'Such Brave Girls' Is One of TIME's 50 Most Underappreciated TV Shows
Time · LC · trust 37/100
If you can’t beat the trauma plot that has come to dominate narrative art forms, you might as well get exceedingly weird and exuberantly dark with it. That seems to be the theory, anyway, behind this British black comedy about a family of women desperate to appease—but already driven mad by—the patriarchal forces that control their lives. Creator Kat Sadler’s awkward 20-something protagonist, Josie, is a closeted lesbian whose clingy boyfriend (Freddie Meredith) cheerfully ignores the disgust she radiates. Her delusional younger sister, Billie (played by Sadler’s real-life sister, Lizzie Davidson), has a habit of throwing herself at the most inappropriate men available. Where did they learn these deranged behaviors? From their mother, of course! Abandoned by the girls’ dad, Deb (Louise Brealey) channels all her obsessive energy into locking down a man with the means to rescue them from destitution. Loony antics ensue. While Such Brave Girls was anointed with a BAFTA for the first of its two seasons to date, which premiered in 2023, it’s barely been noticed Stateside, despite being readily available on Hulu. The show’s send-up of heteropessimist humiliation might feel a bit harsh to a population for whom the British Office couldn’t be adapted without a thorough defanging. Still, Americans who like their cringe comedy laceratingly scripted and spiked with existential despair should give it a try.
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