'Crashing' Is One of TIME's 50 Most Underappreciated TV Shows
Time · LC · trust 42/100
Phoebe Waller-Bridge is the most celebrated British TV creator of her generation. Her blistering 2016 traumedy Fleabag broke big the moment it crossed the Atlantic via co-producer Prime Video, fueling rapturous reviews and spirited discourse about the comedy of female sexuality. A few years later, the surprisingly metaphysical second season dominated the Emmys , made “ Hot Priest ” Andrew Scott a sex symbol, and even got a shout-out from Barack Obama . In between the two installments, Waller-Bridge found time to helm the beloved first season of the smart-pulp espionage thriller Killing Eve . And yet, few people seem to have encountered Crashing , her deeply enjoyable comedy that debuted the same year as Fleabag . Lighter than the latter show and less violent than Eve , it centers around six young adults living as property guardians (that is, temporary residents who pay minimal rent in exchange for keeping out squatters) in a disused hospital. The crumbling institution makes an appropriately strange backdrop for a romp that mixes madcap antics, tangled romantic relationships, and the frank, sometimes enthusiastically gross sexuality that is one of Waller-Bridge’s signatures. The cast features not just the creator, who makes the Manic Pixie Dream Girl archetype her own as ukulele troubadour Lulu, but also a pre- Bridgerton Jonathan Bailey in the wild role of an inveterate womanizer. This might all remind you of a certain famous hangout sitcom millennials grew up watching. But trust me when I promise you that Waller-Bridge was well aware of what came before and didn’t take any of Crashing ’s storylines in a remotely predictable direction.
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