You're the Worst

Season 1 – 50% – Adding something new to the world of relationship sitcoms has become quite a challenge in recent years, as individual stations announce (only to cancel a few weeks later) various attempts at new romantic couples ten times a year. FX took a different approach, as they got the main couple together right at the start, they slept together, and then they started insulting each other more and more frequently, both openly and covertly sending each other where the sun don't shine. I had never seen that in a series before. However, being original doesn't always mean being good. Both Jimmy and Gretchen, as well as their friends Edgar and the beautiful Lindsay, are so self-absorbed that none of them (perhaps with the exception of unlucky Edgar) realize how toxic they are to those around them. And in those moments when they are at their worst with their community and I should be laughing the hardest, I am thoroughly disgusted. So, thanks for the few moments of "softened" self-reflection and a perfectly functional melodramatic finale. For others, there may have been points deducted for predictability, but for me, it was a last-minute leap into a weak average. Season 2 – 40% – The successful ending of the first season brought a big challenge. How to maintain the crude humor and crude personalities of Jimmy and Gretchen while attempting a relationship without being too far-fetched? Stephen Falk fatally failed to handle this task, and all efforts to return both halves to their roles as vulgar stumps are sadly forced. This isn't much helped by the exaggerated storyline of Gretchen's illness, which not only feels like it's from a different series but which I don't buy for a single second. And when Kether Donohue, who is always the best, gets scenes in the script like "injecting hot microwave sperm," I feel ashamed and sad for her at the same time. YTW is a series that is noticeably proud to come from a cable channel, yet paradoxically uses that advantage constantly to its own detriment. Season 3 – 30% – I didn't realize it could get any worse. I remember how at the very beginning of the show, many viewers were praising the creators for how all the relationships here seemed fresh and realistic. I wonder if anyone would say that now. Lindsay, instead of her usual selfishness, suddenly becomes stupid, and her behavior around pregnancy is, to put it mildly, offensive. Plus, her storyline brings along a lot of space for the repulsive Paul. Gretchen is an unbearable human being no one could stand to be around for even an hour, and Edgar? He is a prime example of what it looks like when one character is desperately surplus, because storylines like Dr. Weed can only be called embarrassing. I intentionally omit Jimmy, who somehow still remains in the center of events only because he is writing a book. But there is one thing that astounds me more and more. How perfectly this group manages to irritate me within a single scene. When everyone at least somewhat calms down, along come the real garbage, like Shitstain and company. If I could wish for the cancellation of just one season, it would be this one. Season 4 – 0% – Lowering the intelligence quotient of the characters in order to maintain the impression of a continuous stream of jokes contrasts so much with the attempts at sad drama that I would honestly have preferred for showrunner Stephen Falk to punch me in the face rather than try to continue the already stretched-out storyline. Pure hatred, which I masochistically subject myself to even in its last (!) season. Season 5 – 40% – Reconciliation. At least to the extent that Stephen Falk's efforts have convinced me that Gretchen and Jimmy are supposed to be real characters with some lived moments. That's the only reason I'm able to overlook the well-crafted (but ultimately somewhat futile) flashforwards or the awkwardly shining episode with Paul's family, which inexplicably parodies the great film Call Me by Your Name. The biggest failure, which I'm now trying with all my might to forget, is the treatment of Lindsay's character. Apart from the fact that she definitively comes across as an empty figure in the last season, the writers also use her to exploit every last cliché and end her character just as you would have expected. Without that, this would have been a meaningful spectacle in the last year (possibly thanks to the episode The Intransigence of Love, which shows that the main creator could actually tell a good story outside of this toxic mishmash). However, despite my originally zero expectations, I am paradoxically disappointed – and I never want to hear anything about them again. (26/02/2015) (less) (more)