FANDOM NAME: Mum, the BBC sitcom that first aired in 2016 with Lesley Manville and Peter Mullan, written by Stefan Golaszewski
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Okay, Mum is a bit of a weird beast. It's a family sitcom, sort of, but of course this is British comedy we're talking about, so it's got a searing edge to it and many of the characters and interactions involved are actively awkward/embarrassment-inducing in many ways. The set-up is pretty straightforward--Lesley Manville is Cathy, a 59-year-old woman whose husband dies, leaving her with her manchild-ish son, his ditzy girlfriend, her brother and his snobbish girlfriend, her husband's best friend who's desperately trying to cover up how much he's fallen in love with Cathy, and her dead husband's typically old white folk assholish parents. There are two seasons of 6 30-minute episodes each, each episode covering fairly close to what feels like half an hour of "real time," a random day out of Cathy's life in widowhood, and each season covers a year. A third and final season is shooting this fall, to air some time after.
The secondary characters can grate pretty hard, especially early in season 1 before you start to get to know them and the things that make them behave the way they do, and it's a comedy, so it revels in those apparent stereotypes and absurd situations—but then it will also spiral into this weirdly well observed meditation on grief, on family ties, on the lot of women who are expected to just go quietly into the night once they're past the age of 40 and who are quietly but firmly refusing to do so. (It helps that Cathy, said older woman, is basically the only character who isn't actively absurd in one way or another, though you do find yourself wanting her to tell everyone to shut the hell up and get out of her house for 5 seconds.) The writing is pretty intricate and sharp, and the acting is great--most especially Lesley Manville and Peter Mullan, who plays Michael, her and her husband's old best friend. (The slow, slow burn romance between them is almost the platonic ideal of over-50s heterosexual romance, if you're into that, and Michael is pretty wonderful as a love interest--caring but not overprotective or overburdening, with a shared bizarre sense of humor with Cathy, and the show really digs into Cathy's grief and allows her to work through the death of her husband without trying to shove her too quickly into a new romance.) I'll be requesting Cathy and Cathy/Michael shenanigans because I am a complete sucker for Lesley's face and old folks who are horny for one another.
WHERE CAN I FIND IT?: It's a BBC product; it's on Britbox streaming in the US and Canada. (Not sure about in the UK, as I'm not located there.) It's also fairly easy to find on DVD etc. and...other corners of the internet.
MUM (BBC comedy, 2016-present)
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Okay, Mum is a bit of a weird beast. It's a family sitcom, sort of, but of course this is British comedy we're talking about, so it's got a searing edge to it and many of the characters and interactions involved are actively awkward/embarrassment-inducing in many ways. The set-up is pretty straightforward--Lesley Manville is Cathy, a 59-year-old woman whose husband dies, leaving her with her manchild-ish son, his ditzy girlfriend, her brother and his snobbish girlfriend, her husband's best friend who's desperately trying to cover up how much he's fallen in love with Cathy, and her dead husband's typically old white folk assholish parents. There are two seasons of 6 30-minute episodes each, each episode covering fairly close to what feels like half an hour of "real time," a random day out of Cathy's life in widowhood, and each season covers a year. A third and final season is shooting this fall, to air some time after.
The secondary characters can grate pretty hard, especially early in season 1 before you start to get to know them and the things that make them behave the way they do, and it's a comedy, so it revels in those apparent stereotypes and absurd situations—but then it will also spiral into this weirdly well observed meditation on grief, on family ties, on the lot of women who are expected to just go quietly into the night once they're past the age of 40 and who are quietly but firmly refusing to do so. (It helps that Cathy, said older woman, is basically the only character who isn't actively absurd in one way or another, though you do find yourself wanting her to tell everyone to shut the hell up and get out of her house for 5 seconds.) The writing is pretty intricate and sharp, and the acting is great--most especially Lesley Manville and Peter Mullan, who plays Michael, her and her husband's old best friend. (The slow, slow burn romance between them is almost the platonic ideal of over-50s heterosexual romance, if you're into that, and Michael is pretty wonderful as a love interest--caring but not overprotective or overburdening, with a shared bizarre sense of humor with Cathy, and the show really digs into Cathy's grief and allows her to work through the death of her husband without trying to shove her too quickly into a new romance.) I'll be requesting Cathy and Cathy/Michael shenanigans because I am a complete sucker for Lesley's face and old folks who are horny for one another.
WHERE CAN I FIND IT?: It's a BBC product; it's on Britbox streaming in the US and Canada. (Not sure about in the UK, as I'm not located there.) It's also fairly easy to find on DVD etc. and...other corners of the internet.