2 out of 5

Created by: Stefan Golaszewski

covers season 1

The recently-widowed Cathy (Lesley Manville) spends the year – the six episodes of the season each touching on a various month – pleasantly smiling through the innocent or ignorant offenses or those who shuffle through her house: her son Jason (Sam Swainsbury), his girlfriend Kelly (Lisa McGrillis), her brother Derek and his wife, Pauline (Ross Boatman, Dorothy Atkinson), not to mention occasional visits from her own parents and Kelly’s mother and friends.  Every single one of these characters says unbelievably (literally) stupid things, directly or indirectly offensive, and Cathy just cocks her head in response, occasionally offering a witty, and unappreciated, cutting reply.  The only sane person seemingly remaining in her life is friend of the family Michael (Peter Mullan), who’s been there through thick and thin, and probably maybe harbors a massive crush on the nerves-of-steel Cathy.

On the surface, the setup is very similar to creator Stefan Golaszewski’s previous comedy Him & Her: our narrative anchor, warts and all but completely human, exists in the center of a whirlwind of ridiculousness, the stories all centering around one main location.  In H&H that was an apartment; here, it’s Cathy’s house.  And Lesley Manville – we’ll obviously call her the “Her” in this equation – is marvelously charming in the lead, just bringing the right touch of incredulousness to the scenes, Golaszewski’s script giving her the perfect grin-and-bear-it lines to utter, that we’ve all uttered in the face of inconveniences from family and friends.  But a big blow is that we’re lacking the “Him.”  And that’s nothing to do with gender, so much as it is to give the lead – our point of view, our entrypoint – some other sane correspondent to exchange looks with, or conversation with.  To voice those things that a simpler setup would’ve left to voiceover.  “Comedy,” even droll comedy like Mum, generally requires this outlet.  Michael, presumably, is supposed to take up that role, but he’s notoriously tight-lipped throughout the show, due to his feelings, and the duo mostly talk about anything besides what’s going on, which is backwardsly driven home in the final episode, when they review events from the passed year to which the audience was never privy.  Mullan plays the role well, it’s just not a satisfying dynamic.

This then throws out of whack the main source of comedy: all the hanger-ons.  Him & Her pulled the same trick of taking obnoxious qualities and creating entire characters out of them, but it worked because their problems were just window dressing to the leads’ lives.  Here, Golaszewski takes up the entire season dawdling with Jason and Kelly’s relationship – Jason is amusingly aloof but Kelly is annoying – and Derek and Pauline’s relationship, something something to cast a light on Cathy’s contemplation on her own life (or that she never has the time to deal with it), but that’s too high level of a concept to pull off in the 20something minutes we’re given, especially when it’s obvious we’re supposed to be laughing at the stupid shit these people are saying.  And it is funny, it just has no counterpoint, so the series loses its humanity.

Which should sort of be the focus, I feel.

If Manville wasn’t so charming in the role, Mum wouldn’t have much to offer.  If this were an American series, every single comment would be backed up by someone mugging at the camera, and you’d look at disgust at the people laughing at it.  It’s unfortunate because the intentions are good, and knowing what Golaszewski accomplished with H&H, you can see the potential for something more effective if some pieces had just been slightly rearranged.