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This Way Up gives us Aine (Aisling Bea, above) – pronounced Anya, who’s been staying in a treatment facility designed for people suffering from addiction, while she’s had a a nervous breakdown, then heads back to her job as a teacher (as if that would happen in real life).
She lives with sister Shona (Sharon Horgan), but while the trailer makes it looks like a buddy-buddy comedy, Ms Horgan is mostly in a separate sideplot and I couldn’t really get a handle on what was going on there.
This Way Up is advertised as a comedy, but as I can see from the first episode, it’s a mix of comedy and drama. However, even for the former, I’m still waiting to laugh. I get the impression that this is a very personal story for Ms Bea, or at least someone close to her which has led to her writing this, but there was just nothing that grabbed me in this whatsoever.
As such, this programme falls between two stools and then disappears through a crack in the floorboards.
Now, can someone explain why this is in a widescreen ratio even wider than a conventional movie? I know that the recent I Am series has done this, as did The Virtues, but while it can work for a movie, I don’t think it suits a TV programme, least of all one that’s based on apparent comedy.
If you enjoy it when broadcast, though, then the entire series is available to watch on All4.
Score: 0/10
This Way Up is on Thursday night on Channel 4 at 10pm. The series is not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but you can watch each episode on All 4.
Director: Alex Winckler
Producer: Gavin O’Grady
Writer: Aisling Bea
Music: Vince Pope
Cast:
Aine: Aisling Bea
Shona: Sharon Horgan
Freddie: Chris Geere
Tom: Ricky Grover
Theresa: Dystin Johnson
Victor: Todor Jordanov
Bradley: Kadiff Kirwan
Chion: Pik-Sen Lim
Vish: Aasif Mandvi
Mo: Jassem Mougari
James: Ekow Quartey
Alina: Daniela Spataru
Charlotte: Indira Varma
Psychotherapy Receptionist: Charlie Hayes
TV Presenter: Becca Stewart
Etienne: Dorian Grover
Richard: Tobias Menzies
Emma: Ambreen Razia
Matty: Trieve Blackwood-Cambridge
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.