I discovered this show completely by accident after coming home one night at 3AM and instead of just going to sleep like a normal person, turning on Netflix for the sake of background noise. Crashing was a random pick – the first thing that popped up on my ‘Suggested’ list. I wasn’t planning on even paying attention to it as I was already pretty tired. Next thing I knew, episode 5 came to an end and I had to force myself to shut it off and go to sleep; I really wanted to keep going – the show is that good.
The more I watch British comedies the more I realize how fond I am of that type of humor. It’s dry and edgy; it constantly keeps you on your toes. This show is no exception. Between writing that’s actually engaging and a strong cast, the delivery is solid.
ABOUT THE SHOW
A bunch of young kids who can barely afford rent “crash” at a disused hospital under the pretense of being ‘property guardians’. Everything is old, broken and falling apart but that’s the price you have to pay when you don’t have any money. Another ‘perk’ of such cheap housing is that you can pretty much expect to get evicted any day with one day’s notice if/when the building’s destiny is to go down in shambles.
ABOUT THE MAIN CHARACTERS
The group is pretty diverse of course. You have Sam – the all-too-obviously alpha male who gets all the ladies except he’s totally gay and doesn’t want to admit it to himself or anyone around him. Then there’s Fred – the studious Indian guy Sam develops a ‘friendship’ with as he’s hopelessly falling in love with him. Then you have Melody – a French artist with severe daddy issues who finds beauty in sorrow and desperate older men. Colin is one of those desperate men – a soon to be divorced, short and balding, middle aged man; also known as Melody’s Muse. She’s a whack job for sure but there’s something very intriguing about her. Amongst all the crazies you naturally have the “normal” couple – Anthony and Kate. They’re engaged. Kate is an anal dud and Anthony is a fun and easy-going guy. Last but not least, enters Lulu – Anthony’s childhood friend, who decides to surprise all of them in London and inevitably shake things up. She and Anthony have an undeniable bond that of course makes Kate repeatedly jealous; not without reason. Lulu and Anthony may claim they’re like brother and sister and nothing has or ever will happen between the two of them sexually, but anyone with half a brain can foresee it going down a different way.
ABOUT THE SECONDARY CHARACTERS
The Black chick, promiscuous as she may be is not far off the truth train with statements like “Everyone has sex with Everyone” – describing this generation as one made of generally passion-driven people who put their desires and urges way before anything logical or “decent”. That’s precisely why Kate was so worried about Lulu’s presence; the fact that she and Anthony have never been physical with one another only means that it’s a matter of time before they fall into each other’s privates.
Fred’s temporary boyfriend is a self-obsessed creep who thinks he’s better than sliced bread itself. The moment of him cuddling Fred at night, stroking his back, saying “Shhhh…. I love you. Shhhh” was slightly horrifying and quite hysterical. Finally, his exit as a character was almost as dramatic as the character itself.
The lesbian alcoholic aunt with money is only featured in one scene, but said scene delivers quite a few giggles. I’m probably going to have nightmares about her shoving her fat fingers in my mouth one day.
Colin’s estranged wife is too only featured in one scene, and though it’s one of the shorter ones, she too manages to supply the viewers with a laugh. “I’ll give you anything you want” she says to her injured soon to be ex-husband that’s lying in a hospital bed after falling out of the window; “Anything except Money and the house; I can’t give you that, but anything else that you want you can have”. How mighty generous of you, ya ‘old c*nt!
ABOUT IT ALL
It’s filled with raw humor and relatable situations. For example, friendly banter with joking insults can sometimes only go so far before people’s feelings actually get hurt. When Anthony tells Lulu he doesn’t want her sleeping with Sam because he doesn’t want Sam to catch something, she gets stupidly drunk on wine at dinner; starts falling over, spilling Indian food all over the floor and proceeding to roll around in it, shoving bits and pieces of it in her mouth because you know, you can’t let food go to waste. As if the scene wasn’t already hilarious, they top it off with her attempting to seduce Sam, on all fours covered in brown stuff and all. It must have been hard for Sam to withstand the urge but he walks away, to which she drunkenly replies that she’ll let him call her Fred, as she winks. Ha!
Kate doesn’t disappoint either as her normally boring self decides to get drunk, painted and run around with her bra off. Alcohol makes people do funny things. Alcohol makes people say interesting things. Right before passing out she confesses to Anthony that she thinks she may have been pretending to love him and pretending to be jealous of him and Lulu the whole time. Bummer! Oh and let’s not forget about the time when her boyfriend held her hostage in bed telling her she needed to ‘let loose’ and just fart in front of him already, causing her to shit all over the floor. If that isn’t hilarious I don’t know what is.
Another scene where alcohol related incidents bring it home is undoubtedly the one where hammered Lulu tries to take off her jumpsuit in the bathroom, desperately having to pee. If you’ve ever worn a jumpsuit, you know how uncooperative they can be, especially when your whole body is contorting as your bladder is about to explode. She ends up ripping the thing to shreds and it’s very funny to watch.
What was frustrating to watch was the ‘morning after’ scene… It was the morning after Lulu and Anthony finally got it on; all being a “spur of the moment” thing of course because evidently Kate’s kissing a black woman and has decided to leave Anthony forever. It was supposed to be about just f*cking, but he made it all real by claiming that they have to stop playing games and asking her if she truly loves him and wants to be with him, to which she reluctantly responds with “yes”. The reason the ‘morning after’ scene was frustrating to watch was because the idiot, upon finding out that Kate’s not in fact a lesbian and has no intentions of leaving him, actually comes up to Lulu and asks her what he should do! What kind of an insensitive moron does that? Thankfully she makes the right decision and tells him to go to his Kate. Nobody wants your pus*y ass that can’t make a god*damn decision.
ABOUT THE ENDING
It was a very short season: only 5 episodes. A huge part of me hopes that the show gets renewed because it really was quite entertaining and I would love to see more of these characters. Another part of me however feels that aside from a small cliffhanger, there isn’t much to venture off into. Everything seems more or less tied together. They’ve been evicted from the hospital, Sam is almost openly frolicking with Fred on the couch, and Melody is happy because she was finally able to win’s Colin’s affection. The only unresolved detail is what’s going to happen now that Kate is aware of the ‘Anthony and Lulu’ situation, seeing as how they weren’t very discrete about throwing dishes around in the kitchen whilst secretly making out.
Actually, come to think of it, they could totally make season 2 work. The fact that they’ve been evicted only means they’re gonna have new struggles followed by new homes and adventures. The fact that Sam’s alpha male image is gone only serves as a reason for them to further explore his newfound self; I’m sure they’ll manage to spice it up with a bunch of gay shenanigans. Colin will probably be out of the picture as he’s way too happy now and is therefore useless to Melody and her sick mind. Then again who knows, maybe they’ll mold her character instead. It’d certainly be interesting to see what they decide to do about the love triangle between Kate, Lulu and Anthony. Will there be a catfight or a threesome? Perhaps it could be both. Perhaps they’ll collaborate against him and mess with his head!
Oh I’m excited. I HOPE it gets renewed.