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aibu_ep2_020.jpg

'Am I Being Unreasonable' Is A Miserable Little Show

By Allyson Johnson | TV | April 19, 2023 |

By Allyson Johnson | TV | April 19, 2023 |


aibu_ep2_020.jpg

Am I Being Unreasonable is a miserable little show. In form, tone, and content, the comedy series is short on humor and heavy on the messy personal lives and trauma that have engulfed the show’s characters. Riddled with guilt and succumbing to a messy, loveless marriage, the protagonist of the Hulu series is often infuriating and always frustrating, making her a tough character to root for, which is not the intent of the series.

Created, written by, and starring Daisy May Cooper and Selin Hizli, this dark comedy thriller establishes an off-kilter tone immediately, as we meet Cooper’s Nic in a perceived flashback (we also learn how few of the characters are reliable narrators) as she witnesses the death of someone she loved in a traumatic accident. That event, her affair, and the surrounding shady business her friends and family engross themselves in create tension as we await the next terrible moment to befall them. Nic and Jen are messy characters, layered in their imperfections. They’re sympathetic and insufferable, abhorrent and relatable.

Cooper and Hizli’s performances are often enough to sustain our interest across all six episodes, even if the content itself is challenging. It’s a shame since there are clear comparisons like Fleabag. Am I Being Unreasonable lacks that same narrative insight. It relies too heavily on the performances to bolster an otherwise rudimentary and forgettable script that uses shock to drive the plot.

There’s plenty within the narrative that speaks to viewers. Ultimately all Nic and Jen want, and what they find in one another, is someone to see their true selves and love them unabashedly. Nic leaned heavily on her affair with her husband’s brother for this, while Jen sought out co-dependent relationships where the other party would need to rely on her help, seeking a semblance of power in a life that’s given her little. The strongest scenes are when Cooper and Hizli get to know one another and dive into a friendship, as well as Nic’s scenes with her son, Ollie (Lenny Rush,) who is depicted as a kindred spirit.

We needed more of the relationships that made each who they were, rather than hints of it in the case of Jen, or, worse, a deluded understanding from Nic. There’s a twist at the end that underlies the trauma Nic has suffered that creates a narrative more nefarious and twisted when the former ought to have been enough. The twist doesn’t just undercut the character at the knees but also does such a 180 in the characterization of Alex (David Fynn) that it gives viewers whiplash as we try and keep up with what we’re now expected to understand of this character.

Alex’s casual cruelty and his motives for being in a relationship with Nic should’ve been explored earlier, not because it would make the twist more palatable but because Nic’s decision in the end, though not defendable, would’ve been something we’d have greater context and understanding for, no matter the violent repercussions.

In Fleabag, we have an advantage because we are given access to the main character’s thoughts and feelings. In Am I Being Unreasonable, we don’t have that same level of access. While we do see some aspects of the character’s personality — her guilt over her actions, her love for her son, and her interest in fashion — we don’t get a deeper understanding of her motivations and beliefs. By the end of the first season, Nic is mostly defined by Daisy May Cooper’s performance. Cooper is a talented actor, but it would have been helpful to see Nic in more realistic situations so that we could better understand her thought process, even if we wouldn’t necessarily agree with her decisions.

Season one of Am I Being Unreasonable is available to stream on Hulu.