Nice portrait of Sharon Horgan, discovered last year in “Catastrophe” (see post here).

I was glad to hear that she was born in Hackney where I lived in London. Although the borough was not the hipster place it is today back then. When a man asked Horgan’s father to supply him with an alibi for a murder charge, they decided that Hackney was no place to raise children and the family moved to Ireland.

Learned about her new show “Divorce”, anti-Sex In The City, with Sarah Jessica Park, with Paul Simms the creator of “NewsRadio” and producer of “Girls” as a showrunner; and that her work can be summarized as 3 phases of relationships with:

1. Pulling (British slang for picking someone up)
2. Catastrophe
3. Divorce

Next will be “The Circuit” about a couple who attend a different diner party each episode.

This portrait is an opportunity to shortlist all the shows I want to watch now:

– intentionally challenging characters: “Girls”, “Curb Your Enthousiasm”, “Transparent” were engineered with watchability.

– “Louie”, “Girls” sophisticated narrative sitcoms

– “Veep” fabulously abrasive comedy by Armando Iannucci on HBO

It was interesting to read that American comedy has become more British, with a quasi-unbearable protagonist who is an Everyman. UK sitcoms tends to be darker than American ones. This reflects that

“Americans believe that things will get better. Brits laugh at how things stay the same. “

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/04/25/sharon-horgan-the-brutal-romantic-behind-catastrophe