Whether it’s watching a fan favorite in the midst of the hush-hush family discussions or watching the newest binge-able release on your phone, TV shows have always created a buzz unparalleled. From the anticipated storylines and twists, characters we come to love and hate or fashion and dialogues we cannot wait to recreate, we devour each and every aspect of the content we watch and how! Oscar Wilde believed life imitates art far more than art imitates life, whereas Aristotle argues that humans make art that imitates people, places and events around them. Fortunately for us, there is a lot more discourse and awareness around mental health, which has been picked up and used (maybe even abused, sadly) by the creatives behind the network and OTT shows worldwide. Here’s a sneak peek at 5 shows handpicked by a therapist that masterfully depict a myriad of mental health-related themes. (Beware, spoilers ahead!)
1. “Back in the 90s, I was in a VERY famous TV show”// Bojack Horseman: Who would have thought that a seemingly goofy, animated show about a funny-looking horse would hit us in the feels the way it did? Throughout the show, Bojack deals with his withering fame, maladaptive alcoholism, self-hatred, and a never-ending cycle of wallowing in self-pity and ever-so-turbulent interpersonal relationships. Beautifully interwoven in Bojack’s story are snippets from his childhood throwing light on how abusive, neglectful parents with a disintegrating marriage leave scars that transcend generations. With “Time’s Arrow”, the show goes further back to explore Bojack’s mother’s life and if that episode is not a masterclass in how intergenerational trauma develops, we don’t know what is.
When Bojack tells Diane, “him being responsible for his own happiness is depressing” or when he accuses her of “fetishizing her own sadness”, not only are viewers left gaping but also thinking, “DO I DO THAT TOO?” When you hear Todd tell Bojack, “You can’t keep doing shitty things and feel bad about yourself. You need to be better!” you inevitably introspect. It is also one of the rare shows that depicted and normalized its female lead, Diane, as going through depression, being on psychiatric medication for it, gaining weight as a side effect and accepting it! Ooof, time for a rewatch, we think.
2. “Happiness is so amazing, it does not matter if it’s yours or not” // After Life: If you are not familiar with Ricky Gervais, it would almost seem shocking how the man responsible for the bumbling, fool of a manager in the UK version of The Office, could bring you the sobfest that is After Life. Grief is hard, isolating and often very confusing. Tony’s journey through grief after losing his wife to cancer, makes you feel okay about how you choose to grieve; he chooses humour, of course. He chooses to be sarcastic because he says “It stops me from killing people, including myself.” Heavy, but you also can’t not chuckle at that.
The show goes into depths of the anger, meaninglessness, and hopelessness in grief, which makes the eventual process of finding meaning and community that much more rewarding. When you watch Tony and Anne’s frank, revealing conversations at the graveyard, it feels as if you are sitting on the bench with them. Watching Tony contemplate suicide several times, and then hearing Anne tell him to “Live! Not just not kill yourself, or wait patiently for death, but live!” is poignant enough to make you weep. Our only gripe with the show would be the utterly ridiculous and inappropriate psychiatrist that Tony goes to. Whether it was coming from a place of humour or as a commentary on those selling toxic positivity, we wish it was not through the only mental health professional portrayed in the show. Ah well!!
3. “That’s three! Big three!!” // This is Us: If you talk to those who have watched TIU, they will tell you this show is like a warm cup of hot chocolate on a bitter cold, winter night. We agree! Themes of navigating parenting, marriages, blended families, and coping with grief and dementia dominate the narrative. Whether it is Kate’s struggle with her weight, Kevin’s long, hard battle with alcoholism or Randal’s silent breakdown owing to perfectionism and ending in panic attacks, the show addresses them all with utmost nuance and sensitivity. Watching the siblings navigate through these feels like they are living embodiments of Dr K’s words, “There’s no lemon so sour that you can’t make something resembling lemonade.”
