I've written reviews for each season of "Ladhood" and posted them on the final episodes of each run but I thought I'd put something here on the shows page too.
Liam Williams criminally underappreciated autobiographical sitcom "Ladhood" arrives at its bittersweet conclusion. I was turned on to the show by the second season being included in the Guardian's top 50 TV shows of 2021 list.
Liam (Liam Williams) is an adult struggling to understand why he is the way he is. Directionless and angry, he explores his childhood in Garforth, for clues as to his mental state. He grew up with three close friends, Adnan (Aqib Khan), Ralph (Samuel Bottomley) and Tom (Shaun Thomas) in the lower middle-class Northern town, where boredom, hormones and existential angst threaten to overwhelm them.
The scenes set in the 90's, evocative of the time, with the Playstation 2's, dial up internet and burgeoning R&B scene could, in the wrong hands, have felt like a milder retread of "The Inbetweeners". What elevates this though is that adult Liam comes with us on these flashbacks, and narrates the storylines, undercutting the rougher moments with 21st century commentary and apologies. It's having its cake and eating it too, a bit - but it's often a very funny aspect of the show. The longer the series runs, the more it plays with its concepts too, as adult Liam is blindsided by forgotten memories, or the truth of a romanticised situation and it may feed back into what's happening in his adult life.
So, it's excellent, but I do agree it's the right time to bring the show to an end, both before the younger cast age out of playing teenagers and the show is forced to start repeating itself. But it's a poignant and funny time and I look forward to seeing what Liam Williams writes next.
