This Way Up – Season 2, Episode 4 Review

This Way Up is a show that can be brilliant or boring. The fourth episode of the second season was an example of being a dull entry in the series.

Aine helps her flatmate, Bradley, with a Windrusher fundraiser. Richard comes to support Aine, but Aine gets worried that he’s getting too friendly with one of the organisers. Shona spends the night at home whilst her fiancé meets his ex in New York.

This episode is going to be a hard one to review because there isn’t a lot to say. The only major development in this episode was that James discovers Aine is dating Richard. Or to put it another way, James finds out Aine is seeing the father of a student. The other developments were Tom breaking his friendship with Aine and Richard discovering Aine accidentally knocked out a tooth. It all felt inconsequential.

This meandering approach was frustrating because the second season has numerous storylines on the go. There are the ticking time bombs of Shona and Vish’s wedding and Shona’s attraction to Charlotte. These issues are going to blow up in a big way. Aine has her own issues with setting up a business and her relationship with Richard. This episode does nothing to move these storylines along.

The episode was focused mostly on the fundraiser and Shona lying around in her house. It wasn’t that compelling to watch. It does sound callous because the fundraiser was for the Windrush generation and celebrate Black British culture but it didn’t offer much character development or continue the wider storyline.

The closest thing to a theme in this episode was jealousy. Aine suffers from the green-eyed monster when she saw Richard speak with Celeste (Jade Harrison). There was tension between Aine and Celeste because Celeste made comments about Aine’s appearance. The other jealousy storyline involved Shona and Vish but this was fleeting.

This was a nothing episode. Nothing important happening to the characters or the wider story.