Young and Promising: the fumbling TV comedy stepping into Fleabag's shoes | Television & radio
In the second episode of Norwegian comedy drama Young and Promising, wannabe author Nene meets two smug young publishers who are interested in her work. “It says something about what it’s like to be a young woman today,†one of them says about her writing, intoned with the satisfied air of a man with a solid marketing angle. Actually, Nene informs them, that’s not what her writing is about. She furrows her brow. “That’s like saying Moby Dick is about a whaleâ€.
It’s an acidic rejoinder â€" and one that certainly makes you think twice about reductively describing Young and Promising as “the Norwegian Girls†(although that’s definitely the tack its broadcaster in the UK, Channel 4, is taking). The show, which follows the fumbling progress of three young female friends, is a far gentler and more matter-of-fact proposition than those that preceded it, from Girls and Fleabag to Broad City. There is no farcical body-comedy, no outlandish characters proclaiming themselves the voice of a generation. That said, there’s simply no getting away from the fact that it capitalises on exactly same thing as those shows did: the comedy, tragedy and utter confusion inherent in being a 20-something woman today.
Initially, the show’s portrayal of 20-somethings seems to sidestep the issue of gender altogether. It focuses on more universal humiliations â€" specifically the sense of gnawing limbo that characterises great swathes of many people’s third decade. Nene is struggling to establish herself as an author. Elise â€" played by Siri Seljeseth, who also wrote the show â€" has recently returned from LA, where her attempts to break into standup have led her to take a job as a shopping mall-based Bob the Builder mascot. Alex, meanwhile, dreams of being an actor. The desperate tenacity this sort of aspiration inspires in her makes for increasingly painful viewing, and makes the wryness of the title more and more apparent. Are the trio young and promising? Or are they are in fact deluded and getting on a bit?
Norway is famous for its gender equality, ranking at number three on the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index (for comparison, the UK comes in at 20 and the US at 45). But just when you start wondering whether Young and Promising is set in some kind of post-patriarchal utopia, there are two concurrent storylines that kibosh the concept.
The first involves Elise’s mother, who announces to her two adult daughters that their father, her husband, is having another baby. She’s not, however, but he is. Elise’s resigned amusement at her mother’s determination to swallow the pain of this without a fuss â€" and her distaste at the way her parents throw money at the pregnant woman â€" create an uncrossable gulf between them. A gulf which contributes to the sense that these girls are morally adrift in the world.
The other plotline concerns Alex, who is auditioning for drama school when a fellow actor touches her inappropriately. She breaks out of character, an instinctual reaction which is subsequently pored over by her fellow auditionees. Elise starts to second guess herself and concludes she should have simply accepted it as par for the course. Ultimately, the show’s ostensibly more progressive world turns out to be mired in the kind of confusing micro-humiliations that plague young women’s lives in the real world.
If you’re after some meaty, post-Girls, female-centric TV, a low-key Nordic comedy that’s lit like a yoghurt ad might not be your first port of call â€" but don’t be fooled. Young and Promising might seem breezier and less concerned with taboo-busting than its English-language peers, but at its core it remains an uncomfortably compelling moral maze.
Young and Promising is on Walter Presents on All4 now.
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