The emergence of Mae Martin two years ago was one of the pre-pandemic joys of our TV celebrity system. Mae (pronouns: they/them) is a non-binary Canadian comic whose material presses the bruise of Millennial anxiety until it hurts.
Gender, sexuality and addiction troubles were all given a thorough, deeply personal rinse out in their semi-autobiographical romcom Feel Good, an ironic title for a funny show driven by mercilessly hard subject matter. The skill of the writer and performer at its centre made Feel Good live circuitously up to its title. Squint a little and season one was even family viewing.
For season two, Mae has switched networks from Channel 4 to Netflix. If anyone expected a less nuanced approach to the hard love story of Mae and George (Ghosts’ Charlotte Ritchie) in the transaction, buckle up tight. We begin our action in a Canadian rehab facility, with Mae dropped off by their taciturn parents, one of whom is played by one-sixth of the stars of the week’s other major TV event, Lisa Kudrow.
Mae is physically pining for their dumped London lover, while George quickly becomes embroiled in a relationship with a bisexual male so keen to express his lack of toxicity, he cannot help but fail to satisfy on every level.
When our star-crossed lovers meet on George’s doorstep, the generational angst is piled on thick and fast.
A new agent wants to position Mae’s comedy as emblematic of a lonely, lost, irrational generation who want to bang away the pain. The host of their regular comedy gig, himself now in a 12-step programme, has begun to make his apologies for past misdemeanours. The weakest character, George’s flatmate, Phil, makes intermittent appearances in a dressing gown, clearly lost. It takes a couple of jumpy, stop-start, oddly storylined episodes for Feel Good to really bed in again, to start caring about what might happen to Mae and George.
When it does, an even darker curveball is sewn into their backstory. I’m not even sure by the end of this jittery second season that viewers will see Feel Good as a comedy. It’s transposed into a fractured, dark new world, where damaged characters cling to one another because there is nothing and nobody else to hold on to. The rewards are still there, if less immediately noticeable.
You can watch Feel Good Season Two on Netflix now.
READ MORE: What Does Being Non-Binary Actually Mean? Your Guide To Gender Fluidity And Being A Good Ally