Fourteen months ago I was sitting in the parking garage of The Getty Villa fighting with my girlfriend. I was filled with self-righteousness.
She made me feel bad about myself – all of a sudden she made me feel bad about myself. I felt inadequate as a girlfriend, I’d certainly failed as a boyfriend, and I knew that the distance between us was definitely her fault. She wasn’t out when we started dating and, okay, fine, neither was I, but now I was a dyke trans poster child for obvious queerness and she got to be a soft femme pansexual cis woman who fit in just as well with the straight people who side-eyed me as she did the queer people who were like me. Sure, she loved me, but every moment I felt that it would be easier for her if she didn’t.
Well, you’ll be shocked to find out that upon verbalizing these thoughts, I felt foolish. It’s too simple to say they weren’t true – I mean, they weren’t – but within the falsities were real questions. How do two queer people experience love? How do two queer people still figuring out their sexualities, their genders, their shames, their traumas, their pasts, their futures, their vastly different presents make a relationship work? And when it’s not supposed to work how will they know when all that other bullshit is in the way?
Mae Martin’s new Netflix show Feel Good starts with a ten minute romcom that’s easy to relish for all the wrong reasons. Martin plays a version of herself – a Canadian comedian living in London who’s queer and anxious and is aptly compared to both a puppy and an androgynous muppet. After her set one night, fictional Mae starts flirting with a woman named George (Charlotte Ritchie). George says she’s never been with a woman before but then they kiss and before the title card even appears on-screen they move in together.
Lesbian Uhaul jokes have been hack since the 90s. But as queer people continue to play out old stereotypes it’s worth exploring the sometimes unsettling nature of these behaviors. After this opening sequence that has us ready to root for Mae, George, their delightful flirting, and their whirlwind romance, the cracks begin to form. Mae’s energy is eager and aggressive in a way that quickly loses its appeal. We realize that George still hasn’t introduced Mae to her friends. We meet Mae’s parents over FaceTime and her mom – a remarkable and hilarious performance from Lisa Kudrow – is clearly one of those people who hates themselves so much you know they hate you too. And then we learn that Mae is a recovering drug addict – and, more importantly, George learns this too.
Throughout the show’s six episodes, Mae fights to move on from her addiction, confront her familial hurt, and be the person she thinks George wants. Meanwhile, George is working to overcome her own shame, accept her queerness, and communicate her needs to herself and Mae. Hardly a moment passes that isn’t filled with their relationship’s impending doom. Both characters are just too lost in themselves to be there for each other.
This makes the show sound heavy – and, at times, it is – but Martin is so casually charming and all the writing is so sharp that the heavier moments feel as random as they do inevitable. Maybe it’s the quarantine, but there were lines and scenes in this show that made me laugh harder than I have in a long, long time.
Most of the straight press has compared Feel Good to Fleabag which has been happening to a lot of shows – it’s the new every young woman is the *insert adjective* Lena Dunham. And while it’s true both shows are British and revolve around flawed protagonists with love and sex addictions, what’s lost in the comparison is how intrinsically tied in plot and theme Feel Good is to its queerness.
This isn’t just a show about an addict and her codependent girlfriend. It’s a show about a queer person who thinks she’s probably nonbinary and definitely unhappy. It’s a show about another queer person who all her life used normalcy as a defense mechanism and now doesn’t know what to do without it. It’s a show that introduces a queer character who’s funny and hot and comfortable in her gayness but is ignored by our protagonist who isn’t ready for that reality. It’s a show with lines like “The only reason you’d chase people who aren’t attracted to your entire gender is because you hate yourself.” and “I’m going to be left watching The L Word and googling ‘Am I gay?’ while you barnacle yourself to the next straight girl you meet.” and “I’m not a boy. I’m not even a girl. I’m like a failed version of both.”
There are times in Feel Good where you hate George and love Mae, filled with the same self-righteousness that I felt in that parking garage. And there are times where you loathe Mae and feel for George, filled with the same shame I felt two minutes later. Mae and George are deeply flawed – most of us are – but can they be in love despite that? While queer people are still figuring themselves out – a project often more complicated for us – can we have that swoon-worthy ten minute love story?
The show doesn’t answer that question. But it does insist that we deserve love to some degree – even if it isn’t a partner’s love. Maybe for some of us romantic love is just a shortcut anyway. Maybe what some of us need is a parent or a friend or a sponsor.
One of the show’s heavier moments involves another addict getting talked down by his sponsor after a relapse. She wants him to say that he is loved. He doesn’t want to. “Say it,” she insists. “You are loved.” Finally he breaks down. He says it.
I am loved.
I just started but I relate so heavily to this show already. Also that scene with the key in the box omg! (also you have a typo in the title, fyi)
I watched “Feel Good” yesterday and honestly, I’d rather compare it to “Please Like Me” than to “Fleabag”. But that might be my experience, since I really disliked “Fleabag”.
I’ve never identified so much with the portrayal of an enby person before and that in itself made watching “Feel Good” very emotional for me. Not that I can relate to the drug problem, but Mae Martin managed to touch on some of the more complicated (afab) enby gender feelings in a very profound way. Stuff that most shows just overlook and that I find very hard to admit to myself or articulate to others.
