LOVESICK at Netflix… gloriously funny Brit com

ROMANCE IS ALL ABOUT TIMING.

An awkward moment, anyone?

Yesterday, I was scrolling through Netflix on a slow Saturday evening, as I do whenever I am board, boozing or not eating, when a certain new program caught my eye. The title alone was enough to immediately overpower everything else on the page.

The show in question? “Scrotal Recall,” a new Netflix Original. The show went under a name change of course, and we have “Lovesick” and Immediately, I knew I had to watch it.

Imagine if the show had kept with the original title – Scrotal Recall: One that produced a particular mental image This isn’t to say the show’s all about nostalgic butterflies and sincere sentiments—how could it be? What were the producers thinking off? The former name was a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, it certainly raised some eyebrows. On the other, it completely misrepresented the show…

According to the synopsis provided by Netflix, the story follows a “young, single guy – Brotherhood’s – Johnny Flynn ” who, after being told he has an STD, has to go back and contact all of his past sexual partners to alert them of this.

The disease in this case is chlamydia, which lowers the stakes a bit. Basically he’s just telling people, “Hey, you need to take antibiotics.” My hunch is that it was originally herpes, but they thought that was too edgy and pretty grim viewing if ever we had to see it on a comedy.

I’m not going down this road (the young, single guy – Johnny) without a trusty sidekick, of course, and in this instance, that sidekick is none other than his best friend played full-throttle, brilliantly by (Luke – Daniel Ings, Psychoville), and a masterstroke casting choice.

The first episode of the entire series establishes that this show is not just about a man with an STI. It’s also makes it clear that it’s not interested in his sexual exploits, so much as it is about his quest for love and how that relates to one person in particular: Evie.

There’s also Evie (Antonia Thomas, Misfits fame), who is neither Dylan’s lover nor his girlfriend, but his best friend. Evie wants nothing more than to be with Dylan, but he’s too wrapped up in his disastrous luck with women to realize he could have it all with her. All the signs are there (yes, we can see them and we want to scream em at the screen). Dylan is just oblivious to them— unlike their friend and roommate, Luke, who clocked the situation a long time ago, but has been too busy chasing skirts.

This isn’t the real story, so much as a pretext for the real story: The one about two people who are perfectly right for each other, but can never seem to make it work.

Above: Johnny Flynn, Daniel Ings, Antonia Thomas and Joshua McGuire

Consider this scenario, though: “Every person you have ever slept with is invited to a banquet where you are the guest of honor. No one will be in attendance except you, the collection of your former lovers, and the catering service. After the meal, you are asked to give a fifteen-minute speech to the assembly. What do you talk about?” Are you sweating yet? Good. And now, let’s assume that, prior to this ex-lovers banquet, you find out you have contracted chlamydia. Now what are you going to say during your fifteen-minute speech? Yeah, I wouldn’t want to be in that position either. But it works for a quirky sitcom premise—as in Netflix’s Lovesick.

Each episode is named after one of Dylan’s former lovers, and the series works through them in alphabetical order. His daunting task is to contact each and every one of them and tell them the good news: They may have been given a gift of the contagious variety. There’s Abigail (Hannah Britland), the easy-going, witty receptionist who becomes his rebound when he’s dumped at his friend’s wedding; she’s closely followed by Anna (Nikki Amuka-Bird, an ambitious career woman whose loudly ticking biological clock gets in the way of their one-night stand turning into anything real, and so on.

Throughout the first season, we get to know Dylan, Luke and Evie’s respective stories by way of flashbacks to Dylan’s former relationships and hook-ups, giving us a better understanding of their situations in the present. The three of them share a house as well as a solid friendship, with no judgment of one another’s flaws. With Evie being the only female in the house, you’d imagine Luke’s serial womanizing ways and Dylan’s tendency to cling on to his women would be addressed during a heated discussion or two, but instead she acts as a loyal wingman to both. And while we can see the hurt in her eyes and the frustration in her body language, she always stands by Dylan, even if it means having to accompany him to the hospital for arse play-related finger injuries. With another woman.

                                                     Luke and Dylan: Mope about Life

Lovesick thrives on gawkily funny and often sexually charged situations, handled in such a down-to-earth manner it doesn’t feel like your typical, canned-laughter comedy. Instead of being overly in-your-face with punchlines, the series relies on its well-defined protagonists for humor, and by introducing new characters and environments in every episode, Lovesick feels more elaborate than your average sitcom, allowing for the occasional surprise (see the episodes “Abigail” and “Phoebe”). By spanning the main characters’ storylines over a period of seven years (a neat idea, plus we see all their hairstyles as well), we get to know the people and circumstances that shaped them into who they are at present. We witness various fashion trends and phases in their lives, personal issues and career triumphs, forging a bond with the characters that carries into their current situations.

Antonia Thomas nailed it when she was interviewed that Lovesick “taps into a specific moment for a generation of people.” The series follows its protagonists through a time of uncertainty. Their chosen path in life and their careers aren’t yet defined, and they make no secret of it: They’re not out to pretend they have it all together when, clearly, they don’t. Their living situation and household, their romantic endeavors and personal insecurities, are not far removed from our own twenty-something experiences. This honest approach is refreshing in a world of sitcoms focusing on wealthy lads and ladies moving from their college dorms straight into Manhattan lofts and prosperous careers. Lovesick is all about keeping it real, and ‘real’ it sure does.

                                                           Dylan and Jane (Jessica Ellerby)

The first season ended on a major cliffhanger for the two of them. Evie, about to get married, is having a drink with Dylan when their friend Luke bursts in and tells Evie that Dylan loves her. It’s an ending that leaves Dylan the vulnerable party, though Evie herself is also experiencing a complicated onslaught of emotions. She finally has confirmation of what she’s long wanted to hear, but only as she’s moving on her with her life.

And now we come to the end of season two and eight episodes later, the action is paused in a very similar position, except Dylan is now the one content in his relationship, and Evie is left single and heartbroken.

Luke and Evie, just chilling on a bench, all screenshots courtesy Netflix

It’s a frustrating conclusion, but not necessarily a bad or unsatisfying one. The new installments only deepen the sense that Evie and Dylan are fated because flashback structure gives the audience even more insight into their history. We see their initial hookup—born out of disappointing party dates—and how Dylan’s initial eagerness to turn it into something more sends the less-romantic Evie running.

We learn that Dylan sleeps with Evie’s sister by accident. We understand how Evie comes to articulate her true feelings for Dylan. If this all seems a little confusing, well, that’s one of the show’s faults. Its time hopping can make the chronology overly complicated to follow. However, as annoying as it can be sometimes, learning the information piecemeal is rewarding. Dylan and Evie’s story isn’t a novel one. It’s a variation on traditional rom-com formulas, but what makes it special is the way it’s told  (and with plenty of heart, too!).

How much longer the show can tease out this will they/won’t they scenario, who knows? But the producers and writers has done a great job of making it even more interesting, two seasons in—not an easy feat. This is because Lovesick is more about time than it is about relationships. It understands how people come in and out of one another’s lives, and how every encounter is meaningful, regardless of the detours it may inspire.

It’s not bad. Far from bad, actually. If you like How I Met Your Mother but want to feel smarter watching it, Lovesick is the show for you. A genius, sublime comedy for youth and those mid-thirty somethings to binge watch or just admire an episode at a time, and it’s a great pitch between Channel 4s Teachers and Fresh Meat for humour.

Season Two of Lovesick is now streaming on Netflix. Go now, go and watch it, folks!