Previously, Channel 4 created a successful comedy-drama featuring an Irish actor portraying a woman battling symptoms akin to depression while engaging in Bridget Jones-esque romantic escapades in contemporary London. Much praise was garnered for Aisling Bea’s creation, This Way Up. Now, the network is doing another round of this model, but this time with Nicola Coughlan’s rather less successful sitcom, Big Mood, which airs on Channel 4, Thursday at 10pm.
Coughlan plays Maggie, a character often found on British TV, who magically appears with a distinct Irish accent despite seemingly living in the UK for the majority of her life. However, this is just one minor problem amongst the show’s many issues. Firstly, the comedy aspect simply falls flat. We first meet Maggie energetically zipping down the street on an electric scooter. She’s clearly having a blast, yet she abruptly gives her wheels away, seemingly turned off by her own reflection.
Following this, Maggie and her closest friend Eddie, wonderfully played by Lydia West of It’s A Sin, exchange witty quips as they head towards Maggie’s former school. She’s managed to blag herself into giving a talk about her nonexistent playwriting career.
The humour is sometimes uncomfortably awkward — a disconcerting flashback where a teacher inappropriately approaches a 16-year-old Maggie is treated lightly. Fast forward to the present, Maggie is unexpectedly caught kissing her former history teacher by his wife, who also happens to be a past student. Additionally, our fearless protagonist isn’t shy about using colourful language when engaging with a bunch of sceptical year six students.
While these comedic threads have a distinct resemblance to Carry on… Up the GCSEs, a plot twist reveals Maggie’s bipolar disorder and her lack of medication adherence. To put it simply, her over-the-top antics aren’t coming from her place as a romantic comedy leading lady, but rather as side-effects of her mental health condition.
The overall tone is distasteful. Maggie is initially portrayed as a caricature: she’s spontaneous, over the top, and ridiculous in a way typical of sitcoms. However, the plot unexpectedly turns serious, suggesting that the viewers have been engrossed in a drama all this while.
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This abrupt change seems a cheap trick; it’s uncertain how individuals diagnosed with bipolar disorder might feel about its representation or its use as a source of humour (the counterargument, however, suggests C4 deserves commendation for bringing forward a discussion on mental health). On the positive side, Coughlan delivers a sterling performance. But, Channel 4 needs to wean her from the electronic scooter and present her a more suitable medium to showcase her abilities.