Slouching toward self-awareness
Please Like Me. The title of Josh Thomas’s TV show is so plaintive, so vulnerable, you’d have to be a brute not to oblige. Or, posits the Australian comic, maybe just a really perplexed American.
“Americans don’t tend to like me very much. They seem confused,” he says, giggling.
“Canadians are like me — self-deprecating and teasing themselves a little. But Americans take it quite seriously.”
Thomas plays a sad-eyed, singsongy 20- something named Josh, who starts his first same-sex relationship after breaking up with his girlfriend Claire (Caitlin Stasey). Wade Briggs plays his love interest Geoffrey, and Thomas Ward is his best friend Tom.
The comedy, nominated for an International Emmy last year, has aired two seasons in Australia with a third on the way.
Cable network Pivot picked up the original Australian episodes in the U.S., and now Season 1 is airing on CBC.
“I would love to go to Canada and make a Canadian version, or go to America and make an American version,” says Thomas, who’s also the show’s creator, writer and an executive-producer.
“But I’m happy it’s working for other countries.”
Please Like Me is a strategic pickup for CBC. Unlike much of the public broadcaster’s existing content, it features a gay male lead and targets a younger demographic.
Astute viewers might see shades of Lena Dunham’s Girls, or Louis C.K.’s Louie — both of which feature main characters slouching toward self-awareness.