The show also highlights the isolation of blended families, with Randall’s journey of finding his birth parents and letting go of his ‘ghost kingdoms’– fantasies of who and what his life with his birth parents would look like. Jack once said, “We do the best we can. But at the end of the day what happens to them, how they turn out, that’s bigger than us.” With parenting snippets of Jack-Rebecca and Randall-Beth, some would say the show is a masterclass in the do’s and don’ts of parenting. Whether it was the very Nicholas Sparks-y Jack-Rebecca fairytale story or the ins and outs of the dissolving marriage of Toby-Kate, the show has always sparked discussions about the ships. There were Team Kate v/s Team Toby debates, but TIU taught us how sometimes marriages end for a variety of reasons without there being a “bad guy”.
Losing Jack Pearson became the cornerstone for the whole family, themes of grief and pressures of “honouring his legacy” stayed with the big three till the end. TIU also gut-wrenchingly portrays her long-drawn, taxing journey of Alzheimer’s which ended with that train ride, reuniting with Jack. We’d like to believe they continue to be on the train, and honestly, we do not want to ever leave either (BRB, need some time to shed a tear or two!).
4. “A marriage of convenience, or convenience of marriage” // Made in Heaven: Made in Heaven delicately and sometimes even brashly (as they should) addresses the deep claws of patriarchy, the never-ending trap of log kya kahengey, the nuances and moralities of relationships and infidelity, and the dwindling notions of one’s self-worth. Tara is prim and proper, seemingly put together, yet constantly struggling with impostor syndrome. Women are no longer reduced to a trope or a mould. We echo Kabir’s words, “May this tribe grow, may they find the strength to stand up and walk tall and like you, may they never cease to amaze.”
Relationships are the heart and soul of the show, with each one brimming with several layers and shades. Faiza, with a history of an abusive marriage and having a father who she can never be good enough for, makes our heart ache with her vulnerability and helplessness. The show depicts how attachment with parental figures affects attachments in romantic relationships. The intertwined relationship between her, Tara and Adil leaves you feeling uneasy and exasperated, without diminishing your ability to empathize. “They say, marriages are made in heaven, that they are a sacred union of two souls. But on the ground, the reality is slightly different.” Karan’s sexuality, his journey of coming out to his parents and facing the brunt of it all, and living in a conservative society is also the central storyline. The show walks you through his lived experience and the anger and loneliness that arises out of it. Through strategically placed flashbacks, we delve into Tara and Karan’s past and understand. The characters are vulnerable, flawed and sometimes even difficult to root for, but that’s also what makes them relatable and interesting. We have devoured the highly anticipated second season already.
5. “I don’t think you have to be alone to be lonely.” // Fleabag: This is Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s world, and you and I are just living in it. In Fleabag, she has created a character and story that feels so broken but seems to be infused with more hope and wholesomeness than we would expect. In her journey of grieving and surviving her trauma, Fleabag is somewhat self-destructive, dissociated and distant in her interpersonal relationships. The show and its witty writing not only normalize these struggles but also force you to walk a mile or two in her shoes (What else would all the moments of the 4th wall breaking lead to?). Fleabag’s hypersexuality is not something she is shamed for, but the resulting shame and guilt from her getting intimate with her best friend’s partner is the strongest undercurrent in the show. Fleabag is used to the shame– and dare we say, she even revels in it. However, she is self-aware, which also ultimately ends up helping her reconcile her past with her present while being more accepting and forgiving of herself.
Whether it is Fleabag herself, the divisive priest, her anal sister, her sus brother-in-law, her emotionally closed-off father or her passive-aggressive stepmother (Hey there, Olivia Coleman!), all the characters are given space to just be– with all their quirks and mistakes– as it should be. Like Boo says, “That’s the very reason why they put rubbers on the end of pencils… because people make mistakes.” Hear hear!
Well, there you have it. TV shows have been giving us nuanced, complex and relatable characters and storylines. Characters we root for, storylines we wish a happy ending for, portrayals we see ourselves in and scenes that leave us starving for more, regardless of the tears we shed while watching them. And we just can’t get enough, can we?