Mental illness, family dysfunction, substance abuse, and PTSD aren’t typically fodder for hilarious comedy, yet somehow, they manage to form the basis of much laughter in “You’re the Worst.”
This boldly inventive FXX sitcom focused on the unlikely train wreck of a romance between two deeply damaged people in modern-day Los Angeles: Jimmy Shive-Overly (Chris Geere), a narcissistic novelist from Britain, and Gretchen Cutler (Aya Cash), a music industry publicist struggling with deeply depressive tendencies and a self-destructive streak.
Their respective best friends are also thrown into the mix; Edgar Quintero (Desmond Borges), an Iraq War veteran battling PTSD, and Lindsay Jillian, a party girl who married nerdy Paul Jillian (Allan McLeod) for his money. Other supporting characters include Becca Barbara (Janet Varney), Lindsay’s sister (and Jimmy’s ex), and her husband Vernon (Todd Robert Anderson), an orthopedic surgeon with a frat-boy sensibility.
Few TV comedies have done a better job at melding such serious issues with a sense of absurdist silliness, particularly with the show’s fan-favorite “Sunday Funday” episodes, which took the concept of a boozy brunch to surrealistic heights (“Sunday Funday, better than a Monday, you can only do it one day, and that is the drunk way,” goes the gang’s infectious theme song). Despite the characters’ overweening cynicism and casual cruelty, “You’re the Worst” is ultimately about forming human connections and all the pain, joy, and confusion that can bring.