Mum

Divided opinions, I see. Today, I watched episode 1., just to see what it was like. Two hours later, I'd exhausted catch-up, and am bereft. There has never been a TV character, (same name!) who is ME, before. She is me, and she is all my middle-aged, single, female friends with grown-up children. She's much nicer, and more patient than me, but that is my life, I swear. Apart from the patient, strong, devoted admirer, alas. There are criticisms above of the characters of Kelly and Pauline. I couldn't disagree more. Those women aren't just flawed and a bit annoying, like most of us in real life, they have a back-story that is rather tragic, and beautifully played. Beautifully. My middle son has an ex who is Kelly. The ex is a Ph.D student, but the life and chat and mannerisms are the same as Kelly's. Even the face, figure and hair are almost identical, but I can't credit casting with that!

OH, how I enjoyed it. Along with the laughs, I suddenly burst into tears at Kelly's mum's behaviour, and Kelly's reaction. That struck a chord. Have bossed my Facebook friends into watching MUM at the soonest opportunity. I congratulate everyone involved. Thank You.

I see that this show has divided opinions. Personally, I love it.

Season one starts with the funeral of Cathy's husband and each of the first six episodes are scattered through the next year at Cathy's house and follow her and her family. The relationships are beautifully observed with delicate writing and fine acting.

At the centre is Cathy (Lesley Manville) and Michael (Peter Mullan) whose will it/won't it relationship is developed with aching slowness and the depth of emotion is so contained that it's almost all in the smallest detail of the performance - glances and smiles, hope and frustration. There's a temptation to seek Cathy as passive and put-upon, but she has the measure of all the people around her and she deals with them on her own terms. She's no one's fool. Michael, meanwhile, is totally lovelorn but incapable of action.

Then there's Kelly. Kelly is brilliant. She's totally, hopelessly daft but as the show unrolls she's the one who deepens most - her relationship with her mother (in episode 3) and her conversation with foxes (episode 5) are some of the show's highlights. There's a bit in episode five where she asks Cathy if she's laughing at her or with her and, while we might have laughed at Kelly earlier in the series, there's no doubt we're laughing with her now - it's a very nice piece of writing and performance. Lisa McGrillis manages to be both maddeningly irritating and sweetly innocent in the same moment.

The supporting characters are also excellent - Pauline is tooth- achingly annoying and yet believably damaged, Derek is hopeless, Jason is useless and Maureen and Reg - Cathy's parents-in-law - are fantastically dysfunctional and grumpy.

Normally I like my comedy a bit more in your face than Mum but the quality of the performance and writing really raises this to another level. It's a show I find myself grinning broadly at from the opening scenes to the closing credits. I hope there'll be more.

I watched all 6 episodes of Mum, I was hooked after the first and I'm praying there will be at least a season 2! A perfect cast for this sad comedy - All through the episodes you are left without doubt that the death of 'Dad' has an impact on each character with the exception of new girlfriend 'Kelly' (Lisa McGrillis)who is only meeting 'Mum' at the funeral - Lisa makes Kelly the most endearing girl in the world, I howled with laughter at her social skills, yet I had tears in my eyes listening to her Chav mothers references to her and Kelly's brave attempts to pretend she couldn't care less when really every word was a dagger in her heart - Cathy (mum) played by the brilliant Lesley Manville, has the temperament I pray for and her kindness to Kelly has the warmth of a log fire in winter - The scene when Cathy finds Kelly so broken at her mothers character assassination of her was beautiful! You will need tissues for this one, one for wiping the tears of laughter away and one for the tears of sadness watching Kelly, such a lovely caring soul, being demolished by her own mother, when she wishes Cathy was her Mum and Kelly wanting so badly to get it right, not for selfish reasons but for everyone else. When a character makes me want to hold them lovingly I know the actress/actor has played the part perfectly - Wow! Brilliant from the top down!

In this world, we desperately need more beautifully written and expertly performed comedy dramas that focus on some of the better aspects of human life with relatable relationships, characters, and situations. A real gem.

I watched this, after finding it on the recommendations list on this site (i.e. "other people that liked this, also liked THIS").

Not knowing what to expect (but encouraged by the rating), I binged- watched all 6 episodes and found myself genuinely dismayed that it was over!

As for some of the characters--well...the actors play their parts so well and it is written SO WELL that I cry every time someone is mean to Kelly (She's just dumb, and doesn't know any better. Last I checked that wasn't a crime, or a reason to be mean to someone), and frankly, the character of her mother, and the way she treated Kelly (who isn't SO dumb that she doesn't realize her mom is a mean snake), just makes me want to four-five her. I guess that's because I've known real people like that. Mean people suck. The fact that Cathy (the Mum) puts up with Kelly's numerous verbal faux pas is really endearing. She seems to understand, and empathizes with her. Just what a Mum ought to do! I know a lot of people that lack the internal "filter," so I guess I'm used to this, too!

Anytime something makes the viewer "feel" something (besides disgust!), it's a GOOD thing. Some of the characters are awkward with each other, but I think this would happen in real life, too.

I sincerely hope they do a second season. I know that BBC sometimes does these little half-shows like this (Fleabag was another), but I hope there is a chance to develop this into something long term.