TV review: Chris Addison’s Trying Again, Sky Living
Sky Living’s newest original offering, Trying Again, airs this Thursday night.
Created by comedian Chris Addison and writer Simon Blackwell, best known for his work on The Thick of It, In the Loop and Peep Show, Trying Again follows the lives of a young couple trying to mend their relationship after a brief spot of infidelity.
Sounds promising, but does it cut the mustard?
The opening titles are a little worrying, to start off with. Wobbly cartoon birds, rural setting, guitar slapping. The internal monologue begins to panic.
“Good god, this is twee. It’s going to be twee. Oh shit. This is going to be a full-length version of some chintzy mobile phone advert. Oh! Hang on. The bird is dead. Maybe it’ll be okay after all.”
In bed in their rented Kendal home, we meet Matt and Meg.
Matt (Addison) is a old man in a young man’s body; he can’t text, hates breaking rules, and is all-in-all, a bit of a wet blanket.
His girlfriend Meg (Eastenders’ Jo Joyner) is currently unemployed, having recently had an affair with a doctor at the local surgery where she was a receptionist.
They’re doing their button-down, British best to move on from her little indiscretion, but now there’s a bump in the road; they’re being evicted.
Responsible Matt, with his job and his vague sense of superiority, suggests Meg steps up her game and finds a job, so they can buy a flat of their own.
However, the only suitable position available is Meg’s old job, back at the surgery. Hold onto your hats gang, there’s gonna be drama!
Or… maybe not. As we’re repeatedly told, Matt and Meg are soul mates. They’re made for each other. They’re just not very good at showing it.
Attending couple’s therapy while lying to, spying on, and refraining from bumping uglies with one another, they clearly have a few issues to iron out before they can carry on with their lives.
It’s a clear recipe for relationship-based comedy drama, but it just doesn’t seem to yield any results.
You’d be willing to give a ‘set-up’ episode the benefit of the doubt, but episode two, which sees the Matt and Meg respectively get robbed by a pair of tweens, and attempt to convince Meg’s former beau, Posh David Tennant, that they’re incompatible, doesn’t fair much better.
There are jokes there, they’re just not very good. Scenes cut and leave you wondering; “Oh, was THAT the parting joke?”
Given sixty minutes, this comedy drama fails to provoke even a faint smirk. If it leaves any impression at all, it’s one of a dry, Doc Martin-esque affair.
Despite their best everyman turns, the central characters are just plain dull, with a one-dimensional supporting cast.
In the end, it’s not near funny enough to hold up the comedy end of the bargain, nor engaging or multifaceted enough to be a drama.
The trials and tribulations of relationships is a well often drawn from; that’s not to say it’s been drunk dry, but it takes more wit, more winning characters, and a much bolder approach to make it stand up.
Not that you’d anticipate biting satire, or colorfully choice language in a show about the relationship problems of a middle-class couple, but from the creative team involved, you’d be forgiven for expecting something a bit… more.
While berating the soppy callers of a love song-based radio show, the deepest, most passionate prose Matt can summon for Meg is that she’s “nice”.
Ironically, the same could be said for Trying Again.
Trying Again starts on Thursday 24 April at 9pm on Sky Living.
