I love this show because it is unique in many ways, but most importantly, it makes me feel warm and fuzzy while while laughing a lot. Firstly, I love a show in which the main character is gay, not as a plot point, but as a mere fact about that character. Mainly, however, the most interesting part of this show is the strange, funny, and interesting personalities of all the characters. It's an interesting dynamic: watching a barely-thirty-something-year-old man do his best to raise almost-adults in the wake of their father's untimely death. It's also refreshing when a series pays full attention to the writing and acting of characters of all ages. I cannot stress enough how irritating i find it when a show writes for adults, then brings on a child character who has no substance, whether due to writing, acting, or both. In this case, the three main characters, Nicholas, Genevieve, and Matilda, each carry equal weight, and they are here to make you laugh while you're crying.
Nicholas, played by Josh Thomas, is remarkably similar to his "please Like Me" character, but not distastefully. He is a realist and actively narrates is thoughts out loud as he's thinking them. If he is doubtful, judgey, amused, etcetera, it all comes out of his mouth, which makes his character seem so believably candid.
Genevieve is the youngest sister who is petite and physically fragile-looking, but has the maturity, vocabulary, and whit of a grown adult. She is the youngest, but she has a mother who died young, a father who died in the first episode, and an older sister with autism whom she feels protective of. She's had to grow up fast, but she is still a young high-schooler with little experience of sex, drugs, and rock and roll, so to speak. Her character makes a lot of sense. Her maturity makes you wonder why she chooses to stick with a "friend" like Tellulah who is clearly so naively focused on appearing to be grown-up that she is just stupid and dramatic most of the time. But, we were all either Tellulah or friends with Tellulah growing up, so it makes the friendship re-centers the viewer to remember that Genevieve is just a fourteen year old child.
Thirdly, you have Tilda, who is the seventeen-year-old sister with high-functioning autism. She is wonderfully blunt and open and honest, and as a viewer, you find yourself always rooting for her. She is great because she cuts through all the social norm of dancing around what we mean to say. Instead she says what she means and goes after what she wants. In this way, she is enviable. But in time you realise that this comes with a cost. She gets confused by the world of people, she feels anxiety, and she gets overwhelmed. Still, she. is. damn. funny. And it is great knowing that the actress who plays her has autism in real life. This show knows how to be a show in 2020, and I'm here for it.
