SummaryPaul (Martin Freeman) and Ally (Daisy Haggard) are raising their two children when Ally’s father (Michael McKean) shows up in this comedy co-created by Freeman, Chris Addison, and Simon Blackwell.
SummaryPaul (Martin Freeman) and Ally (Daisy Haggard) are raising their two children when Ally’s father (Michael McKean) shows up in this comedy co-created by Freeman, Chris Addison, and Simon Blackwell.
They deal with predictable domestic disasters, some of them feebly constructed, but the British realism makes it all feel less sitcomy and manipulative than other shows of its ilk. One of the best treats is the relationship between Paul and Ally.
While Freeman and Haggard give strong performances, the show often plays out like a comedian who has gone too far in trying to figure out what’s funny without seeing what actually works.
The 10-part series is technically a comedy, but it hits so many pressure points so hard in such rapid succession that if you do laugh it will be through some quite considerable anxiety and pain. I mean that as a compliment.
The death of a family pet, among other events, leads to an offbeat but earnest meditation on grief (and the bizarre forms it can take), making it clear that the writers are much more adept at exploring darkness with candor and a splash of whimsy than introducing hollow edge to the parenting sitcom. That chapter offers an auspicious dramatic turn to this derivative, rarely laugh-out-loud funny yet wholly promising comedy.