Trying

Trying has the power to bring a tear to the driest eye without warning, and that’s the case again in season five. .... Purely as old-fashioned comedy, every episode is so awfully good.

Couples on TV spend a lot of time talking about getting pregnant or get pregnant by surprise (see the aforementioned Catastrophe), but rarely does a series so honestly portray the devastation of infertility or the challenges and heartbreak of the adoption process. It’s great to have this much candor in a series that is still so highly entertaining.

“Trying” has an impish sense of humor, but it tops its comedy with a great heart.

Eminently watchable. Annoying, funny, treacly, poignant; it’s all here.

It feels that Trying is going to try (pun intended) to get the emotional wringer of the adoption process right instead of falling back on TV cliches about it. It also helps that Smith and Spall play a couple that are great together and you want to see get what they’ve been hoping for.

As is so often the case, the opening episode isn’t its best – there is an over-reliance on the traditional dramatic tropes of the childless couple (making awkward jokes about fontanelles to new mothers and so on), but it quickly finds its feet. ... The genuinely loving, intimate banter between Nikki and Jason in their quieter moments too is one of the series’ greatest strengths.

The zingy script is strongly performed but I spent too much of Trying being faintly irritated by the characters and the cynical way it’s all styled.