BBC America's sweet and caustic comedy Gavin & Stacey returns tonight to launch its second season and I couldn't be happier.Longtime readers know of my love for this twinkling little comedic gem which manages to be both mordantly funny and genuinely touching. (It's the very definition of bittersweet.) Gavin & Stacey, created by series co-stars Ruth Jones and James Corden, follows the lives of Essex boy Gavin (Mathew Horne) and Welsh lass Stacey (Joanna Page) as they meet cute after talking on the phone for months and end up falling head over heels in love, despite dealing with their extremely eccentric family relations and friends.
Season One ended with Gavin and Stacey tying the knot after some serious complications (most notably the fact that Stacey had never told Gavin that she had been engaged about six times before) and the newlyweds headed off to Greece for their honeymoon.
Season Two, which kicks off tonight on BBC America, picks up where we left off, with Gavin and Stacey returning to Essex and moving in with the Shipman clan until they can afford a place of their own. While it should be a triumphant return for the newly married duo, there's a bit of uncertainty in the air, most notably from the betrayal felt by Gavin's best mate Smithy (Corden), upset that Gavin didn't call him once during his three-week honeymoon (Smithy, meanwhile, prefers to think of it as a long holiday) and from Stacey's best friend Nessa (Jones), who still hasn't told Smithy that he's the father of her unborn child.
That all of these things should unfold in the women's restroom of an Italian restaurant--complete with a sobbing Dawn (Nighty Night's Julia Davis), jilted after a black man selected to be her and Pete's bedroom third walks out--is only part of the series' antic charm. Along the way, there's more uneasy humor from Stacey's awkward uncle Bryn (Rob Brydon) and some surprises from the checkered past of Nessa, who turns up in Essex driving a big-rig and can speak fluent conversational Italian. (She's full of surprises, that one.)
All in all, the Season Two opener is a firm reminder of just why this series works, with its winning mix of quirky characters and clever dialogue, as it turns a gimlet eye onto the inner workings of romantic and familial relationships. After the end of the first half-hour installment, you'll be kicking yourself that there isn't another episode on right after as once you enter the charming world of Gavin & Stacey, you're liable to never want to leave.
And that, as our girl Stacey might say, is well lush.
Gavin & Stacey's second season launches tonight at 8:40 pm ET/PT on BBC America.
Comments
This show is a lovely treat. At first it didn't really knock my socks off, but upon more viewing, and getting to know these characters, I fell in love with them. Nessa is my personal favorite, played by Ruth Jones. "Little Britain" fans might recognize her as the barmaid in the "Dafyd - I'm the only gay in the village!" sketches. Also - big fave is Alison Steadman, who plays Gavin's Mum - Pam. I've loved her in every Mike Leigh film and British fancy dress drama I've seen her in. She's always funny.
It's a lovely, comical look at a young couple just starting out, and the growing pains involved - especially for Stacy - who moved out of her childhood home in Wales to live with her new hubby in his parent's home until they get on their own two feet. Funny, sweet - Nessa rules.