Why ‘Please Like Me’ Is One of the Best Australian Shows I’ve Ever Seen
“I’m sorry about your life”
That’s right, I didn’t say Home and Away or Neighbours, I said that Please Like Me (2013–2016) an Australian television series that hasn’t gotten the right amount of recognition for being the best television shows. Despite it actually having 100% rotten tomatoes. Created and starred by Josh Thomas, an actor, comedian and writer has created a show that is something that every young gay male Australian can relate to. Even I can relate to it and I’m a female.
The show’s plot is about the main character Josh (Josh Thomas) a twenty-something-year-old navigating his way through life after realizing he might be gay, his parents’ divorce and that his mother (Debora Lawrence) has tried to kill herself. Josh and his friend and ex-girlfriend, Claire (Caitlin Stasey) and Tom (Thomas Ward) tend to be his support system and the reason why the show accurately represents circumstances that can happen to any young Australian. From messy relationships, figuring out your sexuality, abortions, age gap relationships, interracial relationships, mental health, and suicide. These issues represented without overdoing the theme of drama and comedy.
Most television shows that are in the Drama genre tend to be hard to watch, with hard storylines that require too much focus. Australian shows like Home and Away are like that. Please Like Me takes a fresh breath of air. It’s easy to watch and multitask to whilst watching and it’s not such a dark show as it’s enlightened with comedy and light-hearted dialogue. If you need a show that doesn’t require so much analytical thinking, this is the show for you.
Josh is a complex character, he and Claire have broken up after she believes he might be gay. In order to see if she is right, he explores a relationship with a guy just the night before his mother tries to overdose. Josh tries to get his father, Alan (David Roberts) and his new wife, Mae (Renee Lim) to be open about their relationship too even after he and Josh’s mother have divorced. He even tries to get his father to come into terms and understanding of Josh’s sexuality.
The entire series is about how Josh tries to become the loving and supportive friend that everybody needs whilst taking care of his mother, Rose. He ends up grappling with romantic relationships and tries to strengthen his parents’ friendship whilst Rose struggles mentally. Rose is someone who can be seen as needy and problematic just like her son, however despite they’re struggles. They have a strong mother-son bond that the series needed to have.
Even though Josh is the main character, it’s as though Rose is too. Except they are dealing with their own independent struggles in different dynamics.
Now… I hate to be a spoiler… but Rose dies at the end of the series.
Yes, despite Josh living with his mum, hospitalizing her and hiking with her around Tasmania and helping her for FIVE SEASONS. Rose kills herself just where all the characters in the show are seeming to have normal lives and finding themselves. Tom is in a happy relationship, Claire seems to have her shit together, Alan and Mae are happy, Roses’ friend Hannah (Hannah Gadsby) stops self-harming and Josh has realized he doesn’t need to be in a relationship.
Then he goes to his mum’s house to find out she has taken her life. Just after an episode where she is ‘at peace’.
The dynamic changes, Josh becomes emotionally turmoiled, Tom and his girlfriend Ella (Emily Barclay) are fighting, Alan questions his marriage and devotional friendship to Rose. Claire doesn’t know how to be a friend to Josh and Hannah struggles to make sure she doesn’t harm herself again. Yet despite such tragic events, the characters find some peace. ALL WITHIN TWO FINAL EPISODES!
In the finale, Josh moves out of his father’s rental, buying an apartment after seeking therapy for grieving. Alan and Josh have a stronger father-son relationship from thereafter realizing that Rose wanted them to be there for each other. Allowing Josh to finally find some inner peace.
Yet we are left with an open-ended finale. Something not many shows will ever do. Tom and Ella break up as they are about to move in together, Josh realizes that his dream apartment is just another ‘home’ to him. The show ending with Tom and Josh sitting on a couch together as the credits roll. As though even after everything the final season has gone through, life must go on.
As though we as an audience are meant to go on knowing how our favorite characters end up as if we as an audience are meant to complete that empty storyline.
