Wanderlust

[covetingthepreciousthings]

Anyone looking forward to watching this tonight? 9pm on BBC1.
It's a co-production with Netflix, starring Toni Collette (Muriel's Wedding , The Sixth Sense).

Apparently it's the naughtiest drama to grace the BBC! They've said they are ready for a swarm of complaints..

'Personally, as someone who is no stranger to the therapist’s chair, I found it completely absorbing. '

Same here. Fabulous acting from both of them. Completely agree about Sophie Okonedo as the therapist. I was taught not to have any feelings too so what she said to Joy really resonated with me and brought back memories. I cried several times, especially when she hugged her therapist at the door. I would have liked to do that with my therapist many times. She was great

And Hoof, I'm so very sorry about your DP

Hoof

It was a very powerful episode. The acting was amazing.

The gay daughter is one of my favourite characters, I would like to see more of her. In fact all of the minor characters are brilliant. It's just a shame the plot is a bit daft!

I thought that was a fascinating episode, very insightful into Joy's psychology. Toni Colette was superb and I liked Sophie Okonedo as well (hoping to see her in Antony and Cleopatra soon).

I could tell the writer hadn't had any or much therapy because the therapist was a bit judgemental and asked too many questions.

I'm finding the sex scenes really uncomfortable to watch. Particularly Joy just deciding to get Alan to touch her without establishing whether he's in the mood or not, and he wasn't and she just carried on. I found it horrific, repulsive and triggering and completely ruins the character for me.

What did the therapist mean about Joy telling her eldest daughter the truth? I'm assuming Alan is not her dad?

Propolis I wondered about that as well.

I thought it was an incredible episode - very very intense and brilliantly down by both actors.

"Wish they'd explained at the beginning whose funeral she was late for. "

No, it's part of the story that you find out as the episode goes along.

"Her father told her not to act up so she turned off her emotions. And she was getting along like that just fine til the pesky therapist made her 'access' her emotions which made her realise she loves Alan. "

She wasn't fine, was she? She'd repressed her feelings about the man who jumped as well and that led to her desire for Alan being 'frozen'. She had to be 'disruptive' in order to feel things again. Just like when her dad died she slept with Lawrence, now again she's grieving she needs to have overlapping partners again.

"I thought it was an incredible episode - very very intense and brilliantly down by both actors."

Me too, but unfortunately we seem to have quite short attention spans these days.

Oh my god, the stuttery dialogue and constant inability to finish sentences.

It's doing my head in!

Thanks lottapianos and seekingclosure, that's kind of you. I would not have been able to watch this programme had it been shown at any time during the first 18 months but the last few months have been much easier.

Getting closer to the end now, I think gwenhwyfar has it right about Joy's emotional state. Also interesting that she became a therapist, and I agree that her client's suicide was the catalyst for her current state of mind.

I too, wondered a bout the telling the older daughter the truth. Is the most likely answer that her father is actually Alan? I find that hard to square with Joy's character, despite her emotional repression, or maybe because of it,vshe always struck me as someone with integrity. Her husband obviously
doesn't know as they had that conversation about their old exes and he couldn't remember Alan's name.. think I'm going to be disappointed if this turns out to be the case, even if Joy felt she had no choice but to lie at the time of her pregnancy, she has had twenty plus years to tell the truth. I would imagine that if this is the lie then surely that would create some measure of self loathing and would surely have been more important during the current process of self discovery than to just warrant one line in the penultimate episode? I mean, surely this would have played a significant role in how she is dealing with her past mistakes, or things she would have done differently. I do hope that whatever the lie or omission is, it's not her eldest daughter's parentage.
Am I overthinking this?

Whose watching tonight?

I have just watched Wanderlust,it actually made me cry, i am glad they got back together
I have really enjoyed watching it ,but i think i might have missed the first episode though

I think the last two episodes (especially penultimate) were incredibly self indulgent. None of the characters acted like anyone would in RL. And I had very little sympathy with any of the adult characters (I liked all of Joy and Allan's children much more than I liked them!)

I'm a bit gutted I didn't love it because I really really adore Toni Collette. But even her accent started to grate with me and wobble around a lot.

On the whole I have really enjoyed this. A little contrived perhaps but interesting. However I hated the very end. Everyone else has progressed and moved on but Joy is back where she started.

I agree, some of the supporting cast were really great. It started with such a different feel to the last two episodes.
I found the dynamic of the neighbour and her daughter interesting. The son and the girlfriend felt so accurate to that awkward angsty teenage stage. I don’t think Alan would have left his wife and I don’t think she would have even considered him for a fling. Nice to see William Ash,always fancied him.

"The son and the girlfriend felt so accurate to that awkward angsty teenage stage."

Really?
I didn't understand why she had a double bed (or was it her dad's bed!) and why they weren't worried her dad might come back home early.

"Joy is back where she started."

Is she? I thought she was now able to recognise her feelings about the man who jumped and the 'wanderlust' thing was over.

I agree, I thought Joy reaching out to Bridge Man's widow was a definite step towards closure.
I'm a bit confused by the whole " Are you going to tell your daughter the truth?" bit from last week. I guess I misremberd that.
As for the teenagers getting it on being realistic, I really hope it is like that now as my memories of teenage sex were nothing like that scene.
I think it's telling that Joy and Alan have managed to raise such emotionally healthy, kind children. That's a massive win for them as individuals and as a parental unit.
I was surprised that Claire and Alan broke up when they did, but I guess Claire was such a strong symbol of integrity that it was doomed from the start. I have to admit disliking Joy in the DIY superstore. Her husband wouldn't have left her if she hadn't started the ball rolling and her cruel treatment of Claire showed us what she was really like, underneath that reasonable, thoughtful exterior, imo. Her lack of self awareness was all the more surprising since she was supposedly on the path to understanding her motivations etc.
Also, the handsome bloke who was a client of Joy,s taking the photo of his late wife with him on his travels with the daughter .to me that symbolised that our past is always with us and indeed is a part of us. You can't run and hide from it. The guy doing that, although on the surface it may have looked like he was still in that grieving place, struck me as being the very opposite. He had come to terms with his wife's death and was able to move on into a different stage, whilst still recognising that his wife and her death was never going to leave him but he was finally on his way to accepting that on his terms. It was interesting that Joy had told him that he should continue the work he'd done in therapy but his greater recovery came about through falling in love with her daughter. Interesting if not too clichéd the idea that love cures everything.
Actually one more point, the lovely couple in Joy's treatment room. I was terribly moved by that scene of reconciliation and it made me think again that we cannot truly know what another person is thinking unless they tell us. So, what I've taken away from this series is this, communication is all. Whether it be through talking in therapy or demonstrating love by filling a hot water bottle to ease cramps, the way we show others how we care about them is key to everything.
And yes, I've definitely overthunk this. I know.

I'm really enjoying reading other people's responses to last nights episode. I found the way it ended quite confusing but I think I've taken it to mean that after all that she's no further forward.

I had a double bed at 17. Ds has one now and he’s 7

Lucky D's icelolly I also had a double bed as a teen and my 10 yr old may be sleeping in one soon if we can get permission from his sister who's gone to uni (and is "never coming back to this hellhole of a town " )

Interesting. Why would children/teens have a double bed? I don't suppose that many of them have big enough bedrooms for them anyway. I've never heard of student halls with double beds though (except for mature student couples).

Most student rooms have small doubles or even full size doubles.