Score: 6/10
My thoughts:
I feel like I WANT to like Feel Good so much more than I actually do. As a queer, aspiring stand-up comedian whose had a lot of experience around addiction (around, not in, just to be clear), this show checked a lot of personal boxes for me.
The reality is, though, it’s just not that great of a show. It has all the ingredients of a good show, but it’s not been executed very well. The moments of growth that should be inspiring or heart-wrenching feel forced and unnatural. I’ve noticed this in similar partial-fictional auto-biopics comedians have done about their own lives. They’re too staged. Comedians are great writers, but they have to be in control of very little moment, and their scripts end up looking more like a highly choreographed play than a natural feeling tv show. In tv, the best moments are when the characters seem to transcend the writers. They become people and make surprising choices the way people do. There’s nothing really that surprising in Feel Good.
I will say, the second half of the short, 6-episode season was better than the first. I found myself caring about Mae and George a lot more towards the end than I did in the beginning. The show also got less funny though. The quirkiness of Mae’s character was initially hilarious and made for some unique moments that I’m glad exist. But the novelty of seeing Mae on screen faded with each episode and they stopped using Mae for comedic relief at all. Which, if that’s the emotional journey your protagonist is on, then okay, but I feel like you should still have that humor show up in other places? But it didn’t. The show just became a drama about Mae and George’s relationship. It’s interesting and dramatic and somewhat thrilling to watch like most traumatic relationships are, but it’s also easy. It loses the complexity that the comedy added to the show early on.
There are good things in the show. It feels like there are good minds and hearts behind it. The acting is believable. It’s filmed quite prettily. There’s some funny moments. It’s gay. It’s not the worst thing out there, but it’s not the best either.
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