There are a few different ways to read the title of this darkly comic sitcom. The most obvious is an inversion of the well-worn platitude – "It gets better" – that’s intended as heartening advice for anyone going through a tough time. That kind of earnestness is anathema to It Gets Worse, which treats its characters and their performative cool with a cheerful scorn.
You can also imagine the phrase being whispered by a friend as they fill you in on the latest gossip. "Oh, I know… and it gets worse…" This is apposite for the judgmental, chaotic and socially literate characters that inhabit the world of this comedy, who move from slam poetry open mic to communal shared living space to low-energy "sex party" leaving a trail of disastrous romantic assignations in their wake.
The six-episode series has a touch of Channel 4’s trendy London sitcom Big Mood about it, coupled with a dash of Lena Dunham’s Girls (tellingly, Dunham cameos in the show, too).
But from the start, it’s also very much its own thing. Comedian Leo Reich creates, writes and stars as Ethan, a monstrously self-centred twenty-something convinced that he has the hardest life in the world… despite, as the narrator points out, having an easier existence than almost any human being in recorded history.
We find him jobless and loveless (the closest thing he has to a boyfriend treats him with disdain, while his next best romantic option might well be straight). The first episode’s opening scene, starring Andrew Scott as an off-duty therapist who can’t help but pepper his dirty talk with genuine concern for Ethan’s mental health, might be the funniest and most outrageous in the whole series. Though other moments come close.
At least Ethan has a couple of mates at his side – softly-spoken HR drone Abi (Emily Fairn), desperate for an Instagram-perfect life, and wannabe radical writer Sam (Olive Gray), who holds her principles dear but is tutoring a misogynistic teenager.
Together they make for a wonderfully dysfunctional trio, lurching through London from financial to emotional crisis, their back pockets stuffed with wicked one-liners. Highlights include a brutal cut-down of Abi’s dull boyfriend, who bores everyone with the provenance of his Japanese kitchen utensils: "I was literally just about to ask you which culture makes the best knives!" Or Ethan, who when confronted with the fact that his parents aren’t homophobic, they just think he’s lazy and entitled, suggests "Yeah, but that’s a very harmful stereotype about white gay men".
Crucially, the series never takes itself too seriously and recognises just how ridiculous young, beautiful people can be. In fact, the most empathy is extended to uncool side-characters, like Ethan’s mum’s lodger Roger (Blake Harrison) and Abi’s coworker Louise (Emmeline Downie).
But this is resolutely Ethan, Sam and Abi’s story. Alongside more transitory struggles, each has a larger story that weaves through the run. Abi can’t decide whether to chuck her boyfriend, Sam is stuck living with her ex and clearly unable to be the unbothered, post-monogamous person she wants to be. Ethan is looking for pleasure and direction, all centred on the handsome, unknowable Aaron (Dane Williams).
Spoiler alert: none of them are going to get exactly what they want, as is wryly implied by that all-seeing narrator (voiced by novelist Zadie Smith; another big cameo). Still, finding that out is a fun journey in a story that’s less episodic than it first appears, and that ends up falling somewhere between a TV show and a feature-length film.
By the end, it feels as though the characters have been on a journey, even if it’s a bit of a circular one. Although things didn’t get worse for them, you’d struggle to say things got that much better.
It Gets Worse is available to stream on Channel 4 now.
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