The first "official" trailer for Season 4 of one of my favourite shows
has been dropped, and there is so much about it that I want to discuss with everyone. For those of you who do not know,
Please Like Me is a show about to enter its fourth season, and I haven't been this excited about a show in a long time. It's one of the best written, acted, and directed pieces of media out there today, and yet, so many people don't even know what this show is. Well, I'm going to try and help you out. Season 4 will contain six episodes, and I plan to review every single one. Why should you invest your time in this show? Oh, let me count the reasons for you...
The Characters:
This show gets a lot of things right, and it all can be stemmed back to the way the characters are written and how they act. The lead character of Josh starts out the show extremely insecure and unsure of himself, but actually goes on to be nuanced and mature, and the person many of the other characters lean on to help out with their problems. He creeps up on you, and Josh Thomas's portrayal of a character who's just so
real is certainly worthy of a Performer of the Month award (POTM) here. There were so many standout episodes and scenes I can think of, but I really don't want to spoil anything major. Josh is also joined by his best friend Tom, and he's pretty much the stereotypical straight white boy fodder to Josh's homosexuality. However, it's a lot more special than that, because the two really do have a great relationship. He's got relationship problems of his own too, with many women entering and leaving his life throughout the seasons. I think my favourite of which is Claire, played by the impeccable Caitlin Stasey. She was filming
Reign at the time of this shows' recordings so she's not in it nearly enough, but when we do get her, we love her. Her not-relationship with Josh and later really close friendship is one of the greatest dynamics on the show. That's probably something else I should mention, this show often prioritizes friendships over romantic relationships, which I know will be a plus for some people. They do it, and they do it quite well. However, there are so many other characters I haven't even mentioned yet that deserve mentioning. Arnold joins the show in season 2, but becomes Josh's boyfriend in season 3, and he's one of my all-time favourite characters. I hope Keegan Joyce becomes a household name, because he is truly fantastic here. And there's Josh's divorced parents, based on the true life experience of Josh Thomas, both of which are played to perfection. Josh's mum and Hannah have an odd-couple level of dynamic, and it's wonderful since Hannah is one of the best characters that we also don't see enough of. I'm hoping we get more of her in this season though. And there's Mae, Josh's dad's girlfriend, and she should probably get her own spinoff at some point, because it's her who gets a lot of the best lines in an episode. Ella was introduced later on, and I'm liking her a lot more when she's without Tom and her own person. And there was Geoffrey, Niamh, Patrick, Jenny, Arnold's parents, and how could I forget to mention John the dog? As you can see, there's a large ensemble of excellent and fleshed-out characters, who all have unique traits and identities, and based on the trailer, it looks like we're getting even more new faces, and some returning old faces, which I will talk about later.
The Subject Matter:
Still not sold? Perhaps this will be the thing that completely sways you to watch it. This is an Australian sitcom, which, at the forefront, tries to make you feel good while watching it. Each episode is roughly about 27 minutes long, and for the run time, they want you to take away something after you've seen it. Every episode is named after an exquisite food item, that Josh is often seen making throughout the episode, most of the time in the show's theme song.
The theme song is guaranteed to get stuck in your head, all the while Josh (and some other characters) are dancing and jumping around and cooking/baking a delectable treat. It definitely can make you hungry while watching, but it's not necessarily a bad thing. Now let's get into the meat of the show. What
Please Like Me really thrives on is talking about a myriad of serious and important issues that most people can relate to in some way. Some of these include, but are not limited to: homophobia, sexism, mental illnesses and the stigma behind them, abortion, religion, workplace harassment, and more. This show does the rare thing by avoiding being too preachy about what they're presenting, while also showing it to you in a beautiful light. They never take any liberties showing you how Arnold or Josh's mum live. They never romanticize or downplay how Hannah goes about her day-to-day business. They show all of these issues in a respectful manner, so often times it can be a bit hard to watch just because it's so real. Particularly in the season 1 finale, Josh gives one of the performances of his life, and it's painful. It's easy to cry with this show, but you're not always crying sadly. Like I said, this show wants you to have fun and enjoy yourself, but it also wants to be straight with you (perhaps that was not the right word to use there). I've seen people connect this show with
You're The Worst, and I know that show has some sort of an audience here. So I'm hoping this show can be added to your repertoire all the same. It really deserves your attention.
The Season 4 Trailer:
I really don't want to spoil anything for anyone, so I'm just going to briefly discuss some stray observations. Heads up, new viewers, it looks like it could be a wild season.
↠ Tom Ward describes this season as "
Game of Thrones-level brutal". I really don't know how to feel about this. I just hope my favourite characters are safe, then again, no one is ever safe.
↠ New characters! I'm wondering heavily about the person sitting on the bench with Josh. I hope we see a lot of them, they look interesting. And of course, something I'm really excited about, Hannah's talking to another girl! A new girl! Hannah finding happiness & a girlfriend was one of the major things I was hoping for this season. Please, give this to me.
↠ Lots of awesome-looking ensemble moments. I love the moments where all the characters come together for one reason or another and just hang out. The Christmas meal, although hectic, was a great time. There's a road-trip of sorts, silly string wars, fireworks, and a lot of heartfelt scenes of a lot of the characters just sitting around in Josh and Tom's kitchen. The locations are breathtaking on this show, so I am ready to be swept away to Australia again.
↠ Returning faces, eh? Geoffrey is back, and it looks like he'll be here for a while as he had a lot of screen time in the trailer. Claire's back too, thank god, though she wasn't there a lot. I'm just hoping the trailer is a tad deceiving and we get a lot more Claire. And the core group is all there, excellent.
↠ New locations. Looks to be some sort of drag/gay bar that Josh and Arnold are attending. Fun! I love it already.
↠ Josh, while joking around, brings up bisexuality and sexual-fluidity. This was something a lot of fans on Tumblr were asking the show to do this season, and, while he was poking at fun at them, he still mentioned them. Seriously, you can count on this show to bring you exactly what you need. Unless Josh and Arnold do not end up happily ever after. Then, you can disregard everything I just said.
Please Like Me returns exactly one week today. With only 26 episodes so far, it's pretty doable to catch up before the premiere. All episodes are available on ABC View, if you live in Australia, and Hulu. If you don't have either of these...well, I'm not saying look for less-reputable sources, but I guess that is what I'm saying. The fact that you will be viewing and talking about this show is enough. I promise anyone and everyone can get something out of this show. I cannot wait to review all six episodes. Will you be tuning in? Is there anything I said that struck a cord with you? Any questions on anything I brought up? Please (like me) feel free to leave a comment down below!
