3 out of 5

Created by: Stefan Golaszewski

Him & Her, like the relationship on which it focuses, starts out very much as a vehicle for observational gags on boys and girls and the genitalia that connects them, then matures bit by bit – sporadic moments of heartfelt emotions – emerging as an almost fully realized chronicle on falling in love.  While that evolution was probably accidental, the tunnel vision of the subject matter and characters is not, and is absolutely Golaszewski’s shtick: Him & Her takes place, for the first three seasons, exclusively in lead duo Becky (Sarah Solemani) and Steve’s (Russell Tovey) bedroom + kitchen apartment, or in the vestibule just outside of the apartment.  On those occasions when they try to leave, sifting through the piles of clothes and old food they seem to happily exist in, one of the few other cast members – upstairs slovenly neighbor Dan (Joe Wilkinson); Becky’s sister Laura (Kerry Howard) – will show up and sequester the happenings back into the apartment.  Not that this isn’t preferable to Becky and Steve, who are of a like mind in enjoying the indoors and making fun of each other and having sex and conversing absently about the world, but as evidence of how the flow for the show took on more shape in subsequent seasons, Golaszewski would have one of the two leave the apartment on occasion early on, just not on camera.

While it’s possible I just haven’t gotten out enough, the relationship, as depicted, feels like something of a fantasy.  Becky and Steve take the piss out of each other enough, but the complete dedication to isolation is not something I’ve ever seen expressed from a couple (and if I’m being more open: from a female), and so I admittedly had to suspend disbelief to allow the show’s comedic gifts to work, which they do more often than not.  The casting of the excrutiatingly likeable and believable deadpan Solemani and goofy Tovey are key to this, though, as their “two against the world” shared looks help soothe the ridiculousness of the side characters, especially Laura, who is one of the most awful characters ever created.  Early on, Golaszewski plays this element as a completely ridiculous counterpoint, pairing Howard with the equally obnoxious – but in a more piggish, douchebag way – Paul (Ricky Champ), her husband-to-be.  Similarly, Dan’s grossly invasive behavior is so out there that it can be used for cringe-inducing chuckles.  But as the series wears on and these characters get more of a place in the “world” of Him & Her, while Dan’s reliable oddity becomes charming, Laura just becomes more ridiculous, to the point of crushing the suspensions on that disbelief.  Thankfully, Becky and Steve’s relationship starts to become more fleshed out at the same time, grounding things… but it’s a very precarious balance, thrown more and more out of whack the worse Laura gets.

To all of these actors’ credits, I’m talking about their scripted roles; the actors commit to the parts fully, and for better or worse.

Season three is perhaps the show’s masterstroke, as various emotions percolate satisfyingly, but I’m thankful it ended with season four, as a certain character “twist” didn’t feel like it synced up with what came before, and the show starts to broach sappy territory.

But, beneath all of these attempts to “enrich” the material – which is the more full-on direction Golaszewski took with followup series Mum, featuring a similar spread of identifiable characters and reprobates and which wasn’t nearly as enjoyable as Him & Her – there’s a writer / creator who liked poking at traditional relationship and rolling them about in the trash a bit, with blue jokes and cringe humor littered about a goofy and deadpan sensibility which, as you’ll note above, are the main adjectives I used to describe Steve and Becky…  So despite Stefan’s enjoyment of surrounding us with obnoxious asides, the core of H&H was well-realized and generally relatable.  And most importantly: very watchable.