After devouring the first season in a matter of days, I moved on to Season 2, which dropped in July. It continues in an equally vicious, vulgar mode. (Well, on the surface at least.) Sure, the family members are all up to their usual hijinks: Josie is kidnapped by her mother at art college and marched to a surprise wedding with her deadbeat boyfriend Seb, then tries to get herself institutionalized to escape him; Billie enters into a tumultuous “sugar baby” relationship with the much-older Graham; and Deb is desperately trying to claw her way back into Dev’s favor after he discovers she lied about her ex-husband dying. Along the way, all of them continue to use self-help buzzwords and weaponized therapy speak to justify being terrible people. (There’s a memorable scene in which Billie develops a thesis that being a mistress is somehow feminist.)
And yet, Such Brave Girls isn’t quite as misanthropic as I might be making it sound. You can’t help but root for Josie, especially as she tries to spread her wings in Season 2, exploring her creative passions and her sexuality even while remaining the perpetual family punching bag. And you can’t help feeling a little sorry for Billie, whose endless quest for validation from disinterested men is undoubtedly a result of her upbringing, as we watch her mother continue to stomp all over her daughters to secure herself a financial life raft. Even Deb is the victim of a very British strain of class anxiety—not only trying to survive, but trying to deflect the shame of being a poor single mother in a society that hates poor single mothers.
Photo: Courtesy of Hulu
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