Big Mood kicks off with confidence. Maggie (played by Nicola Coughlan) makes an impression in a red velour leisure outfit, riding around London on an electric scooter, wearing sunglasses under the sun—seemingly thriving. But the music suddenly cuts off when she stops and offers the scooter to strangers passing by. “It was a moment,” she explains. “The moment’s over.” This six-episode Channel 4 comedy revolves around two best friends—Maggie, a struggling playwright, and Eddie (portrayed by Lydia West), a bar owner—living in delightfully disorganized apartments in a trendy yet run-down part of London. The series also addresses the complex journey of handling mental health issues in your early 30s. Eddie serves as the rational counterpart to Maggie’s chaotic antics and drama. She’s the one who helps Maggie escape after Maggie gives a disastrous speech about being a writer at her former university: “What is a theatre? Well, you can get wine there…” The show includes numerous laugh-out-loud lines: “I thought your generation didn’t smoke?” “No, that’s the one after us. We smoke but refuse to drink cow’s milk.”
Their dialogue is filled with the quick wit and familiarity of friends who understand each other completely, supported by a cast of quirky comedy favorites who join in the fun. This series speaks volumes about navigating your 30s’ complexities, where some friends are settling down while others are off to a pagan festival. This article is part of Quarter Life, a series exploring issues impacting those in their 20s and 30s. Topics range from starting a career and managing mental health to experiences like starting a family, adopting a pet, or forming friendships as adults. The series delves into questions and provides answers for navigating this unpredictable phase of life. You might find these interesting: People leaving their fossil fuel jobs due to climate change, tips for increasing your chances of getting a mortgage when buying your first home, and ethical considerations around AI pornography. Coughlan shares a long friendship with the show’s writer, Camilla Whitehill, since their days in drama school, evident in the show. It’s set in their version of London, with a 30th birthday party themed after Love Actually, unusual dinner parties, and hilariously inappropriate exes appearing at inconvenient times.
The warmth and complexity of female friendship are highlighted, serving as the backbone of the series. Yet it is West’s more contemplative character, Eddie, who significantly advances the storyline. Near the end of the first episode, she asks Maggie, “Are you manic? Because if you are, you know what comes next, right?” What follows is an exploration of Maggie’s bipolar disorder, with Maggie going off her medication and experiencing drastic mood swings, from manic highs to depressive lows. Big Mood doesn’t shy away from portraying the depths of these lows, showing Maggie struggling with basic tasks and distinguishing reality from psychosis. Despite being a comedy, Big Mood seriously addresses mental illness.
The show receives support from Bipolar UK, with its premiere coinciding with World Bipolar Week. Coughlan expertly conveys the darker undertones amid the humor, allowing viewers to feel Maggie’s struggles and see the toll her mental health takes on her and her friends. “I fix problems – you have them,” Eddie cheerfully comments initially. But can any relationship endure such an imbalance? Big Mood is likely to be compared to Channel 4’s other female-centric mental health series, Aisling Bea’s This Way Up (2019), and that’s okay. This Way Up stood alongside Fleabag (2016) as one of the top comedy dramas of the 2010s. These shows are humorous, compassionate, and distinctly female, with room and an audience for more such stories. Female comedy writers and directors remain in the minority, making it tempting to group these three shows. Channel 4 deserves praise for addressing the disparity and supporting female talent. Big Mood is a daring debut by Whitehill. While it might lack subtlety, it compensates with a gritty and thought-provoking portrayal of mental health fragility in your 30s, lingering even after the laughter subsides.