This Way Up series two is, like the first series, a glorious confection, both sweet and sharp, but delicious throughout.
Aisling Bea, creator, writer and co-star has blended together superb, believable characters, added a generous sprinkling of hilarity: a dash of pathos and a pinch of soulfulness and created a script that has risen like a perfect soufflé served with a quenelle of perfect cast.
Once you start with the appetite for cooking analogy it’s hard to stop.
Anyway series two is obviously set after the events of the series one finale, with things in flux for Aine (Aisling Bea) and her sister, Shona (Sharon Horgan, Together, Catastrophe).
Aine’s starting to leave her time in rehab behind and live less cautiously, which may not be entirely wise. Will she and Richard (Tobias Menzies, The Crown; Game of Thrones) make a cheeky go of it? Or continue to exist in the odd tension of the employer-employee dynamic? Or is emotional risk the “sexy bit”?
At the end of series one we saw Shona newly engaged after Vish’s (Aasif Mandvi, Evil; The Brink) proposal, despite sharing a stolen kiss with business partner, Charlotte (Indira Varma, Game of Thrones; Luther). How will Charlotte and Shona manage running a new business together after that kiss? Will Shona be able to go through with marrying Vish? Planning a wedding? Can she tell him what happened? Is there anything more to tell?