Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
For many people, in any spot on the globe, 2016 has been a bit of a strange, and often times a bummer of a year. The way we know this to be true, for sure, is that it is reflected right back at us in our TV and movies. This year, the “sad comedy” has thrived like never before. Gone are the days of chuckling studio audiences, here are the days of depression LOLs. As we start to accept, and understand mental illness, and grapple with its effects not only on a person but those around them as well, writers are funneling this into the stories they present on-screen.
From You’re The Worst, to Lady Dynamite, to the fantastic Fleabag, sad comedy is the hot new genre in town. These shows are able to portray flawed, relatable characters in a humorous yet understandable light. Whether we want to call it a melancholy comedy (melancomedy?) or dark comedy or plain old comedy, they’re all achieving the same thing: trading slapstick for serious, while still garnering laughs.
A man who is intimately aware of the genre is Will Sharpe, creator/writer/director and star of Flowers, which aired on Channel 4 in the UK and is currently available to stream on Seeso here in the States. “One thing that we found ourselves saying is that there’s this term ‘dark comedy’ and [the show] is quite dark. But I think myself and the producer, we found ourselves preferring to call it a sad comedy rather than a dark comedy,” he explained of his brilliant six, half-hour episode series. “I think a dark comedy makes it sound like it’s willfully going to try to freak you out. Whereas we were really careful to try and be empathetic towards the characters and not make fun of the dark stuff that’s going on in their life. But instead, try and find situations that are unfortunate, and that’s what makes it funny, not that we’re laughing at the fact that they’re sad.”
So how exactly does Sharpe classify his uniquely moody series? “Sometimes we call it a sad comedy, sometimes we call it comedy drama, sometimes I think, why not just call it a comedy? I suppose it’s like a narrative comedy, it’s got a story that develops over the series.”
Ultimately, Sharpe admitted, “My honest opinion is I don’t really mind how people describe it.” He’s just happy they’re describing it at all.
While all of the above phrases apply to Flowers, there is still so much to be experienced by watching it. Starring Julian Barratt of The Mighty Boosh and Olivia Colman, who has shown up in nearly every great show and movie this year (The Night Manager, The Lobster), the series revolves around a married couple working through some bumps in their relationship while their 25-year-old twins, who are still living at home, are also facing unique experiences. Even though the family is focus of the show, the idea first came to Sharpe through a different “character.”
His original inspiration for the show started with “An image of the house, because I guess the house is sort of like a character in a way. Then the idea that it would center around family, and then I think when I thought ‘Oh, well maybe the dad could be a children’s book writer’, that started to inform the look of the show and the tone, the slightly fairy tale-y aspect to it.”
“It came out of trying to be completely uncynical, not trying to guess what would get made or what is zeitgeist-y and just trying to write what I felt I wanted to.”
From there, the show travels down a path that is smart, silly, devastating, and surprising at each step of the way. Sharpe is responsible for not only writing characters that will leave a lasting impression, he also portrays one. As Shun, a Japanese apprentice to Barratt’s Maurice, Sharpe delivers an unbridled excitement for everyday life, unlike his host family, tried and true Brits as dreary as a typical day in the English countryside, in a way that shines through like sunlight bursting through the omnipresent clouds. “He was supposed to be there as a big contrasting flavor to a lot of the other characters and one of the things I had wanted to do for a long time was make something with a slightly Japanese comedy bent to it. Just a little bit of that, because I grew up in Japan, I left when I was 8. So I remember watching Japanese comedies and that slightly louder more high-contrast style, and in the end just doing it through the characters felt like the easiest way of getting that ingredient in there.”
The most refreshing part of Shun is that he doesn’t have a cynical bone in his body, which certainly can’t be said of many characters in 2016. “In general, irony is quite commonplace now,” Sharpe said. “It’s quite hard to persuade characters or people to be sincere because maybe people are scared of being sincere, in case they look stupid.”
The vulnerability of the Flowers family (and their friends), no matter how hard they might try to hide it, seeps through the screen and will grab you directly by the heart. You’ll immediately feel for the people you’re watching, with the presence of mental illness absolutely adding to what makes them so lovable. This is perhaps due to how Sharpe approached that element of the show. “I tried to be really careful about how we portrayed mental illness, I worried about that quite a lot and thought about it a lot in the run-up. I was happy to see that for the most part it seemed to be quite therapeutic and truthful-seeming to the people who have got in touch.”
Now that Flowers is available both for UK and US audiences, Sharpe also has a theory about why both sides of the pond are reacting so strongly to the show. “I think in both countries, it’s not for everyone. It can be divisive. But the people who like it seem to like similar aspects of the show. Also, maybe tastes are getting closer because it’s how we watch stuff now, we’re all watching each other’s programs more and more.”
If you are into British TV shows, Seeso currently has a great catalogue of shows which will only continue to grow in 2017. (In fact, Sharpe’s film The Darkest Universe will debut on the streaming platform on March 9th.) So what is Sharpe, the man responsible for one of 2016’s best shows, currently watching? “One thing I will say, is that there is so much on at the moment, so much good television that it’s impossible to see everything. I guess it’s important for the stuff that is getting made to have its own identity and to be new in some way in itself and a little bit different. Sometimes I’ll watch a nature documentary to relax. I quite like BoJack Horseman, I watched that recently and I really like that. I haven’t watched Westworld yet but I probably will try to, I’ve heard it’s really good.”
Not that he has a whole lot of time to catch up on shows now. Sharpe revealed that they are currently writing season 2 of Flowers, which means maybe 2017 isn’t shaping up to be too bad of a year ahead. “I don’t know [when it will be] out exactly, but hopefully it will be next year. We’re shooting next summer.”
In the meantime, Sharpe is currently adjusting to his new status among TV fans and their reaction to Flowers. “I’m quite new to all this, so the whole thing was a surprise. The fact that it really was going to be on TV was a surprise, I suppose.”
With a show so simultaneously awkward and bold, that packs such a strong emotional punch while relieving so much of the gloom we hold inside, we should all, perhaps starting with Sharpe, get used to watching his creations bloom.
