Remember when Channel 4 was home to edgy, intelligent comedy, subversive music, cult films and late-night, stoner-vision staples such as Vidz? Me too. Albeit through a hazy vignette next to memories of carving flints and ducking pterodactyls.
All the more surprising then that Channel 4 should spring Flowers on us. At first glance a sort of grim fairytale about a dysfunctional family living in darkest Surrey, but also an often genuinely funny and heartfelt character study which has had me both laughing out loud and tearing up more often than I'd want to admit.
The characters are of course what drive Flowers. Julian Barratt, as a depressed children's author, gives every bit as fantastic a performance as you'd expect, while a special mention deserves to go to lesser known Sophia Di Martino, whose portrayal of creepy, socially isolated daughter, Amy, could've been one-dimensional, but is played with an almost profound depth and sensitivity, and soon becomes someone you genuinely find yourself caring about.
Will Sharpe's writing displays a maturity beyond his years, along with a wonderfully surreal and original sense of humour.
Of course not everyone will warm to it. It starts off depicting a failed suicide attempt – clearly its main intent is not winning over Daily Mail readers or the easily offended. It pulls no punches in its depiction of depression, but also manages to find a strange beauty in it. It's somewhat near-the-knuckle in Sharpe's depiction of his own Japanese heritage, and may even raise a few eyebrows with its tongue-in-cheek conflating of "feminist" and "lesbian".
But the whole thing is sewn together with such rare intelligence and sensitivity, not to mention beautiful cinematography, that you never get the feeling it's opting for cheap laughs.
There's only one more episode to go, and I'm already missing it; looking to re-watching it; and annoyingly and incessantly pushing it on family and friends.
