The show’s third episode aired last night, an alternately awkward, bawdy, and humane installment that further confirmed what an oddball gem this series is. Set on the women’s floor of a hospital’s geriatric extended care wing, Getting On has an inevitable air of sadness about it. And, if we’re honest, an ickiness too. Watching old people’s bodies breaking down, their systems irreversibly failing, is, well, depressing and a bit gross, a fact that the show isn’t afraid to address and mine for humor. But it’s never cruel about it either. While not quite as emotionally (or spiritually) concerned as Enlightened was, Getting On is still a comedy that knows when to take its subject matter seriously, to be generous of spirit instead of simply snide or broadly silly.
Part of that appealingly calibrated tone is likely owed to the fact that this is an adaptation of a British TV show—a particular strain of “Britcom” (ugh, sorry, I’ll never say that again) that excels at balancing sharp, oftentimes bitter humor with judiciously meted out moments of pathos. But credit also goes to the show’s American adapters, Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer, and to the terrific cast, especially Alex Borstein and Niecy Nash as weary nurses and Laurie Metcalf as their increasingly unhinged supervisor. It’s quite the team, with both writers and actors keeping things natural and understated without losing the strangeness and occasional absurdity of the humor. If you’re not yet convinced that you should be watching this perfectly crafted series, here are a few more (hopefully) enticing reasons.
Old people get to be funny too. While being brutally honest about the ugly realities of aging, Getting On allows its elderly patients to make the jokes rather than solely be the butt of them. Possible soon-to-be Oscar-nominee June Squibb (Nebraska) had a caustic, profanity-laden guest role last week, and this week saw grizzled Harry Dean Stanton receving a blow job from little old Ann Morgan Guilbert, right in the lounge for all to see. Commendably, the joke was on the staff’s horrified reaction, not the old people having the audacity to be sexual.
Laurie Metcalf’s face. This woman’s face can do a lot. It can go from pinched anger to wide-grinned mania in a fraction of a second. And Metcalf is deft at using it, pushing us away with some grotesque grimace or earning our pity with some wiggly look of despair. It’s just a very good face, and it’s well worth looking at for a half-hour every Sunday night.
Alex Borstein does something new. Fans of MADtv and Family Guy have long loved Borstein the comedienne, but here she gets to show off some subtler and darker talents. Her character, sadsack nurse Dawn, is frequently punished and embarrassed—she’s clueless about men, she’s apparently really bad at her job—but the sensitive writing and Borstein’s thoughtful performance manage to rescue her before she tips into complete, cartoonish patheticness. The word “revelation” is way overused when writing about acting, but this is an exciting change of pace for this sneakily versatile actress.
It just feels real. The unshowy acting, the naturalistic writing, the dull gray production design, and the general lack of makeup and kind lighting lend the show a credibility that makes The Office, at least the American The Office, seem like Kabuki. There's something about Getting On’s realness that's thrilling, even quietly revolutionary in its own way. Again with the overused cliche words, but Getting On is almost fearless in its soberness, its honesty.
I urge you to give the show a shot. It certainly might be too low-key or squirm-inducing for some people’s tastes, but I’m pretty sensitive to “awkward” comedy myself—I had to turn off Borat after about ten minutes—and I’m able to watch this show and enjoy it. I suspect that, if they give it a chance, many people who haven’t yet watched the series, because of Sunday night TV overcrowding or the show’s barely existent marketing, will enjoy it as much as I do. Hopefully enough people will start tuning in to give the show a second season. We don’t want another The Comeback situation, do we? So, come on, do your part.