User reviews

Series One:

Bleak black humour at it's brilliant best, the first season of Flowers is absolutely wonderful. It is a very dark comedy that will not be appreciated by everyone, it's the type that the British do very well, but if this is what you're into it'd be difficult to find something better.

Firstly, casting is simply brilliant. Barratt is simply fantastic in his role as the struggling father, you feel for him constantly and his attempts to spare his family his pain. Coleman, as always, is perfect as the starkly contrasting wife, and the twins each fit into the disfunctional family excellently. Each main character has their own arc and develop well in the space of a few short episodes. The growth is often, if not always, in a dark light, but the laughs throughout are plenty.

Sharpe clearly wrote himself the most lovable character as Shun, the Japanese illustrator who'd do anything for the Flower family. A brilliant source for jokes, or light relief from heavy subjects, it's impossible not to like him. However, when it comes to his own demons, these are by far the most powerfully emotional, simply brilliant.

The additional character of 'George' seemed unnecessary, it's an outlandish personality yes but just so dislikeable. He and ' Abigail' didn't truly bring anything to the show, they interlinked with a couple of the arcs but really nothing important. However this would be my only critism, the visuals, dialogue, and everything else were perfect.

Series One: 9/10

Series Two:

Where did it all go wrong? The second series is just infinitely worse as it loses any sense of humour, or emotion, or relatability. Focus switches heavily to 'Amy', who was a great character in the first series. This time around, it's just too heavy and dives so far into lunacy that it loses any sense of comedy. The Baumgaetner arc is dull and pointlessly surreal, and wastes so much time that it's almost as if the other characters' developments no longer matter, which is a shame because 'Donald' gets given another dimension.

Acting wise there can still be no complaints, but the weird sense of relation you may have gained with each character is lost here. Laughs come up every so often, but not much. Even 'Shun' is taken away, as he turns to drink. I imagine this could have been a really great story if the surrounding context was better in any way, the same could be said for 'Maurice'. The series does ditch the previously pointless characters, but they are replaced to a lesser extent.

In all fairness the final two episodes are better, particularly the last, which is beautiful. But this is only because it's more of a prequel/flashback, and the emotion and innocence of Shun is explored.

However, it's disappointing that Flowers turned out so differently in the second season, no element of comedy was there. The ending is lovely in a way, but I'm not sure it makes up for the rest.

Series Two: 6/10

Please give this beautiful show a try. It's funny, dark, quirky and brilliant. It's primarily a portrayal of mental illness and it's forms, but is character driven. It's part high art, part horror imagery.. part comedy, part awkward Brit cringe-drama. Don't pass it up if you enjoy deep themes and excellent acting. Cinematography is top notch, also!

Remember when Channel 4 was home to edgy, intelligent comedy, subversive music, cult films and late-night, stoner-vision staples such as Vidz? Me too. Albeit through a hazy vignette next to memories of carving flints and ducking pterodactyls.

All the more surprising then that Channel 4 should spring Flowers on us. At first glance a sort of grim fairytale about a dysfunctional family living in darkest Surrey, but also an often genuinely funny and heartfelt character study which has had me both laughing out loud and tearing up more often than I'd want to admit.

The characters are of course what drive Flowers. Julian Barratt, as a depressed children's author, gives every bit as fantastic a performance as you'd expect, while a special mention deserves to go to lesser known Sophia Di Martino, whose portrayal of creepy, socially isolated daughter, Amy, could've been one-dimensional, but is played with an almost profound depth and sensitivity, and soon becomes someone you genuinely find yourself caring about.

Will Sharpe's writing displays a maturity beyond his years, along with a wonderfully surreal and original sense of humour.

Of course not everyone will warm to it. It starts off depicting a failed suicide attempt – clearly its main intent is not winning over Daily Mail readers or the easily offended. It pulls no punches in its depiction of depression, but also manages to find a strange beauty in it. It's somewhat near-the-knuckle in Sharpe's depiction of his own Japanese heritage, and may even raise a few eyebrows with its tongue-in-cheek conflating of "feminist" and "lesbian".

But the whole thing is sewn together with such rare intelligence and sensitivity, not to mention beautiful cinematography, that you never get the feeling it's opting for cheap laughs.

There's only one more episode to go, and I'm already missing it; looking to re-watching it; and annoyingly and incessantly pushing it on family and friends.

I'm not sure if this was written specifically with Olivia Colman and Julian Barratt in mind - but they are utterly brilliant and perfect for their roles.

