Previewing This Way Up: Season Two

COVID not only wrecking the filming schedule, it also ruined the writing too.  Not that screenwriters can write from home or over video conference, some shows decided to include the pandemic into their show, mostly to poor results.  Superstore is the only one that handled adding it to the show successfully, because after a couple months of going to the store with COVID protocols, we were ready to laugh at just how ridiculous how things were.  But for most shows, it really would have been best if they just pretended it did not happen.

 

This Way Up is doing something slightly different in that it still takes place in this world, but shut down does not happen until the last seven minutes of the season finale. So really, we will have to wait until season three to see if the show hits COVID straight on or if they will skip over the pandemic almost complete and start the next season after everything has gone back to “normal.”

 

Hopefully there is a third season because the second one is just as sharp and witty as the first.  If you missed the first season, it will take you less than two and a half hours to catch up (so go do that now because there are spoilers for the first season coming up).  Then the second season is another tight six episodes topping out at twenty-five minutes.  The first season ended with Africa kissing the father of one of her students while her sister kissed a girl.

 

Going into the second, only one of those kisses turned into a full-fledged relationship.  And it was not Shona who remains engaged to Vish though he spends the entire season in New York City (while COVID does not affect any of the character until the end, I have a sinking suspicion Aasif Mandvi was not able to make it to England to film in person there which is why Vish is stateside) as Shona has to make due with a Vish doll that partakes in a weird threesome.  But Shona still has to work Charlotte which makes this awkward.  But awkward is what makes this show so charming and this season features a pretty awkward sauna session and bachelorette part.  Hopefully COVID does not delay a potential third season and the next one comes sooner than two years.

 

All episodes of This Way Up season two will be premiere on Hulu tomorrow.