If you have to ask whether you’re being unreasonable, you probably are. And who’s asking that question in Hulu’s Am I Being Unreasonable? Everyone.
In the first moments of the premiere (now streaming on Hulu), we witness a romantic train station flirtation. A woman enters a soon-to-be departing train and a man kisses her goodbye under its threshold. Outside, snow falls in heaping flakes. Romantic, right? Until the doors close on the man’s jacket and he’s stuck dangling outside the train, like some kind of sick holiday ornament. Despite the woman’s frantic efforts to free him, the train starts chugging and brings the man along with it. We’re left wondering: Does he live? Does he die? And: Isn’t this supposed to be a comedy?
And that’s how we meet Nic (played by This Country‘s Daisy May Cooper) and Alex (David Flynn).
We skip ahead, some unknown amount of time, to the present. We find out that Nic is actually married to Dan (Dustin Demri-Burns), a boring, crude man who has probably aroused in woman more ick than desire during his lifetime. The couple shares a son, Ollie, and a beloved cat, Mr. Meowgi, who goes missing during the episode.
Other than the glimpse into her former love affair, Nic’s existence lacks color. She lives in a small town where plenty of eccentric characters orbit her life, but none of them possess the makings of a real friend. She’s visibly untethered, from her own self and others, without any outlet for cultivating the kind of intimacy that’s integral to being human. Her only semblance of a connection is rooted in Ollie.
That is, until she meets a spirited new mom in town, Jen (Selin Hizli). After quickly falling in friend-love over canned cocktails at a school festival, the kindred spirits become accomplices in their misadventures.
But then things get a little weird. After Jen invites herself over to Nic’s house for drinks, we see an awkward introduction between her and Dan. During their brief meeting, it feels like something has been left unsaid, but we’re not quite sure what. Nic doesn’t notice, though, and the women go ahead and get “pissed” (as the Brits might say).
The party takes a serious turn when Nic spills everything to Jen, and to us. She admits that at some point during her marriage, she had a years-long affair with Alex, the guy we met earlier at the train station. Then the vibe shifts again, this time turning a little creepy, when Jen props her iPhone behind a pillow to secretly record Nic’s confession. Who is this Jen woman, anyway?
When it’s time to reveal how the affair ended, Nic is overcome by a vision of Alex’s face pressed against the train’s glass. We’re transported back to the subway car and given some kind of hope that maybe he didn’t die, that there might be more to the story than that opening scene. This is a comedy, after all, isn’t it?
Indeed, the flashback reveals that Nic finds and pulls an emergency brake. The empty train slows to a stop and the couple rejoices. What a relief! The good times are cut short, however, when a train coming from the opposite direction swipes Alex and kills him.
With a dead lover, a husband she can’t stand and a new BFF with a secret agenda, it looks like Nic is in for a wild ride. (Oh, and don’t forget the missing cat!) How unreasonable!
What did you think of the series premiere? Grade Episode 1 below!