Dealing with dark themes throughout but in an uplifting way that I can't begin to explain, there are crazy surreal moments, tones of infinite sadness, rhythms of tragedy, but also creepy awkwardness and plenty of laughs as well.

The whole story is brilliantly written and directed, and Will Sharpe is an inspiration. I'm speechless at how good this is. Drop whatever you are doing and what the whole thing in one go.

This is a great dark comedy about an extremely dysfunctional and odd family. It has an honest look on depression and how it effects yourself and the people around you with a humorous twist.

Anyone who comes from a dysfunctional family (which I'm sure is most) or has even had depression I'm sure could relate to the struggles and sometimes comedic goings on within.

The cast are all excellent and Will Sharpe himself plays a great part in uplifting some of the darkest moments throughout. Olivia Coleman and Julian Barratt are incredible.

I'm hooked and I think Will Sharpe as a writer will go far.

If you are looking for something different, that is at the same time funny, bizarre and sad - then this is for you. I found myself shaking my head, crying and laughing out loud, sometimes in one single scene. While dealing with multiple issues including severe depression, the writer draws you into the lives of the characters. Where in the first episode you feel some annoyance with them, as the story develops, you develop a sense of sympathy and understanding towards each of the characters. I was so impressed by Will Sharpe that I looked him up and will make and effort to see more of his work. Truly a brilliant mind in my opinion and I have to add that it was as if the parts were written for these particular actors. However as per some of the other reviews, it is not for everybody.

Dark, seemingly depressing too at first. However, the masterful use of the surreal and the perverse is a delight. This is Olivia Coleman at her very best, playing a wife suppressing so much turmoil that she's plainly the more troubled of the couple - in spite of Julian Barrett's superb portrayal of a suicidal husband. The addition of two deeply troubled but intriguingly bizarre "children" (living at home at 25) makes for even better viewing. Each twist of the story and development of the plot leaves me all the more enraptured - rare indeed in any TV comedy.

This is the sort of TV that only gets made when TV commissioners stop thinking about viewing figures and pandering to the hoi polloi , and instead go for something profound and amusing. The BBC should really be in the vanguard of such things, but they're always too busy in internal politics and demographical soul-searching these days. Thank the Good Lord for Channel 4.

Never heard of this. After watching Season 1 I was hooked. Great comedy, Donald is absolutely hilarious. Season 2 however was monotonous. Real shame

It appears, from the reviews posted so far, that "Flowers" is a bit like Marmite. You are going to have to try it to see for yourself.

I'm firmly in the "I love it!" camp. Beautifully shot, great acting (with standout performance by Julian Barratt), very funny and heartbreaking (in a non-cheesy way).

Although all the characters seem utterly bonkers, we can all recognise their character traits as our own. We are just better at holding it in, and pretending to ourselves that it is not there. At all.

Although this works as a stand alone, it would be a travesty if it wasn't commissioned for a second series.

Elevator pitch: Depressed Edward Gorey character, his needy, neglected wife (Olivia Colman!) and their two failed-to-launch adult children live in a remote woodsy area, amidst no-less-peculiar neighbors. You'll recall that Will Sharpe's Sherlock certainly seemed to be bipolar, with touches of OCD and Tourette's. Here we have all that and more, including maybe schizophrenia and being congenitally "so rude that you're doomed to die a virgin," as one of the younger Flowerses says to her brother. The one attractive, normal-seeming character, who's being pursued by both of them, is really just the best at keeping her issues hidden; she gets written out of the show pretty quickly.

The start-and-stop plot is propelled along by several stunted artistic projects--the latest of Mr Flowers's Snickety children's books ("The Grubbs," disdained by his humorless publishers), Mrs Flowers's tell-all memoir ("Living with the Devil," no offense meant, I'm sure) and daughter Amy's chamber cantata about the Flowers family curse (it's complicated...). Sharpe himself steals the show as Shun, Mr. F's live-in illustrator and body man; he does some great freestylin' à la Robin Williams in the first season, but his shtick gets old far too soon. (He's half-Japanese, btw, so only the English half's taking work away from an equally qualified Asian actor.)

The Flowers ménage takes some getting used to at first, but we found the rest of the season quite entertaining, occasionally poignant (most notably, Shun's monologue about the events that brought him to England from Japan). Season two gets off to a decent start, but we started having doubts pretty quickly; for one thing, Sharpe the comedy writer doesn't give himself and his colleagues much to work with.

I've read that "Flowers" was influenced by Japanese TV comedy, in which, from what little I've seen, improv and mimicry of out-of-control behavior are more highly prized than they are over here (by us at any rate). By S2e3 we were feeling like one of those much-missed Netflix reviewers who so often wanted the last half-hour of their lives back...

