The Cutprice Guignol

I truly do not know where to start with Am I Being Unreasonable?.

Well, that’s not quite true. I know that I want to tell you that you should watch the first season of this 2022 British series before the next one drops in a few months, because I need as many people ready to talk to me about it when it comes out. But when it comes to telling you why you should watch it, fuck, I really need to take a second.

Let’s start with the facts. The show, written by and starring Daisy May Cooper (of the unbelievably brilliant This Country) and Selin Hizli, follows Nic (Cooper), a middle-class mum in a grim marriage who’s grieving the recent loss of her affair partner – who just so happens to be her husband’s brother. But, when a new mum Jen (Hizli) appears at the school drop-off line, Nic finds herself forming a bond with the newcomer – despite Jen’s distinctly questionable history.

And you’ll notice that I’ve avoided landing this show in a specific genre, because, truth be told, I don’t really know where it falls. A thriller? Sure. A comedy? Absolutely. A drama? That too, sometimes. A psychological horror? Oh, go on then, just a wee drop. To call it ambitious would be a bit of an understatement – bringing together all these disparate pieces in just six half-hour episodes is downright foolhardy on the surface, and, even sometimes watching the show, it’s hard to believe that they all work as well as they do.

But what I think the show embraces that allows it to pull this off as well as they do is the depth of Hizli and Cooper – both as characters, as writers, and as actors. There’s been a swell in the female anti-hero in the last decade or so (and, trust me, I gobble it up in every single iteration, every single time), and one of the best parts about seeing pop culture embrace the truly Not Very Nice woman is how it’s liberated them from being stuck in certain genres and archetypes. Cooper and Hizli, in the writing and execution of Jen and Nic, dive into those new opportunities with glee, never afraid to make their characters hilarious, hateful, or sympathetic in equal measure. I was nearly sobbing with laughter at Nic refusing to see a neighbour’s stand-up comedy debut, and, in the same episode, spooked, sad, angry, and hurt for her, all at once. They’re a joy to watch as leads, centrepieces to this disparate show that spins around them.

And the show that surrounds them, with such a solid grounding in their characters, is just outstanding. From Lenny Rush (free from the confines of those dreadful Doctor Who episodes, my poor, sweet boy) as Nic’s sharp-elbowed, slightly screwed-up son to Dustin Demri-Burns (yes, Stath Lets Flats, my beloved) as her emotionally raw but also fundamentally twattish husband, to guest star royalty like Jessica Hynes in the second half of the season, it’s just so well-stocked with excellent performers who are served by a brilliant script.

Wherever you think it’s going after that first episode, Am I Being Unreasonable? going to double back on you, make you second-guess everything, and leave you with a ridiculously juicy twist that just demands a return for a second season. I’m so excited for the upcoming sequel in 2025, and I can’t wait to see what this weird, brilliant genre clash comes up with next. Or just how disaffectedly Daisy May Cooper can drink a glass of wine in her conservatory.

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(header image via The Spool)