Feel Good

Wow. I really don't know what to say. Well let's start with the fact that this was the worst series I have watched this year.

Apparently it's a comedy as the main character is a stand-up comedian and CONSTANTLY joking. Most of the times it was okay. But it started to get annoying when even the more serious scenes had a lot of joking around. Overall I didn't like at all how the serious topics were handled. Maybe I'm just too serious but I want to see at least a bit of hard emotions when the subject matter requires them.

The acting felt forced and the cutting of the scenes didn't give much help as it was very quick and pointy if you know what I mean. Everything was happening way too fast. The reveals and hints were obvious and dropped on your face as heavily as an elephant. The interactions between the characters lacked chemistry and felt awkward most of the time.

I felt very frustrated with the characters and their decisions and actions. Some of them were so absurd that I found myself thinking that people in real life wouldn't act that way.

One thing I found good was the representation this series gives to minorities. I learned more about what everyday life feels like when you're transgender. And I have to say it started to get better towards the end of the season. It still wasn't good though...

I stumbeled upon this series and I immediatly loved it. It's engaging, intelligent, funny, feels real and spontaneous, and it tugs on your heart at all the right places. I got so engrossed in relationship between characters that I felt alongside them love, happiness, shame, fear, confusion, anxiety -the whole whirlwind, that I have a desire to watch it again just to catch all the funny puns and dialoges that went on and that I possibly missed the first time. Anyway, cheering on for season 2!

If you like Mae Martin and want some representation, there's a good chance you'll really like this. It's quite well done - the acting and writing are solid and it tackles some deeper issues as well. I think most of the negative reviews are coming from people who had different expectations / didn't fully understand or enjoy the humor, but I thought it was hilarious and sweet.

There's a bit of a spate of quasi-biography comedian-as-themselves type drama/comedies on British TV in the last few years but Mae Martin's brittle and razor sharp tale of rehabilitation, relapse and relationships is by far and away the most painful and beautiful of all of them. Aided by a remarkably strong support cast (Charlotte Ritchie is spellbinding here particularly - and you keenly miss Sophie Thompson in the second series) but all oscillating around a mesmerically layered performance from Martin. Feel Good can really genuinely hurt you but there's a powerful strength to it to. Deeply underrated and not to be ignored.

I want to like this show. And I'm trying. But there are quite a few stumbling blocks in the way and I guess the biggest one is that I get zero chemistry between the two main characters. Absolutely none. And if you don't have that, you can't believe they would go through all they are going through. Beyond that I am finding the acting to often be mediocre and their rapid fire dialogue is sometimes hard to follow. I am a bit more than halfway through the episodes and while mildly intrigued where this is going and how it will end, still I am contemplating not continuing. I watch tv to be entertained and this show is just not cutting it on on several levels.