This Way Up

This Way Up is one of the most likable recent representatives of the subgenre of bitter relationship comedies in which thirtysomethings deal with their fucked-up lives. Irish comedian Aisling Bea wrote the script and plays an English teacher who is getting her life together after a nervous breakdown. Sharon Horgan is traditionally great as her older and outwardly more well-balanced sister. The first season may have been a bit too low-key and lacking in comedy for some, but the second season is more brisk, entertaining and hopeful. After all, it ends with the nice title “Written for anyone who needs a reminder to find hope”. The series’ strengths remain its two perfectly cast actresses and the writer’s ability to depict complex emotions and a broad range of themes through simple situations. This time the foundation consists in the uncertainty accompanying the establishment of new (romantic) relationships, which both sisters are facing (and which is amplified in the finial episodes by the fear of COVID-19). This is subtly linked to a number of other motifs: anxiety about being average, sibling dynamics, cultural appropriation, the inability to express and share their feelings, haemorrhoids... The series is not in any way overbearing and the drama is naturally complemented by the humour that arises from what the sensitively drawn characters experience. So, for example, the line “I've spent the last four months talking to my therapist about you”, while funny, has a certain depth and we understand everything else that it involves and why it leads to the characters coming closer together. It's not the series event of the season, but I was simply delighted by all of the episodes due to their aptness, unforced nature and balanced quality. (2021.09.05)