The characters drink theirs in high-ceilinged LA bars, or in the cavernous kitchen-diner of faded web guru Alex (Tommy Dewey), whose sister Valerie (Michaela Watkins), a shrink who needs therapy more than her clients do, lives with him because they’re both such hopeless romantic screw-ups. While other dramas squawk for constant attention – or send you into binge spirals – Casual is the secret friend you can not see for months and then meet for an easy catch-up over a massive glass of wine. Every carefully curated watchlist needs a programme like this: a half-hour dramedy you can whack on for a reliable, smartly written hit of escapism. Rebecca NicholsonĬasual Amazon Prime The title may be warmly ironic – this is a show about single people for whom dates are freighted with anxiety – but it’s a fitting description of the audience’s relationship with this ace US show. Part of the joy of each episode is seeing where it will go next, and it’s always a surprise – from characters turning into animals to a particularly knotty and anarchic segment which addresses racism in a way that swerves categorisation. As a portrait of mental illness, it’s astonishing – not least because it finds such humour in despair – but as a spectacle it’s even better. It takes the breathless pace and zing of Bamford’s visionary standup and throws it into a Day-Glo version of Hollywood, where she is attempting to resurrect her career, revive her love life and bring her entire community together by means of installing a bench in front of her house. But US comic Maria Bamford’s joyful, surreal and ambitious sitcom – which loosely tells the story of her real-life breakdown and subsequent recovery – is a true delight. Lady Dynamite Netflix This is probably the most idiosyncratic show on the Netflix roster, and it’s certainly one of the least known. Photograph: Doug Hyun/Netflix/Saeed Adyani/Netflix Sam WolfsonĪ joyful, surreal sitcom … Lady Dynamite. When a joke eventually comes along it’s never just throwaway: it makes you laugh from somewhere deep inside. That’s what makes One Mississippi worth your time.
He is fantastic, both inexpressibly sad and emotionless. Its greatest asset in doing so is John Rothman, who plays Tig’s stepfather, mourning his wife by getting increasingly pernickety about light-switch etiquette. That is the level the show tends to operate on: the unspeakably real. It is beyond morbid, yet there is a dark humour to the scene. Then other giggling dead women come over and join the party – they were date raped, gang-banged – all laying out their blankets for the picnic.
In another show this would be played cutesy but it gets dark quickly: her mother had a relationship with her married art teacher, Tig was molested by her grandfather. They start talking about their first sexual experiences. In one scene, Tig visits her mother’s grave, only to be visited by her vision. This show is very closely based on some aspects of her life (the lead character is called Tig and the main love interest is played by her wife Stephanie Allynne) but it also moves beyond her story, to universal themes about stoicism, homecoming and family secrets. It’s a vein of comedy that Notaro has honed and perfected in the years since that set. The set was discussed everywhere from the New York Times to This American Life, and Notaro exploded. Hours after the cancer diagnosis, she went on stage at Largo and performed a different kind of standup: terrifyingly personal, with much of the humour often coming from the implausibility of this string of events.
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But in 2012, she was beset by a series of unspeakable tragedies: she contracted a serious bacterial infection, her mother died, she was dumped by her girlfriend and found out she had breast cancer. For years, she was known in standup circles for being amusingly deadpan both on and off stage. If that all sounds a bit heavy, just you wait – it often goes 10 minutes without a joke.Ĭreated by anyone else this show would be too maudlin to bear, but in Tig Notaro’s hands it’s hilarious.
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One Mississippi Amazon Prime In the last few years there’s been a tendency for TV comedies to deal with more serious subject matter, but One Mississippi takes the sadcom to the next level – a quasi-autobiographical show which deals with death, child abuse, mastectomy and a rare intestinal disease. Created by anyone else this show would be too maudlin to bear, but in Tig Notaro’s hands it’s hilarious … One Mississippi.
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