This Way Up: What the Must Watch reviewers think

Must Watch reviewers Scott Bryan and Hayley Campbell share their thoughts on This Way Up.

The new comedy series, written by and starring Aisling Bea, starts on Channel 4 on 8 August 2019, at 22:00 BST.

Have you watched it? What did you think? Leave your comments below.

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Hayley says: "All of these shows have huge similarities"

"Fleabag, Back to Life, GameFace and this, they all have massive similarities; they are all women with emotional and mental problems, trying to claw back their lives in a six-part comedy series.

"Sharon Horgan is playing the straight woman to Aisling Bea, and Sharon Horgan is, in my opinion, much funnier, so it is kind of strange.

"I know Fleabag doesn’t have the monopoly on 'broken women', but all of these shows have such huge similarities that I can’t watch one without going 'oh it’s another one of these ones'.

"We are finally being told female stories but they all seem to be the same one, over and over.

"I don’t know whether I’m being unnecessarily mean. It felt awkward, it felt like there was a timing issue."

Scott says: "It feels very personal"

"I’m a bit more optimistic.

"There has been a lot of mental health depicted on TV and it’s always on the way down. What I like about this one is it deals with trying to put yourself back together, rather than falling apart.

"Mental health has sometimes been depicted really poorly in TV comedy and drama before – there’s this idea that you snap your fingers and everything is fine.

"I think this shows that it’s a complicated process that has peaks and troughs. I really like the attention to detail and authenticity that comes through.

"The other thing I really like about it is how it manages to handle the issue of loneliness... and I don’t think that’s necessarily in these other shows.

"It’s quite easy to group shows together, and therefore you take away the merits of each individual one. I like to think that this show stands out in its own regards for what it does differently.

"I don’t think it’s out there to deliberately shock, or get under your skin, or try to do something different, but what I really love about this is that I can tell that it feels very personal, very close to the heart of the people behind it.

"I think that in a summer, where it’s normally quite dry for comedy, it’s probably one of the stronger comedy offerings that we’ve got out at the moment."

This Way Up starts on Channel 4 on 8 August at 22:00 and the whole series will then be available on All 4.

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