Series #2 – LOVESICK
Streaming Service- Netflix
Seasons – 3 (2015-2018)
Starring - Johnny Flynn, Antonia Thomas, Daniel Ings, Joshua McGuire, Hannah Britland
Tone and Feel – The Office (UK) meets How I Met Your Mother
Memorable Quote: “I want kids, but I don't want to have to raise them. I want visitation rights, not custody. Even if I'm married to their mother.”
— Luke S01E02
Over the coming weeks and months, I will write about 30 of these streaming series recommendations and if you only take my advice on one, it has to be this one. I’ll put it as clearly as I can. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this show! It is my favourite show I’ve discovered in the past 10 years.
Lovesick is a laugh-out-loud, raunchy yet heartfelt, series about four single friends in the UK looking for love and relationships in both the short term and long term varieties. In the opening scene of the series, we discover Dylan (Johnny Flynn) has been diagnosed with an STD and is instructed to contact his former lovers to let them know they need to be tested.
This serves as the engine of the series where each episode Dylan contacts a past lover to break the news. What makes the show so effective in its storytelling is the way it cuts back and forth in time within each episode and between episodes in the series. After his diagnosis, Dylan decides to tackle his list alphabetically which takes us back three years to the day he met Abigail.
The pilot does a great job of introducing us to the rest of the cast. Dylan’s best friend is notorious womanizer Luke whose views on love and relationships run opposed to everything Dylan holds dear. I compare this to How I Met Your Mother because, in many respects, Dylan is a British Ted Mosby, yearning to find the one, constantly cursing his ineptitude with women, and often messing up what could have been a really good thing. If Dylan is Ted then Luke is his Barney Stinson, only looking for love in overnight doses at most.
Then there is Evie (The Good Doctor’s Antonia Thomas) who is the true object of Dylan’s affection. If you were captivated by the storylines of Ross and Rachel, Ted and Robyn, or Jim and Pam, you will quickly fall for Dylan and Evie. This ongoing will-they-won't they romantic tension is the glue that holds everything together.
Rounding out the main cast is Angus, an impulsive and often foolish little man who always seems to find the crap end of the stick. Watch the first episode which centres around Angus’ wedding and you’ll know all you need to about this character. He is the source of a tremendous amount of comedy in the series.
You may have seen the show on Netflix when it was first released under its original name – Scrotal Recall. That was the title when it ran in its first season on Britain’s Channel Four. Series Creator Tom Edge picked it as a working title that they liked as an inside joke. Unable to come up with a better one, they stuck with it. Unlike Cougar Town which desperately wanted to change its title but never did, Scrotal Recall jumped at the chance to change it when Netflix picked up the series for season two. They found that people loved the show but refused to recommend it to friends because they were embarrassed to say the title out loud. This could explain why it didn’t get the word of mouth it deserved.
Lovesick is sweet, funny, raunchy, and an overall brilliant ensemble comedy. If you enjoy those types of TV shows, you must, must, must watch Lovesick while quarantined.
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