The fifth and penultimate episode of This Way Up is one that shows off both the strengths and weaknesses of the series.
Aine (Aisling Bea) agrees to meet her ex-boyfriend Freddie (Chris Greer) at a bar after work. After some drinks and games of pools, Aine has a night of fun with her flatmate, Bradley (Kadiff Kirwan) and his pals. But her past comes back to haunt her.
The fifth episode’s best feature was the humour. The show has always had a naturalistic style of comedy and this episode had some of the sharpest and wittiest bits the series has to offer. The best moment was when Aine was with EFL students. There was some obsessive humour like when one of the students points out a keyword in a nursery rhyme – ‘Mary HAD a little lamb’ – leading to Bea getting to have a little riff. There were some jokes such as when Aine gives money to one of her students which raises a chuckle.
As well as strong comedy this episode featured a fair bit of character development for Aine. This was the first episode where Aine properly interacted with her flatmate. In the past they just spoke in passing – in this episode she watched football and went out to a nightclub. Aine took a selfie so she had evidence of having London based friends.
This was an episode that had a few callbacks to the first two episodes, which was rewarding for people who have invested time in the show. The first callback was when Aine was asked what she thought of Bradley’s ex-girlfriend who made a quick appearance in the second episode. The more important callbacks came when Aine was in the nightclub. There was a triple whammy because Aine meets someone she knew from rehab – showing she was a kind person when she finds out her friend had gone off the wagon, and Aine doesn’t like being reminded of her past. Tom (Ricky Grover) was cruel and bitter when Aine took him out of the club, causing her to go down a sadness spiral. And as been established in previous episodes when Aine was sad or drunk she makes poor decisions.
The drawback of the fifth episode was it was lacking in a plot. It was more a series of events – she teaches Etienne (Dorian Grover), teaches her class, meets her ex, watches football, and goes out to a nightclub. Nothing important happens until the final third of the episode. This isn’t the first time it happened in the series because Episode Three had a similar scenario where the episode meandered to a conclusion. This problem was made worst because This Way Up is an episodic show – each episode is meant to stand on its own – it’s not Fleabag where all the episodes are tied closely together. Plus this is the second episode in a series of six that suffered this problem. Whilst the characters are well written it shows that there isn’t much variety in the stories.
The fifth episode has some strong character moments and well-written comedy but suffered from a lack of focus.
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Comedy
