Is a romcom even a romcom without a series of infuriating misunderstandings threatening to split up Girl and Boy? With a wink and a nudge, comedian Rose Matafeo stirred a few glugs of the Third Act Misunderstanding trope into Starstruck season one. She’s thrown in the whole bottle for series two.
The last time we saw Matafeo’s endearingly garrulous cinema usher Jessie, she had decided it wasn’t going to work out with Tom Kapoor (Nikesh Patel), the movie star with whom she’d accidentally had a one-night stand. “He’s a famous actor and you’re a little rat nobody,” as her housemate subtly put it. Jessie boarded a bus to Heathrow, with the intention of flying home to New Zealand and leaving her life in London behind. The new series opens with Jessie and Tom on that same bus. She doesn’t get off at Heathrow.
What follows is a day of uncertainty – Tom wondering if Jessie really wants to stay, and if she did it for him; Jessie worrying that her staying is coming across as too intense, and that Tom wants her to leave. They nearly break up several times out of politeness.
In another twist on the genre, Jessie is unable to relax after her spontaneous U-turn. If she was in a Hollywood romcom, she would have breezily made a huge life decision, fallen into Tom’s arms and spent the afternoon between his sheets. But in Starstruck, she is feeling so chaotic about changing her mind that she inexplicably drags Tom off to a dance mat venue and then goes to see Magic Mike, alone.
Starstruck is just as huge-hearted as it was the first time around. It’s also shrewdly observed and gloriously silly, and the casting is spot-on (especially Al Roberts who’s on stupendously awkward form as Jessie’s housemate’s boyfriend) – but it’s not as funny as the first series. A highlight from season one – when Jessie danced wildly to “Return of the Mack” after leaving a hook-up – was hailed by Vulture as “The Most Joyous 99 Seconds of Television This Year”. This series doesn’t zing in the same way.
Tom is sincere and serious to a fault. Jessie, meanwhile, is unable to display any affection or vulnerability without turning it into a joke. The lack of chemistry between Girl and Boy induces more anxiety than laughter. Sometimes you think, if you have to try that hard to make it work, it’s probably not meant to be.
