The second part of the title of Camilla Whitehill’s Channel 4 comedy drama is a reference to mood disorders. Bipolar, to be exact – the condition her protagonist Maggie has been diagnosed with. The first part is a reference to pretty much everything else. Big Mood tackles big topics and chases big laughs. There are big adventures, big gestures and big cameos. It’s undeniably ambitious, but does all this add up to something truly meaningful? It can be difficult to tell.
Series one introduced Maggie in the midst of a manic episode: she had pestered her alma mater to let her deliver a speech in the hope of seducing her old history teacher. That quickly gave way to a depressive one, during which she attended her 30th birthday party unshowered and on the verge of tears. The reason for this rollercoaster was Maggie’s decision to stop taking her medication; she believed it was impeding her creative capabilities and her career as a playwright. Eventually, she agreed to go back on lithium, only to experience terrifying hallucinations and confusion – she’d been poisoned by an erroneous prescription filled out by an overwhelmed psychiatrist.
