTED>. The only person she can rely on is her new friend Jen (Selin Hizli) – who has dark secrets of her own. The series was full of twists, turns, more <REDACTED>, unreliable flashbacks, hallucinations, false identities and a cremated pet cat. Yes, it veered off course at points – but it was original, confident, funny and centred on female friendship. It also introduced us to a brilliant rising comedy star: 13-year-old Lenny Rush.

I quite like Daisy Cooper - she's my MP, after all.  I also quite like Daisy May Cooper because she was most excellent on Taskmaster and it is to my shame that I have yet to catch up with This Country, which got great write-ups.  So I have high hopes for this.

And yeah, it's really good.  It's got a really nice turn in ordinary lower/middle-class humour about marriage, friendship, school runs, parenting - all that stuff.  But...

...it's got a LOT more to it than that.  And The Guardian decided they'd tell you all about it, but I think you're better off not knowing - most of it gets introduced in the first episode, but it certainly doesn't get explained immediately.  I am happy enough letting you know that it features a dead cat though - it plays a surprisingly important role in the plot.  

Generally, it's very well written - I think The Guardian is being a bit harsh saying it veered off course at points, but I do agree that most of episode 5 felt a bit superfluous.  I would warn you that it gets pretty dark towards the end and you don't know where it's going to go - and then it went somewhere I really wasn't expecting, for which it deserves a huge amount of credit.  It's also got a great line in binge-worthy cliff hangers - each one makes you think "oh, go on then - just one more" and I got through the six episodes in three sittings, which is pretty unheard of for me.  It also features some lovely call backs to previous episodes which you don't see coming.

It's well acted with Daisy May Cooper as Nic (the lead character) doing a good line in scatty confusion - you don't get the feeling she's massively stretching herself but she deserves massive credit for co-creating the series.  Her co-creator, Selin Hizli (crazy name, crazy lady!), is also great as Jen, her new friend - they have a very good chemistry together.  However, they are both acted off the screen by Lenny Rush as Ollie, Nic's son - he has a really expressive face and uses it to great effect for both comedy and tragedy at times and he fully deserved the BAFTA he won.  I'm also going to call out Dustin Demri-Burns as Dan (Nic's husband) - he's an utter dick, but a well-acted dick and impressively different from his role in Slow Horses which is the last thing I saw him in (and it's well worth watching if you haven't seen it).  I'm also going to mention Samuel Bottomley who doesn't have a major role in this, but it's the third time he's appeared in this list.

I think this is well worth a watch - I've not overly explained it but I think you're better off that way.  It does take a dark turn as things progress, but if you watch if then you probably won't find that too surprising (and you'll be too into it to give up on it by then as well).  Intriguingly, Wikipedia tells me there's going to be a second series - I'm intrigued as to where that will go but I'll certainly be there to find out because I really enjoyed it and think it deserves a bit more exposure than it got.  At time of writing, it's available on iPlayer - check it out if you like a dark, twisty, comedy thriller kinda thang.

#34 - Interesting but over-extended
#36 - Sorry - no time available