In conclusion: “Feel Good” is great. Thanks for the beautiful review, Drew!
I literally said to my partner ‘It’s just like a lesbian Please Like Me!’
You know, *lesbian* in the loosest sense of the word, obviously
I felt the same way about the nonbinary feelings!!
This is, as always, Drew, a beautiful review.
I had a lot of “but…”s, especially in the way they handled the parents – Lisa Kudrow is delightful & powerful as always – but I felt like the show got them off the hook too lightly. And Desiree Akhavan still seems to be the only TV writer I know who has more analytical tools to talk about bisexuality.
Despite these flaws – the flaws which actually make more space to talk about the show – it’s another little Channel 4 show I want everybody to watch. (Have you seen “This Way Up”? I believe it’s on Hulu in the US). The writing is so specific; you can feel how Martin cares about her characters, and the every single actor has something to work with. (The people in the NA meetings! The girls in George’s school – every one of them has their own little story).
And gosh, George has resonated in me so much it’s almost embarrassing; not because of our path to queerness, which couldn’t be more different, but because of the people we fall for. And she’s so beautifully neurotic – I knew Charlotte Richie was good, as every single actor in “Call the Midwife” cast over the years, but here she’s quiet and spectacular at the same time, and so, so funny.
This was very well written and i liked reading your point of view but i disliked this show. I found Mae Martin to be an awful actor and i struggled to find any of the jokes funny. Overall, tedious and boring with sloppy storylines. Really liked Charlotte Richie though.
This sounds like it’ll be great! Thanks! I’ve been watching, like, all the queer shows on Netflix, so surprised this hasn’t yet shown up under “you may like…”
I actually just finished it last night (binged the whole season in one sitting) and I don’t think I’ve ever felt as seen as I have than with this show. Aside from the drug use, both Mae and George share so many big pieces of myself that I cried, I laughed, I cried and laughed and I literally can’t stop thinking about the show.
The scene in the boat house where Mae describes how George is different, gosh I would take that quote and etch on my desktop background.
The scene right before Mae leaves bc George has denied her existence at Binky’s party. Gosh that hit home so hard. I was also bullied and every single one of George’s friends reminded me of a bully that I could have had.
All of Lisa Kudrow’s scenes. All of them.
And the ending, heart wrenching and edge of my seat waiting for a potential season 2.
Thank you for this review!
Ahhh man, I loved this show. Everything was so -tangled-! Like, you find the characters loveable but also so deeply flawed, and you can see how they each bring their fucked up histories right along with them into the relationship. It’s like every bad relationship I’ve ever been in. And yet, you swoon a bit when they keep finding each other again.
I also really liked that the addict wasn’t just ‘the bad guy’, who fucked everything up and therefore no longer deserved love. When Lisa Kidrow was like, I’ll buy you a ticket home, I’ll start making the soup now, I cried like a child.
I’ve loved Mae Martin’s comedy for years and am so happy she got to make this show! I suspect it will majorly hit me in the feels, but I’m looking forward to it nonetheless.
Thank you for this review, which led me to the show. I don’t think I’ve laughed out loud so many times per 25 min episode of anything in a while, yet the 5th and 6th episodes gutted me in a way I maybe needed? Woof.
Also, ALL of the 12-step people were fantastic. Maggie stole so many scenes and Karen got me every time.
This show made me cryyyyyyy
It was also hilarious.
The lines that Mae’s mum say to George about how she doesn’t love her she loves the idea of love?! omg I gasped
I’ve loved Mae Martin ever since I saw a video of her performing a cover of Zombie by the Cranberries only she changed the lyrics to be about Buffy.
I binged this show in one sitting. Could not get enough. I also appreciated the relatable strap-on sex content!
Thank you for this review Drew!
I like this show, BUT as a sober person in recovery, I have to say the depiction of 12 step meeting is nothing like my experience of them- people don’t talk over one another, interrupt one another or even reply to things each person has said. The reality of a 12 step meeting would probably make boring TV, I do understand, but my experience is that people listen respectfully- sometimes you bawl, sometimes you vent, sometimes you complain and whine, sometimes you say things that are wrong sometimes you say things that piss other people off, but everyone gives you the space to say your thing, maybe that is what you needed that day to keep you sober or clean. If I saw this depiction of NA, and I was thinking of going, I wouldn’t want to go if it was like this. I know its entertainment and they’re under no obligation to make it realistic but I just wish it were a little closer to what I’ve experienced.
So, I love this review and the show is incredible. However, I think we need to give George the credit she deserves and that her love for Mae was pure, and although she was reluctant to come out, she eventually did. And we all reach that point at our own times. So, I believe that george is queer in one way or another and her love for Mae was really there, and I want them to be together!!!
I just binged the whole show, loved it. Your review is spot on. First half of the season had me laughing out loud every 5 mins, by the end I was a mess of tears.
It made me feel the same way as work in progress did earlier in the year. Characters that I found more relatable than anything I’ve seen before, making the heartbreaking moments all too real and painful when they come around.
The quick witted humour, charlotte richie and lisa kudrow’s performances topped it off. Definitely hoping for a second season!