Stuck begins with a couple in bed doing one of those “how compatible are you” quizzes. Even if you’ve never seen Dylan Moran before, you know they’re in trouble. Of course they’re in trouble! Nobody who isn’t in trouble ever takes one of those quizzes seriously – and when Moran’s on-screen partner says, “Why don’t we ever have any fun?” their fate is sealed. Guess they’re stuck with each other.
But there’s fun and then there’s fun, and Moran is a master at shining a light on the many little satisfactions that come from taking world-weary cynicism as far as you can. Ever since he made a global splash as Bernard Black on UK sitcom Black Books two decades ago, Moran has been the loveable, identifiable face of a certain kind of somehow adorable hatred for humanity and all its works. He is the personification of wanting to be left alone by the world, a crumbled symbol of the desire to just get on with life away from… well, life, really.
How does a man like that make a relationship work? Turns out opposites attract, and the five short (around 15 minutes each) episodes of Stuck track the parallel yet wildly diverging paths Dan (Moran) and his partner, the much younger yet easily his equal Carla (Morgana Robinson) find themselves on.
By the end of episode one, his career making up wacky concepts for food commercials has ended in his sacking. (“They hate you,” his boss says of the firm’s new owners. “Also, you’re old.”) Meanwhile, her career working for manic wellness consultant Joy (Juliet Cowan) is on the up and up. She likes doing things with people; he’s, well, he’s played by Dylan Moran, the human embodiment of the desire to spend all weekend in bed. (It’s no coincidence that each episode begins with the couple lounging around in bed while the bedside cabinet door he’s constantly promising to fix keeps swinging open.)
Morgana Robinson and Dylan Moran are ‘Stuck’. Source: Hat Trick for BBC
When he acts up at the news that some friends are dropping around for the weekend, we all know exactly where he’s coming from. Yes, friends are great in theory: in practice, they’re hanging around, wanting to be entertained, taking up your time, preventing you from doing… whatever it is you’d rather be doing with your own time. Especially as it turns out they’re the kind of people into “spiritual growth and chakras and that kind of… murggh”.
But there’s more to Stuck than just Moran – who’s also the series creator and writer – reminding us why we’ve loved him for decades. Carla, who has both the energy of youth and an engaging temperament on her side, seems like she couldn’t be more different from Dan. Yet the connection between them is totally plausible, even when she’s taunting him (or perhaps because she’s taunting him). It’s a relationship built on each bringing something different to the table that complements the other… or at least, they used to.
Now Dan has lost his job, he’s getting old and saggy (there are many references to his “moobs”), and Carla’s casual mention that she’s danced with the cute waiter at their local café stings in a way it probably wouldn’t have a few years earlier. She’s talking about having children, or at least getting a cat; he’s trying to get pills out of his dodgy doctor mate (Neil Maskell) while handing over his severance pay in the hope the doc’ll double it playing cards.
Dylan Moran and Morgana Robinson as Dan and Carla in ‘Stuck’. Source: Hat Trick for BBC
This is a charming slice-of-(sometimes weird)-life comedy, not a high-stakes drama. Seeing Moran do what he does best is more than enough reason to watch, and Robinson is the kind of lively partner who can hold her own while bringing out the best in him (Moran is the kind of performer where it doesn’t hurt to have someone opposite who can see through his character’s cynicism, even if we sometimes can’t). But there is a constant tension running throughout the series.
Over the years a large part of Moran’s world-weary appeal has come from the fact that he’s a charming, handsome man. What happens when that façade starts to crack? Is all that’s left the cynicism, or does age put a new spin on things? Stuck isn’t afraid to face that head-on, and then get some jokes out of it. Moran might hate the world, but he loves a good laugh.
. All five episodes air as a marathon on SBS VICELAND from 9.25pm on Monday 28 November.
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