Karl Puschmann
TV and pop culture
Crashing revolves around a bunch of London millennials legally squatting in a derelict abandoned hospital as its “property guardians” and having the usual sort of life and love troubles you worry about in your 20s.
Waller-Bridge’s character Lulu drives the action as a loose, flirty wildcard driving wedges in relationships and causing varying degrees of trouble wherever she goes.
While Crashing recycles the old will they/won’t they/were they on a break? routine we’ve seen a gajillion times it feels fresh enough to warrant going through one more time.
Which is exactly what I said the next day to the blank and confused look of my trusted colleague.
“Crashing,” he said slowly, “is all about a guy trying to become a standup comedian. What were you watching?” “Crashing,” I said. “On Netflix.” “What? No,” he replied, mystified. “Crashing’s on SoHo.”
Which was the exact moment I realised that there must be two hot new comedies called Crashing.
So while Crashing is an edgy millennial sitcom filled with inappropriate behaviour and lewd jokes Crashing, on the other hand, is a gentle and slightly wistful comedy about following your dreams.
It was created and written by standup comedian Pete Holmes, who is the host of a successful podcast (You Made it Weird) and a failed chat show ( The Pete Holmes Show).
In Crashing Holmes plays Pete, a struggling standup comedian trying to make it big after his marriage fails, largely because he was struggling to make it as a standup comedian.
The show’s loosely autobiographical which marks it as yet another entry into the well represented category of sitcoms made by and about white, middleaged comedians. But whereas Seinfeld, Louie, Maron et al trade in cynicism and a sort of universal mean spiritedness, Crashing comes at life in an almost naively positive way.
Pete just really, really wants to be a comedian. So much so he abandoned the path of becoming a pastor although he still sees life through those religious eyes.
He suffers setbacks, rejections and harsh reviews — including from his own mother — but every little victory he earns fills him with enough positive mojo to keep battling away.
The show’s a definite change of pace. It’s understated, wry and features some really great bad comedy. Based on what we’ve seen of Pete’s standup so far his “making it” seems unlikely. But you’re rooting for him to beat the odds. Failure couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.
So there you have it. A brief rundown of two hot new comedies. If you’re looking for something funny to watch then I can absolutely recommend Crashing. Both of them.