Daddy Issues

The answer is there's a common theme amongst those who slated this - they all start by saying how little of it they actually watched! One proudly boasting they only managed 10 minutes, yet feel qualified to trash the entire series, having missed 99.9% of it 😂

We all know you can't please everyone, but the opinions of keyboard warriors with neither the patience nor respect to consider all of someone's hard work, before glibly trashing what they didn't even watch, should simply be ignored or laughed at themselves!

Brilliantly written and performed by all. Even the smallest of parts are well thought through and hard worked on. This had my wife and I laughing and talking about it for days. But that's just our (well considered) opinions 😉, your mileage may vary 😂

For the first series of a comedy show it's surprisingly good. The rapour between the leads is great and they're are a lot of good laughs. Not everything lands but it's one of the best new comedies I've seen in a long time. I've laughed out loud at least once per episode and had a beaming smile in most episodes as well.

Give the first two episodes a go if you're not sure. The first episode is probably the weakest so that's the best way to get a feel if the show is for you. It can be a bit predictable at times but that isn't really a bad thing and so I hope they make more of it! It's certainly better than the other recent comedy pilots on the BBC.

Two episodes in I wasn't sure why the newspaper I read gave it such a rave review. But, even the slow start gave some funny moments. Gemma finds out she is pregnant right at the start just as her dad is trying to recover from a very messy split from her mother. Everything start to progress when he moves in with Gemma. I really found some of the characters a little unlikeable at the beginning but even this improved each episode. Aimee Lou Wood, who I didn't really care for in the dreadful 'Seize Them' plays Gemma with a combination of biting humour and sweetness. Most of the other main characters do become more lovable but I struggled with David Morrisey as Dad (Malcolm.) He has clearly been totally emasculated by his wife but his man-child persona grates at times and I thought he became a little unbelievable, even at the end of the final episode. That said, other moments of his character are really quite funny. Do give it at least three episodes before judging it.

(Reviewed after watching the first episode.)

Bravo BBC for making an actual comedy, rather than something that thinks it is a comedy but is not actually funny.

There are some nice lines here. I especially liked the one about Argos vouchers.

Getting David Morrissey on board as the dad is a good sign. Being the only person not to have watched Sex Education (2019-2023), I'm not familiar with Aimee Lou Wood, but she also seems like a real catch. (Perhaps she looks a little bit too comedic, but she does resist the urge to ham things up.)

It's clear a lot of thought has gone into the scripts and the performances. I'm looking forward to watching the rest of the series.

The worst thing about 'Daddy Issues' has to be the title. To my mind, it hints at a much crasser, less emotionally intelligent show than the wonderfully sweet and hysterically funny comedy that it is. And I don't even dislike the title that much, but I wanted to start this review with a bit of tension because the rest of it is going to be nothing but glowing praise. How boring.

David Morrissey and rising star Aimee Lou Wood are perfectly cast as estranged father and daughter Malcolm and Gemma. Just like her standout performance in Netflix's 'Sex Education', Wood delivers the comedy lines with perfection and handles the emotional drama just as well. She really is very, very good and brilliantly funny. But I knew that already; the surprise for me was David Morrissey. I had no idea he could turn in a performance like that!

When we first meet Malcolm, he's separated from Gemma's mum and living in a dilapidated bedsit. He is - with all due respect, Malc - a bit useless and pathetic, doing his shopping at the local garage and hanging out with other bachelors like the cringe-worthy 'king' Derek (played with relish by David Fynn). It's the most purely comic performance I've ever seen Morrissey give and it's stunning in its simplicity and humanity. We all know a bloke of a certain age like Malcolm, who wouldn't survive 5 minutes without his wife or his mum or - in Malcolm's case - his daughter. Morrissey captures the subtitles of the character beautifully and can play the big moments for laughs without ever becoming a caricature.

Gemma and Malcolm's relationship is the heart of the show - in more ways than one - and it's rare to see a comedy (and this is definitely a comedy more than a comedy-drama) handle big emotions so well, or even have the guts to take them on. It's all down to series creator Danielle Ward's fantastic writing and the brilliant performances by the two leads and wonderful ensemble cast.

At about 25 minutes per episode, this six-episode series is immensely bingeable. I've just watched the whole thing tonight! Every episode is laugh out loud funny and the finale will have you in tears. But happy ones.