In Jon, Damien brings a multi-faceted character, who at first appears to be the reliable, steady, rational, calming opposite to Marcella. Every interaction between their characters, layered from the superficial to the deeper meaning, oozes with magnetism and their scenes together are some of the funniest of the series. The plot undulates with the will-they-won’t-they tension of their growing attraction – sweetly, awkwardly, with unspoken misunderstandings and insecurities on each side – providing nuggets of comedy gold.ĭamien and Roisin have incredible and natural on screen chemistry, both actors give nuanced performances from the hilarious to the heartbreaking. Their time together becomes more twisty-turny when Simon makes contact with Marcella again, and Jon dates someone else, testing Marcella’s true feelings and Jon’s constancy. Jon is only on the fringes of her life in the beginning, often left waiting for an often late Marcella, but also bearing witness to her more real and less superficial moments. Initially played out during Marcella’s driving lessons, it’s no straightforward, obvious romance. The best thing about GameFace though is the relationship between Marcella and her ‘ever-patient’ driving instructor Jon, their romantic thread weaving its way through the mayhem in Marcella’s life. When Marcella, inspired by the book ‘Wild’, decides to take a trip of self discovery, and gets lost in the woods. The laughs just don’t stop coming, it’s so easy to watch, entertainingly accessible and you can’t help but respond to the honesty of Roisin Conaty’s Marcella, who has some definite stand out moments in the series. Writer-creator Roisin Conaty even manages to balance death and self-deprecation with humour, when Marcella dissuades a potential rooftop suicide victim from jumping by describing her own troubles: “I’m an actor who hasn’t acted in anything for four years, I’m £28k in debt, my boyfriend of 12 years married a girl he’d known for six days in Vegas… I’ve got fat hands now, I don’t know when they suddenly got fat.”īut GameFace is more ‘comedy drama’ than ‘dramedy’ and there is not a second of wasted potential in this cool, contemporary comedy. All are explored with both bright humour and tenderness – which means you never feel tricked or guilty for dissolving into side-splitting laughter at anyone’s expense, and never feel confused by being moved to tears simultaneously. Peppered with bite size flashbacks and ‘flash forwards’ – a clever plot tool for filling in the gaps in Marcella’s life and revealing her inner hopes and fears – these set the tragi-comic tone of the whole series.Īnd there are plenty of tragic themes in Marcella’s life, the return of her now married ex, massive debt and a struggling career, her bother Billy’s drug addiction and her self-destructive “carbs, fags and wine” coping mechanisms. Marcella’s story is told with the help of her Groupon funded sessions with ‘dubious’ ‘life coach’ Graham (Karl Theobold). We meet her flatmates and family, but most importantly of course, her driving instructor Jon (Damien.
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Throughout the series we follow her life trials as a wannabe actress trying to keep life together a year on after the break up of her long-term relationship with Simon (Dustin Demri-Burns), the ex who married another woman after knowing her for only six days. That’s Marcella of course, the beautiful red-wine-lipped, fairy-costume-wearing, semi -mess of a real woman brought to life by the sparkling Roisin Conaty. It’s a textured, quirky and unique creation, tonal, layered, with a lead character it’s impossible not to invest in.
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Starring our favourite actor alongside creator Roisin Conaty and an incredible cast, the series is a fresh, current, moreish new comedy, that is not just outrageously funny, raucously laugh out loud and full of hilarious one liners, but also a warm, full of heart, emotionally engaging, quality drama.īilled as a sitcom, GameFace is so much more – a naturalistic comedy, cleverly written, with a richly satisfying story arch, despite the whole series being crammed into just six 25 minute episodes. GameFace has just finished airing on E4, and might just be the best thing of 2017.