What to watch tonight: Trying season 5 - the show that remains one of the best on TV
This iconic series still isn't getting the audience it deserves - so please watch it because we guarantee you won't regret it
It's Friday night, and you need something to watch on TV that will make you laugh out loud while making your heart absolutely soar. We have just the show for you, and it's called Trying.
We don't say this lightly, but you're unlikely to find a more perfect series. If you don't have Apple TV, get a free trial and try it out (there's plenty of other hidden gems on the streamer,) and if you're already signed up, what are you waiting for?
This week saw season 5 of Trying released, and there's good news, and more good news. The first bit of good news it that it's just as good as seasons 1-4. The second bit of good news is that if you're tuning in for the first time, your evenings are now sorted with so many episodes of Trying to view.
Season 1 saw call centre operator Nikki (Esther Smith) and teacher Jason (Rafe Spall) trying for a baby. They're at the stage of being disappointed by negative pregnancy tests every month, while being invited to baby showers, christenings and seeing pregnant women everywhere.
They're then definitively told that there's no chance they'll have a biological child of their own. Now no longer trying for a baby in the conventional sense, the couple spend their time trying to adopt.
Nikki and Jason are such a wonderful couple - as a real life couple, Esther and Rafe's chemistry is undeniable (they now have a baby together, in life almost imitating art.) But on screen, they're just so human and adorably imperfect, bouncing and riffing off one another in a way that's mesmerising and so relatable.
By season 5, they've adopted their children, siblings Tyler and Princess, who were primary school age when Nikki and Jason became their parents.
Courtesy of a season 4 time jump, the children are now teenagers. Now they've finished trying to adopt, Nikki and Jason are trying once again - trying to parent teenagers that have had a rocky start in life, whose biological mother Kat (Charlotte Riley) has shown up and wants to be part of their lives again.
Sweet, darling Nikki, a born mother and nurturer, will break your heart. All she wants is to have the same level of love she gives out into the world and pours into her children returned.
And as a lot of parents will know, we're told not be our children's friend, we're told not to expect them to complete us, we know we shouldn't hurt when our love isn't reciprocated in quite the same way.
But Nikki's quiet hopefulness that she'll get and be all of these things above is just so much a part of her personality. Her palpable hurt at not being the centre of her kids' world, and the adoration that should be aimed at her seemingly looking like it might be given to an undeserving absent mother, will make you want to ram your arms through the screen and hug Nikki tight.
The supporting characters in the series are also pitch perfect. You shouldn't like Nikki's annoying sister Karen (Sian Brooke) and her boring, likely spectrum-y husband, Scott (Darren Boyd,) but they're played with such nuance and complexity that you just adore them.
Imelda Staunton put in a brilliant performance during previous seasons as Nikki and Jason's social worker, and definitely deserved an award for her standout efforts.
Now Jason is training to be a social worker himself, season 5 has a guest star playing the part of a hoarder who needs a social worker - and she's portrayed by none other than Celia Imrie - that's got to be a draw, to watch just for her.
If none of this persuades you, nothing will. But if you don't watch Trying, your life will be forever empty because of it.
All seasons of Trying are currently streaming on Apple TV.
