My Mad Fat Diary
2013
Original language: English
- comedy
- drama
The story
Set in 1996 in Lincolnshire, the show tells the tragic and humorous story of a very troubled young girl Rae, who has just left a psychiatric hospital, where she has spent four months after attempting suicide, begins to reconnect with her best friend Chloe and her group, who are unaware of Rae's mental health and body image problems, believing she was in France for the past four months.
What it’s like
Warm, scruffy and sharply funny, with the grey-green drizzle of a 1990s Lincolnshire town pressed into every frame: council estates, chip shops, bedrooms plastered with band posters, and the flat fluorescent glare of a psychiatric ward that the show treats as just another place to be bored in. The camera stays close and handheld, often talking straight to us through Rae's diary-voiceover, so the mood swings between cringe-bright teenage giddiness and a quiet undertow of dread. Needle-drop soundtrack of mid-nineties indie and Britpop does a lot of the emotional work. Pacing is brisk and episodic, with sitcom-sized jokes sitting on top of heavier scenes about self-harm, depression and body shame, which land without wallowing. Intensity: moderate. Suicide attempts and self-harm are discussed and shown in some scenes, with mild swearing and some sexual talk; no gore, and violence is rare. The arc follows a bruised, funny girl learning to ask for less contempt from herself and more from the people who love her. For viewers who want a comedy with real teeth, who enjoy grounded British teen drama, and who don't mind a story that takes mental illness seriously while keeping its feet on the ground.
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