It should never be underestimated how truly difficult it is to write a good comedy. A lot of what passes through under the comedy banner scrapes by on failsafe tropes, resorting to middling humour that elicits just enough amusement to bark out a laugh. Big Mood is not that kind of show.
In place of tired, old gags, creator Camilla Whitehill's writing is dangerously sharp and insightful.
With deft strokes, Whitehill manages to examine the intricacies of mental health through female friendships while also inverting the perspective so that the audience is exploring the complexity of female friendships through mental health.
Bridgerton and Derry Girls star Nicola Coughlan headlines the show alongside It's a Sin's Lydia West, and the chemistry between both leads lends authenticity to the decade-long friendship of the characters.
Maggie's (Coughlan) eccentric nature sets the tone of the show as she cruises through the opening scene in red velour sweats on a scooter, complete with sunglasses and a headscarf, coming to a halt at Eddie's (West) bar.
Seconds later she abandons the "particularly persuasive" TikTok purchase, gifting it to two strangers because the reflection of herself in a shop window was a "rude awakening".
It reeks of the deep-seated Millennial fear of no longer being young and trendy while simultaneously fearing being mutton dressed as lamb. But we digress.
Eddie, rolling with Maggie's idiosyncrasies, remains completely unphased until Maggie attempts to persuade her to bunk off work for a spur-of-the-moment road trip to her old school.
It's a matter of three minutes, yet already we have a clear picture of who plays what part in this friendship dance. Maggie is the impulsive, mood-driven creative whilst Eddie is the level-headed, reliable supporting act in Maggie's life.
In the debut episode, Maggie and Eddie stumble from one chaotic moment to the next and while viewers will no doubt get a kick out of the absurdity of it all, there is a note of unease that plays in the background.
Red flags pop up when Eddie eventually asks Maggie, "Are you manic?", thus disclosing Maggie's bipolar diagnosis to the viewer in a natural way.
Over the course of the series Maggie's bipolar is handled with the utmost care but also frankness as she enjoys dizzying emotional highs before plummeting into deep, despairing lows.
A raw reflection of what it means to live with mental-health issues is something Whitehill was insistent in portraying.
"We've done a lot of patting ourselves on the back as a society, saying, 'We're really facing mental health,' but we're not," Whitehill told Variety.
"We're okay with the stuff that isn't scary, or that goes on behind closed doors. Mental illnesses that have side effects, or show themselves differently, we're still just scared of what we don't understand. Understanding mental illnesses outside of depression and anxiety, and understanding more about how people you know might be affected by the medication they're on, can only be a good thing."
Big Mood attempts to get to the belly of the mental-health beast where bipolar is concerned.
For Maggie, desperately trying to find a balance between her free-will and the constraints of her illness, there's no 'A Beautiful Mind' way out of her mood disorder and the chaotic emotions that come with it. There are only three-day-long pants days, days you mess up and days that hold promise and joy.
Eddie's own journey has a growing-pains sort of ache. The obvious imbalance in the women's friendship grows and grows throughout the season, creating contention as the burden of keeping the friendship going relies heavily on Eddie keeping Maggie afloat.
Big Mood treats their friendship with the same level of importance television traditionally places on romantic relationships.
The show forces Eddie to examine how their friendship is affecting her own wellbeing while exploring boundary-setting within long-term friendships.
If you're wondering about the comedy element we promise you, it's there. Big Mood may be a provocative watch with intentional messages but that doesn't hamper its ability to be utterly laugh-out-loud funny, only it's a dark and light and grey kind of comedy that resonates throughout the body. It's a show that's sad, frustrating, painful, awkward and plain bonkers funny.
Shoutout to all the millennials who will understand every '90s and noughties reference, who will belt out the lyrics to Avril Lavigne's 'Nobody's Home', and will get Maggie's compulsion to stroke Love Actually star Joanna Page's face.
For those who fall on either side of that age bracket, Big Mood is still a deeply relatable watch that's witty and surprising enough to bring out that embarrassing snort-laugh we all have deep inside.
May 2024 gift ideas and deals
Buy Zendaya's 'I Told Ya' Challengers t-shirt
Digital Spy Holidays - trips with TV experts
Watch David Tennant play with 50% off this streaming service
Buy Cat Deeley's This Morning outfits
Shop Sky TV, broadband and mobile
TV writer, Digital Spy Janet completed her Masters degree in Magazine Journalism in 2013 and has continued to grow professionally within the industry ever since. For six years she honed her analytical reviewing skills at the Good Housekeeping institute eventually becoming Acting Head of Food testing. She also freelanced in the field of film and TV journalism from 2013-2020, when she interviewed A-List stars such as Samuel L Jackson, Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson. In 2021 she joined Digital Spy as TV writer where she gets to delve into more of what she loves, watching copious amounts of telly all in the name of work. Since taking on the role she has conducted red carpet interviews with the cast of Bridgerton, covered the BAFTAs and been interviewed by BBC Radio and London Live. In her spare time she also moonlights as a published author, the book Gothic Angel.
