Rachel Aroesti

It’s certainly a wild ride – I’ll struggle to look at a toilet brush the same way ever again – but if you stay on board until the end, a memorably complex psychological portrait will be your reward.

The domestic cringe comedy at its heart means Big Mistakes is far from a major error, but it isn’t quite a triumph either. Perhaps that’s inevitable. They may seem like a safer bet for a risk-averse TV industry, but shows made by stars can rarely compete with the ones that make them.

This return is essentially devoid of humour. Our protagonist is no longer monstrous, the satire is toothless and the majority of Cherish’s interactions are exercises in trite sentimentality.

That such a simple, even lame-sounding format was responsible for three hours of the most transcendentally funny television of 2025 might well have been down to an alchemical accident. Spoiler: it wasn’t. Series two of the UK version of this Japanese reality-gameshow is very nearly as sidesplitting as the first.

Doherty takes these fleeting insights and turns them into a psychodrama that leaves a lasting impression. But that says more about her talent than the quality of this muddled second outing.

Never escalates into the grand, high-wire, socially subversive physical comedy we expect from Atkinson. Instead, we just get a nauseatingly schmaltzy and nonsensical dose of Christmas cheer helmed by a kind-hearted, capable man.

This show limits itself to risk-averse humour; retaining the weighty themes (in this case old age and its attendant isolation) but failing to probe or subvert them.

With a respectable joke rate – though we’re talking smirk-inducing wisecracks rather than belly laughs – and a steady stream of keenly observed details (Joanne’s palpable delight at getting the pious Noah to properly kvetch; Noah’s nice-guy credentials crumbling ever-so-slightly when Joanne finds out how he treated previous partners), Nobody Wants This is easy to buy into and easy to love.

The show is very good at keeping the suspense going, but it can’t quite stick the landing, and the storyline concludes with a preposterous gotcha. Still, there’s always next time. (In fact, Morgan’s subsequent case – although equally bananas – is better thought through, ending with a neat and surprisingly moving climax.)

The show now asks whether Will and Sylvia should continue their mildly dysfunctional friendship. This question doesn’t provide quite enough direction or dramatic substance: the storylines are circular, the bickering is repetitive and there’s a distinct streaming-era bagginess to proceedings. Still, there remains a lot to enjoy here.