The Stuff of 2013: Australia's Darkly Sweet Sitcom, Please Like Me

This post was originally published on December 31, 2013. Please Like Me has now returned for Season Two.

In the very first scene of the very first episode of Please Like Me, Josh's girlfriend breaks up with him. They've drifted apart, she says, but more importantly: she's realized he's gay before he's willing to admit it himself. And it isn't the only new challenge he's going to have to face on the show. By the end of the first half hour, not only has he begun to clumsily explore his new sexuality, but his mother has tried to commit suicide. It's a dark enough premise for a sitcom that the creators actually pitched it to Australia's ABC as a drama. Even then, the network eventually moved it from its originally planned home on ABC1 to the "edgier" ABC2.

But while Please Like Me might dole out some pretty black comedy, it's far from cynical or jaded. In fact, it's downright sweet. It's about death and depression and suicide and sex and divorce and emotionally abusive relationships, but more than anything else it's about love. At heart, it's about a group of people finding new ways to support each other in the face of all those terrible things. As far as I'm concerned, the show's writer — Josh Thomas, who also stars as Josh — has managed to create a show that is both the funniest new sitcom on television in 2013 and also the most engaging new drama.

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Find all of our "Stuff of 2013" posts here.

Posted by Adam Bunch, the Editor-in-Chief of the Little Red Umbrella and the creator of the Toronto Dreams Project. You can read his posts here, follow him on Twitter here, or email him at adam@littleredumbrella.com.