If you are looking for something lighthearted and uplifting to make you laugh, stay away.

Acting is superb, dream and hallucination sequences are spectacular. But overall this is very disturbing and not what I want to watch.

From the first scene I was gripped and slowly drawn into the deepest recesses of the characters lives. This is drama at its best, red in tooth and claw, with humorous passages weaved throughout, temporarily lifting the tension only for a brief moment.

This is one of the best comedy/dramas ever, it deserves to become a cult classic. If you only watch one thing this year make it flowers.

Intense performances from all, but for me Sophia Di Martino was especially memorable and Shun's story especially moving.

If you like your drama stylish, taut and a bit bonkers, I recommend Flowers heartily.

This is peepshow meet Tamara Drew with a splash of Cohen brother and Time Burton to boot. A grand cast of bizarre characters all spiraling out of control in a grim situation comedy. Julian Barrett is on top form and the interactions are subtle and don't pander to archetypes instead allowing itself to be a little obscure. Between the suicidal children's book writer, the neurotic trombone instructor, the art hour psychopathic sister and the inventor wannabe brother; there is enough in the just the flowers family alone for a great shower never mind the auxiliary characters that also seem to have had the same level of care put into them. This screams cult classic even if the general British public don't adopt it right away, it will find a very loving home with film/TV/comedy fans everywhere much like "Nighty night" or "Monkeydust".

"Flowers" is dark, funny, poignant, and smart. A terrible beauty. I couldn't look away, and couldn't stop watching until I'd finished the entire series in a single sitting.

Will Sharpe's superb writing is brought to life by an equally superb cast of actors who give stunning performances. Barratt and Coleman in serious roles are a revelation. Sophia Di Martino and Daniel Rigby are convincingly fragile, but still relatable and even likable. Sharpe's acting is as powerful as his writing, adopting the role of Shun -- the Japanese glue barely holding this broken English family together.

"Flowers" is easily some of the best television I've seen, and I'll be following Sharpe's career with great interest.

Once in a while a rare show comes around and surprises you completely out of the blue. It's impossible to pick one genre to describe this show, it's a wonderful mix of different genres that compliment each other/

The characters in this show feel completely relatable, yet also distant at the same time. I really felt their struggles and pain throughout the series. It's a dark comedy on the surface but goes much deeper into the emotions of the characters. It really all comes together really well.

I can't wait to see what Will Sharpe works on next. The actors are brilliant in this. Julian Barratt's best role since Mighty Boosh. Olivia Colman and Will Sharpe easily steal the show in my opinion though.

Can't recommend this show enough! It's one of a kind.

Flowers is like a warm hug from someone who loves you, whose love you feel you don't deserve.

Loved everything about this little gem. Wish I'd discovered it sooner and that there were more episodes. Great acting, sharp, funny with somehow surreal but also heartbreakingly real writing. Just binged both seasons and feel like putting episode one on again. I don't want to leave the Flowers's world 😂

I truly have no idea what people see in this show. I love dark comedies, I love British shows, big fan of Olivia Coleman...but this is just bizarre and not in an endearing way.

Two other reviews mentioned the characters are an eccentric melancholy group of misfits and I thought that's a fair description. I feel bad since he is the director, but Will Sharpe's performance was so cringe, I couldn't stand his character or seeing him on screen. I didn't find him humorous in the slightest, and the other character in the show with the most comedic lines is also offputting (Rigby).

I also thought the way they portrayed depression was a bit odd, though Olivia listening to the tapes was a strong scene. I'd rate the show lower if I didn't see all of the glowing reviews, so clearly it fits some people's tastes better than mine, and it wasn't atrocious, just not enjoyable to watch.

Flowers will take you to the brink of crying, only to slip in a one-liner that will make you chortle through the tears.

What an absolutely unique vision Will Sharpe has. This is one of the few shows I believe deserves far more praise and recognition. Undeniably English dark comedy with that extra something brought on by the influence of Japanese comedy.

There is so much heart here and some of the most important messages don't need to be explicit. It is the ones that linger between the lines that reach deep down and leave you feeling bittersweet but hopeful.

Flowers is an emotional rollercoaster of the best kind.

I had no idea what this show would be about when I started watching. But I'm glad I watched the first 2-3 episodes because after that I was hooked.

It's super creative and gives a good account of what it's like to be depressed and to live with someone who's depressed.

Very poignant, well worth the watch.