Aimee Lou Wood and David Morrissey star in this heartwarming, small-scale series about extraordinary parent-child relationships. Fathers are special figures, as is evident in the BBC comedy Daddy Issues. In this series, twentysomething Gemma (Aimee Lou Wood, Sex Education) discovers that she has become pregnant after a one-night stand. When she receives little support from her mother, sister and roommate, she decides to move in with her father Malcolm (David Morrissey, The Long Shadow). He recently divorced and has never actually learned to take care of himself. As Gemma prepares for the birth of her child, she can use her father to practice parenting.
What a nice little series this is. This first season consists of six episodes of approximately 25 minutes, which is a great format to watch in an afternoon. Throughout the season, the tone remains light and funny and serious moments are well alternated. There is little at stake, but this series does not aspire to that at all. This is a wonderful snack between all the heavy series in the series landscape.
There are plenty of funny jokes to be made about being pregnant and single parenting
The basic principles of a pregnant twenty-something year old and an immature, somewhat naive father are used extremely well for funny jokes. This is especially evident in the episode where Malcolm tries to date again. The last time he had to seduce a woman was thirty years ago, so his technique is still a bit rusty. The scenes surrounding a pregnancy gym club also offer plenty of fun material.
What also helps is the acting of Aimee Lou Wood and David Morrissey. Wood already played a similar role in Sex Education, and she does it well here too. Her character Gemma is often smarter than she lets on, and Wood does a good job of bringing that out. What surprised me was how funny David Morrissey can be. I know him mainly from serious dramatic roles, but he has very good comic timing.
Aimee Lou Wood and David Morrissey are very nice actors
The combination of good acting and writing ensures that the viewer is convinced of the loving, yet difficult bond between father and daughter. They sometimes pull each other's socks off, but they still love each other. Wood and Morrissey know how to convey this well on screen. While their individual adventures are fun, they're both at their best when they share the screen.
Daddy Issues is a very witty series that makes good use of a bizarre premise and strong protagonists. If you have little to do on a rainy autumn afternoon, this is an excellent snack. The BBC has now announced a second season, and that is good news. The ending of season one leaves plenty of openings for a sequel, and I hope this one will be just as fun.
About the writer, Karzal
Mike (1995) has been a member of MySeries since 2016 and is mainly active on the English version of the site. Since 2018, he has been actively translating news articles, columns, reviews and basically everything that ends up on the Dutch site. The original articles, columns and reviews were actually written by others. During the week Mike can be found at IKEA, where he is a national systems specialist and occasionally also in the classroom to teach an English lesson. In addition, Mike logically enjoys watching series and has actually been spoon-fed this from an early age. The genre doesn't matter, there is a place for everything in the otherwise busy life.
