Things You Should Have Done Series 2 Review – BAFTA Award-Winning Comedy Shows Flashes of Brilliance | TV and radio

TThe first series of Things You Should Have Done was broadcast on BBC Three in early 2024, and is a dry, eccentric comedy about a recently bereaved “stay-at-home daughter” from central England. The brainchild of Lucia Keskin, known online as Chi with a C, the show marked the 23-year-old’s transition from Internet comic (her repertoire ranged from American Horror Story parodies to Gemma Collins impressions) to TV star. It also comes with a co-signing to Roughcut, the production company behind People Just Do Nothing and Stath Lets Flats, which is helmed by The Office producer Ash Atalla.

The premise was almost unbearably sad (a misfit little girl loses her parents in a terrible car accident and is forced to live without them, according to the list they left her), but the final product was funny rather than depressing. In one episode about getting a job, Chi (Keskin) moves into a nursing home, accepting early retirement in an attempt to avoid working at all, while a class devoted to learning to cook ends with two family members being hospitalized. The tension between Chi and her bitter aunt Karen (Celine Haisley) was constant, complete with insults about Chi’s “fat legs of pork.” Not one but two characters spit into a bowl of pancake batter and no one looked back. And there was a truly memorable rendition of the song Pure and Simple by the Popstars Hear’Say winners. The characters leaned toward their nonsensical language and failed to understand the simplest concepts (see: Che thought a breast exam was some kind of peep show), which gave the show more than just a dash of Stath-like incompetence. Repeated ghostly appearances of Che’s deceased parents add a melancholy touch, though – wisely – never enough for a sense of true devastation.

Series two begins – with major spoilers – with another early death in the family, this time of Aunt Karen. Presumably Haisley wouldn’t have been available (she also stars in the wonderful film Am I Unreasonable? with Daisy Mae Cooper), otherwise I can’t think of any good reason to give her a chance. Unfortunately, her absence is glaring – many of the series’ best scenes involve Karen planning how to get the family home from Chi, or just making the life of her meek husband Dave (Daniel Fearn) a living nightmare. Her funeral, at least, has some good jokes, such as Chi accidentally downloading a sample best man speech instead of a eulogy (“Dave is a very lucky man today…”). Karen tripped on a vacuum cleaner cord at work and fell 86 steps, leading Chie to believe that her aunt had been reincarnated as a vacuum cleaner. However, killing off one of the most evil characters and someone who hates Chi doesn’t make for a particularly emotional story – although Keskin can say excellent, unhinged lines like: “My dead aunt is inside Drift-max’s wireless IZ900!”

Thank goodness for Bridget Christie, as a therapist who capitalizes on Chi’s grief, crossing all sorts of professional boundaries, and harassing her clients in the process. Ruth is no Karen 2.0, but she fills the need for another uptight side character – not least when she gets into a fight while working at a food bank. MORE GOOD NEWS: Sarah Kendall is back as Sarah Guillebeau, a down-on-his-luck comedian who was last seen working as a lifeguard, waitress and helper at a holiday campsite. Juliet Kwan can also be seen as Claudia, Dave’s rich and seemingly unstable sister, who sometimes talks like Dr. Seuss (“Of course I have a horse!”) and is tricked by Chi and her cousin Lucas (Jamie Bisping), who returns her cat for a reward before stealing it again. Meanwhile, Keskin remains just as soulless as Chi, and is occasionally helped by miniature versions of her heroes (“Help me, Lily Allen,” she pleads as she tries to figure out what food to donate to charity. “You’re working class, aren’t you?!”).

In the first series, the fact that the list is a very loose narrative conceit didn’t matter much, but in the second series, it’s so loose that it’s almost non-existent, with Ruth now offering suggestions to Chi based on their therapy sessions. Coupled with the lack of more Karen, Things You Should Have Done now feels like a very different show, despite its flashes of brilliance (Keskin won a BAFTA Emerging Talent Award last year, after all). I still hope and pray that Karen faked her death like “Can you keep a secret?”, and that she will come back one day. But until then, if you want to see a horse – and a janitor – let loose to the sounds of the Spanish wonders of Las Ketchup, I’ve got you covered.