Because it's made in the UK, Lip Service gives a much more nuanced, honest, but also jaw dropping passionate look at the lives and loves of a group of young people. Each character is a recognizable archetype: Cat, the Type A, overachieving, self effacing fem me; Frankie the arrested development Romeo; Sam, the confident, simplistic butch; Ed the comic con /sci-fi sweetheart; and, Tess, the lovable, bumbling girl that floats through life from near miss to near miss. But it's detailed writing - always honest, never caving to sentimentality - and actors talented enough to flesh it out that makes this show more than what you'll see on US television.
Cat and Sam's first date, after meeting online, is awkward and cringe worthy, especially when Cat, who has already arranged an out if the date isn't going well, is showed up by Sam, pulling the same trick. There is a naturalness to the beginning of their relationship with each feeling both drawn to the other and hesitant.
Ed's love for Tess is pained, true and sweet: we watch him help her to find the confidence to ask out a talk show host,;arrange an epic Country and Western birthday party for her; try, diligently, to direct his attention onto a more appropriate candidate(even from whom he can not mask his true desire); but, then blurt out his feelings in a tender and vulnerable outburst.
Frankie and Jay appear to be birds of a feather: both "snatch hounds", both party animals. In the end, however, we see that they have both been swallowing their true desires: Frankie - Cat, Jay - Freedom.
The story line is never accusatory; life rolls on and the blame changes hands. The hardest peak in the drama is Cat's struggle to balance her younger self's obsessive love for Frankie with her present self's relationship and, perhaps, love for the seemingly more appropriate Sam. Sadly, this costs her her life and the other two, their sanity.
Glasgow - its old buildings, bridges, its river, housing projects, affluent suburbs,coffee shops, pubs, theaters and rain are an integral part of the supporting cast that fleshes out the story.
Laura Fraser's( Neverwhere, Breaking Bad)eyes and eyebrow movements walk the viewer through the path of Cat's emotions in ways that words could never do.
Heather Peace - Sam - has sultry eyes, but it is her capture of confidence, arrogance and ruthlessness that make her stereotypical sport loving butch cop so believable.
Ruta Gedmintas ( Keira Knightly's long lost sister?)does a solid job of playing the "Shane"-like Frankie, the chic tomboy caught in a skirt-chasing time warp. However, she really begins to show her true colors in the second season, as Frankie unravels her armor: first for love then by grief.
Fiona Button gets to have fun playing affable Tess whose romantic foibles in season 1 are sweetly predictable, but, nonetheless, charming. Cat's death and Frankie's rash departure in season 2 open new depths in Tess that lead her to boldness in her career and her love life.
Ed, too, becomes more clearly focused after his sister's death and James Anthony Pearson walks him gently and believably to the threshold of self confidence.
Cat and Sam's first date, after meeting online, is awkward and cringe worthy, especially when Cat, who has already arranged an out if the date isn't going well, is showed up by Sam, pulling the same trick. There is a naturalness to the beginning of their relationship with each feeling both drawn to the other and hesitant.
Ed's love for Tess is pained, true and sweet: we watch him help her to find the confidence to ask out a talk show host,;arrange an epic Country and Western birthday party for her; try, diligently, to direct his attention onto a more appropriate candidate(even from whom he can not mask his true desire); but, then blurt out his feelings in a tender and vulnerable outburst.
Frankie and Jay appear to be birds of a feather: both "snatch hounds", both party animals. In the end, however, we see that they have both been swallowing their true desires: Frankie - Cat, Jay - Freedom.
The story line is never accusatory; life rolls on and the blame changes hands. The hardest peak in the drama is Cat's struggle to balance her younger self's obsessive love for Frankie with her present self's relationship and, perhaps, love for the seemingly more appropriate Sam. Sadly, this costs her her life and the other two, their sanity.
Glasgow - its old buildings, bridges, its river, housing projects, affluent suburbs,coffee shops, pubs, theaters and rain are an integral part of the supporting cast that fleshes out the story.
Laura Fraser's( Neverwhere, Breaking Bad)eyes and eyebrow movements walk the viewer through the path of Cat's emotions in ways that words could never do.
Heather Peace - Sam - has sultry eyes, but it is her capture of confidence, arrogance and ruthlessness that make her stereotypical sport loving butch cop so believable.
Ruta Gedmintas ( Keira Knightly's long lost sister?)does a solid job of playing the "Shane"-like Frankie, the chic tomboy caught in a skirt-chasing time warp. However, she really begins to show her true colors in the second season, as Frankie unravels her armor: first for love then by grief.
Fiona Button gets to have fun playing affable Tess whose romantic foibles in season 1 are sweetly predictable, but, nonetheless, charming. Cat's death and Frankie's rash departure in season 2 open new depths in Tess that lead her to boldness in her career and her love life.
Ed, too, becomes more clearly focused after his sister's death and James Anthony Pearson walks him gently and believably to the threshold of self confidence.