Out of Her Mind is a new six-part series, written and starring Sara Pascoe. This series develops over the six episodes, it starts quite shaky to begin with but it gets better. It isn't all laughs there are moments of pure emotion.
Pascoe plays Sara Pascoe but it's not really Sara Pascoe, it a different version of her. This version of Sara is quite awkward and has been hurt and embraces her singledom. A large part of her character development comes from coming to terms with being dumped by her fiancé 10 weeks after they got engaged, 15 years ago. She has struggled to come to terms with what happened and tries to put her thoughts on love and relationships onto the other people in her life. Pascoe's writing is very polished but her performance suffers in parts. An unwillingness to fully commit to highly emotional moments which really need it to help convince us of her emotion and performance.
Lucy played by Fiona Button is about to get married and have a boob job. Both aspects cause Sara a lot of frustration and distress. Button puts on a good performance throughout the six episodes. Her character deals with quite big topics that a lot of women may relate to.
Sara's best friend, Scoopy played by Cariad Lloyd. She is heavily pregnant with her first child. Sara can't understand what her friend Scoopy is going through but Lloyd puts on a fantastic performance showcasing the fear some new mums go through. Scoopy keeps her emotions to herself and hides the fear she has about what she is about to go through, she even hides these fears from her husband. As a result, she isolates and neglects him and he ends up feeling utterly alone yet this should be a great time in both of their lives.
Carol, Sara's mother is played by Juliet Stevenson, she is making up for her lost years as a single mother after Sara and Lucy's dad left her. Carol spends most of her time keeping fit, either on her exercise bike or in a Zumba class. Carol can be seen as tough at times but it was also nice to the other side and the pain Carol went through being a single mother rising two young girls. Something a lot of people have gone through.
Luna played by Cash Holland, is probably the weakest of all the characters. You are constantly questioning her existence in the series as there doesn’t seem to have any real purpose for this character, apart from turning up in each episode doing a different job. There is a brief conversation about representation and privilege but it kinda just left behind and never retouched upon. Holland did well with what she had but if her character didn't exist we wouldn’t notice.
The real story that we watch is constantly interrupted by Pascoe breaking the fourth wall to comment on what we are watching, and why she wrote it - the purpose of the action and what she is trying to convey. Pascoe makes us question what we are watching and how we have reacted to what is presented to us. Drawing on her research from her two books which looks at simple facts, science and biology, focusing on experiences of being a woman in a mad world. These two worlds help move along the story but at the start you question the purpose of the other world with Pascoe questioning what we are watching.
Along with these two worlds we also have moments of animation which shows us flashbacks or help tell Pascoe's science. The animation is done well. The animation that sticks in your mind is the felt animation which showcases the flashback of Sara and Lucy's dad leaving. It is unique and something you don't expect but is done well.
This series is good but you do question certain elements and why they were done that way. Episode 1 is the weakest of all the episodes, which is a shame as you want the first episode of a new series to be great so you hook your audience to come back and carry on watching the rest of the episodes. After episode 1, the episodes are a lot better and much more enjoyable to watch. It’s a shame that the first episode is such a mess, that it could put viewers off from watching the rest.
Out of Her Mind tackles big themes such as pressure to conform, rejection and monogamy. This isn't a normal show to tv, you do leave each episode thinking about what you saw as it is quite weird and surreal. This show is a mix of science and comedy, once you get use to the cut away to talk about the science the show becomes much more interesting.
Overall, this new six-part series gets better as each episode goes on. Performances from the mainly female cast are strong but some characters are stronger than others. Everyone does well with what they have been given. Big themes are tackled well especially exploring how rejection affects us all. The issues raised are very relatable to the majority of people watching. This is a strange series as techniques are used which you don't expect or are used to. With that being said it is something different to watch and a show you will remember for its uniqueness.
Episodes:
1: I Don't
2: Eat Me
3: My Life Is Ova
4: Pop!
5: Pants On Fire
6: The Beautiful Garden
