Such Brave Girls

A family of three (mom and two daughters) is trying to solve their existential problems involving love, trauma, money, housing, by hooking up with men that they think are there to grab.

The mother is lying and doing her best to charm a single odd man who has a big house with heated floor though he never pays for anything in their relationship.

The beautiful daughter is being silly after a guy who cheats on her and leaves her every time he feels like it.

The second daughter is a wannabe complex girl who is afraid of anything and is making excuses to drop and run away from anything coming her way.

I love all three of them.

The comedy is smart, at a fast pace, quirky, and has few sexual scenes, one in particular involving the two sisters trying to test for pregnancy right after one had sex. Imagine what s coming down.. Anyway, big surprise seeing such a unique take on comedy and drama.

You should see this one.

I binge watched this in two days. It's the type of comedy that us Brits do really well. There is nothing 'polished' about it. It's down and dirty and very real. The relationship between the two sisters is brilliant. A combination of disdain, toxicity, combined-delusion and affection. And then I found out that they're sisters in real life! I think it's the raw honesty that makes this so funny. The acting from the whole cast is spot-on. From Louise Brealey as mum, Deb, who plays favourites in the most narcissistically manipulative way, to Freddie Meredith as Seb, the wet-dishcloth 'boyfriend' of Josie. As for Lizzie Davidson who plays one of the sisters, Billie, and Kate Sadler as Josie. Just wow! No doubt the honesty and chemistry between Billie and Josie came from the actresses being sisters in real life. Yet, even so, the acting is top notch. In some ways, I imagine it could be more difficult to play out what was, undoubtedly, certain real scenarios or feelings from their own personal lives. But they put it all on the line in the most endearing, gross, watchable and compelling way. This makes you feel so many emotions. It's laugh-out -loud funny and it definitely makes you cringe at times. These characters should be unlikable, but they're not. And that's because such a good job is done of exposing their vulnerabilities amid the humour and self-serving actions of the sisters and their mum. Each character is multi-dimensional - even Dev (mum's boyfriend). As a viewer, it's hard to get a grasp on his motivation. He's a combination of wet, weird, sympathetic and odd. And it's impossible to know who's playing who as Deb desperately tries to work her way into moving her and their girls into Dev's huge house, yet seems to end up always paying for everything (including his petrol). This is up there as one of the best comedies in recent years. And I think that's because it doesn't 'try' to be funny - it just is. It takes brilliant writing, as well as acting, to pull that off; so I was in awe when I found out Kate Sadler, who plays Josie, also wrote this. And she's still in her 20s! I literally can't wait to see what she comes up with next.

This script is incredibly sharp, with very few wasted words or predictable lines. The dialogue seems to go from one ridiculous and funny line to the next. And there are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments in every episode, usually when somebody says something in an unusual way. I particularly enjoyed the absence of any moralising. There is a whole spectrum of opinions on things like mental health, and this comedy lampoons them all. It is more interested in the absurdity of human nature, and I thoroughly enjoyed it!

All the genuinely funny sitcoms seem to be created by women these days (Sharon Horgan, Alma, Miranda, Roisin Conaty etc). I don't know if it's because the BBC and Channel 4 have stopped commissioning any men with original ideas, or if the men just prefer to do the inane banter on panel shows. Such Brave Girls was written by Kat Sadler, who also plays the central part of Josie. Her acting is equally as subtle as her writing. The mum is played by the excellent Louise Brealey, who also played the funniest character in "Back". Lizzie Davidson plays the part of Billie, a feisty sister who is the opposite of Josie in every way imaginable. The scenes largely involve the three "girls" plotting to either attract or reject three totally unsuitable men. I really hope there is a second series, as these girls haven't yet resolved any of their issues (and, of course, they never will).

If it hadn't been for a brief iPlayer promo of this series after a tribute to Caroline Aherne I would never have known it even existed; it's as if the BBC likes to keep some of its best shows well hidden.

It starts off as warped, then progresses through some very black comedy into filth; sheer, utter filth, but very, very funny. At times it strays into territory that even The League of Gentlemen (or Something About Mary if you're American) might have shied away from, but the writing is so incredibly sharp and witty that it casts aside the usual boundaries with ease.

It wasn't until I looked them up on here that I discovered that one of the sisters (Kat Sadler) was actually the writer, with no previous acting credits at all. Then, stranger still, it would appear that Lizzie Davidson, who plays her sister Billie, has never previously featured in anything of any kind. Completing this wildly dysfunctional family is the rather desperate mum, wonderfully played by Louise Brealey, who somehow seems incredibly familiar to me, but not from in anything that I recognise.

Paul Bazely, as mum's prospective suitor Dev, seems one of those characters who you have seen pop up in minor roles for years, without ever really taking much notice. His character is a seriously creepy widower/divorcee/fraudster/murderer - who knows? With his odd lifestyle and strange behaviour, he is the one thread which remains loose and unexplained.

This is of of those very British comedies which could almost certainly never be shown in America, where exploding heads are fine, yet subjects such as abortion within the context of comedy are completely out of bounds. Also ruling out a US showing is the absence of a laughter track, which is thankfully absent here and would have killed it stone dead.

There are probably enough loose ends to make a second series if there was sufficient demand, but I feel it might be better to leave this as a true classic of a one-off (see also Bridget Christie's The Change). I feel that one thing we can be sure of though is that we certainly haven't heard the last of those involved.

There's plenty of dark humour in 'Such Brave Girls', the story of mother and her two daughters trying to make sense of their lives and loves; and I smiled fairly often while watchig it. But great sitcom (as opposed to a quick sketch) doesn't just need a set of self-sabotaging characters: it also needs something they can sabotage. And if they're deluded, it helps if this delusion is in essence believable. In 'Fawlty Towers', Basil is always so close to, but also so far from, running his idea of a quality hotel. Black comedy is best when you recognise that something like it could happen to you. But in 'Such Brave Girls', the failings of our trio (and also those of their menfolk) are so front and centre that disaster feels inevitable; the most telling moments are foreshadowed by the essence of the setup, while spritely music connecting individual scences invites us not to take the story too seriously. The script does have merits; but the feeling of pervasive cheapness lets it down.