So the series began with a neglected, unhappy woman lying to her family (especially) and friends that she has cancer. Throughout the first season (6ep) she repeatedly doubles down on the lie as her social situations continue to improve; the rebellious child falls in line, the neglectful, cheating husband starts noticing her again...
But as the stakes climb and the lie grows untenable, ultimately everything collapses. The cat gets let out of the bag and she closes the first season losing the support of her family.
Its a decent enough story, if a bit of a constant downer. But the second season...man, they just lost focus. The mom is homeless, and starts shaking up with a sugar daddy who is flexing his liquidity from his cashier job... the older daughter joins the neighbor's cult, which bears a more than passing resemblance to Scientology. By the end of the second season, the "ceremony" the cult insists upon, as they won't attend any funeral/wake if the departed was cremated...they then serve the girl with a £13,000 bill for the ceremony, including £8,000 for the celestial grave protecting the soul after cremation (amongst other charges.) This aligns her for recruitment onto "the Boat," which is where the "Top Brass" of the group reside.
Meanwhile the husband breaks up with his pregnant girlfriend in favor of looking like a homeless person, though she hides the pregnancy from him. He winds up with an insecure slight Step-monster, who is very beautiful and very jealous of the ex-wife.
The gay son/trans(?) Son (he's all over the place, which I suppose could all be a part of growing up, but here it feels like a lack of commitment to a character identity on the writer's behalf.) Gets a painful heartbreak arc, with a partner who is abusive in his treatment, due to intolerant parents. All very cliché.
Meanwhile the newly married dad (secret/immediate Ultimatum civil service to reassure the new girlfriend of his commitment.) So now that he's married, he's discovering just how awful she is, as every little thing sets her off, but he doesn't help by lying about basically everything he does. Whether it makes sense that he would have to or not. He continues to be a shitty husband, this time getting the hots for and putting the moves on his ex wife, talking about how much he's losing, breaking up the family... basically h learns nothing, and does not change his behavior.
Oh also the tap water is no good. It's yellow like a chardonnay, and makes the younger daughter sick during her dance party.
I failed to mention the secret Italian son (adult) that mom failed to mention to her "keeper children" who shows up, ingratiates himself with her family after she's been kicked out of it, and almost starts dating the middle daughter (his half sister,) who develops a crush on him, which he fails to immediately discourage and disclose his relation to her. He chooses instead to drip the bomb on the whole family, I think at Christmas, no less.
Basically everyone is terrible, and we are constantly being pulled in all these different directions without any opportunity to really become invested with the plight these people find themselves in. I think they really fumbled the second season. The producers could have cut the storylines by half, and doubled the enrichment for the remaining threads, and I think the result would have been much more engaging.
I'm not sure what if anything these people have learned, beyond some superficial idea of family being important, but it seems no more refined than the scene in Thunderdome where the "before times" & the "long long ago" creation myths are told; it becomes no more real or meaningful than the children's version of the history lesson.. just some repeated totem that comforts, but fails to offer any true moral or structural guidelines to better live with one another after blowing their world up. The Mad Max stuff was just much more literal. Acting is all good, just for a project that ultimately was sub-par. It's your time, do with it what you will.
Its a decent enough story, if a bit of a constant downer. But the second season...man, they just lost focus. The mom is homeless, and starts shaking up with a sugar daddy who is flexing his liquidity from his cashier job... the older daughter joins the neighbor's cult, which bears a more than passing resemblance to Scientology. By the end of the second season, the "ceremony" the cult insists upon, as they won't attend any funeral/wake if the departed was cremated...they then serve the girl with a £13,000 bill for the ceremony, including £8,000 for the celestial grave protecting the soul after cremation (amongst other charges.) This aligns her for recruitment onto "the Boat," which is where the "Top Brass" of the group reside.
Meanwhile the husband breaks up with his pregnant girlfriend in favor of looking like a homeless person, though she hides the pregnancy from him. He winds up with an insecure slight Step-monster, who is very beautiful and very jealous of the ex-wife.
The gay son/trans(?) Son (he's all over the place, which I suppose could all be a part of growing up, but here it feels like a lack of commitment to a character identity on the writer's behalf.) Gets a painful heartbreak arc, with a partner who is abusive in his treatment, due to intolerant parents. All very cliché.
Meanwhile the newly married dad (secret/immediate Ultimatum civil service to reassure the new girlfriend of his commitment.) So now that he's married, he's discovering just how awful she is, as every little thing sets her off, but he doesn't help by lying about basically everything he does. Whether it makes sense that he would have to or not. He continues to be a shitty husband, this time getting the hots for and putting the moves on his ex wife, talking about how much he's losing, breaking up the family... basically h learns nothing, and does not change his behavior.
Oh also the tap water is no good. It's yellow like a chardonnay, and makes the younger daughter sick during her dance party.
I failed to mention the secret Italian son (adult) that mom failed to mention to her "keeper children" who shows up, ingratiates himself with her family after she's been kicked out of it, and almost starts dating the middle daughter (his half sister,) who develops a crush on him, which he fails to immediately discourage and disclose his relation to her. He chooses instead to drip the bomb on the whole family, I think at Christmas, no less.
Basically everyone is terrible, and we are constantly being pulled in all these different directions without any opportunity to really become invested with the plight these people find themselves in. I think they really fumbled the second season. The producers could have cut the storylines by half, and doubled the enrichment for the remaining threads, and I think the result would have been much more engaging.
I'm not sure what if anything these people have learned, beyond some superficial idea of family being important, but it seems no more refined than the scene in Thunderdome where the "before times" & the "long long ago" creation myths are told; it becomes no more real or meaningful than the children's version of the history lesson.. just some repeated totem that comforts, but fails to offer any true moral or structural guidelines to better live with one another after blowing their world up. The Mad Max stuff was just much more literal. Acting is all good, just for a project that ultimately was sub-par. It's your time, do with it what you will.