Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Heart of the affair
SWEARY and filthy, yet tender and believable, this comedy written by and starring Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney is one of the best things on TV.
It’s a rom com, but not as you know it. There’s no Richard Curtis pulling some Love Actually-esque heartstrings, or Carrie Bradshaw skipping after Mr Big through a New York park in stilettos and a jaunty hat. This is about as real as you can get – the candid tale of a relationship between two normal, flawed people with, as the kids would say, no filter. “You can be vile and dirty but still give something with heart,” says Sharon. “It’s truthful, from real stories. We’re just putting it out there as it is.” If you didn’t know, this is what you’ve missed so far. An American man and Irish woman (helpfully called Rob and Sharon) meet in London and have a fling. She gets pregnant, they move in together, fall in love and end up married with two kids and a dog – although the dog sadly met his maker in the last series. When we last saw the couple, Rob was open-mouthed after finding a receipt for the morning after pill and wondering if Sharon had cheated on him. Now we pick up events at that exact moment, as they eat pizza on the sofa and Rob decides whether or not to confront Sharon about what he’s found. He does in the end, but Sharon manages to bat away his questions before heading off on an investigative mission to track down the bloke in question, Nico, and find out exactly what happened – well, she was too drunk to remember. But Rob is deeply suspicious, with Sharon’s unnaturally good behaviour ringing alarm bells. Finally, when their son Frankie has an accident, it forces the issue out into the open, and you’ll be rooting for the couple to survive.