ICYMI: Hulu’s Such Brave Girls Showcases the Valor of Existing

Editor’s Note: Welcome to ICYMI! With so much TV constantly premiering, we’re highlighting some of the best shows you may have missed in the deluge of content from throughout the year. Join the Paste writers as we celebrate our underrated faves, the blink-and-you-missed-it series, and the perfect binges you need to make sure you see.

With so much television being released weekly, both episodically and all at once, contemporary audiences are inundated with choices across different networks and streaming services. There are even algorithms designed to help modern consumers figure out what would be the perfect next watch for them. In a sea of shows that drone on and take hours of storytelling to achieve pointed characterizations, writer-star Kat Sadler’s Such Brave Girls is a six-episode delight centering around a pair of sisters whose existence causes them misery. Josie (Sadler) and her younger sister, Billie (Lizzie Davidson), navigate a life with their narcissistic mother, Deb (Louise Brealey), as Josie figures out her sexuality and Billie manages her feelings for a guy she’s obsessed with. 

Originally released on BBC Three before finding an American home on Hulu, Such Brave Girls hilariously follows the sisters as they push themselves towards being more unapologetically themselves while understanding the damage their mother inflicts on their mental health. Coming into adulthood is already difficult, but an exclusionary parent can inflict a feeling of isolation onto their children without consideration. Sadler’s series understands this, all while putting its characters in situations that have age-specificity and make the humor feel grounded; Billie bleaches her hair and uses a grocery bag to “let it cook,” only to find out after taking it off that the green logo of the grocery store is across the back of her head like the bat signal. Josie is, unfortunately, forthcoming about any issue she has with any person that has a lending ear, including her mother’s newest boyfriend, Dev (Paul Bazely), who gets a run-down of Josie’s medication upon meeting her. The sisters are completely unaware how embarrassing they are, not realizing that—not including their mother—their suffering is oftentimes self-inflicted. 

In its examination of growing up in a world designed to stomp out individuality and promote the monotonous homogeneity of our society, the series leans fully into the absurd. Josie and Billie are weird, but seemingly unable to accept that fact about themselves or attempt to change themselves for the satisfaction of others, with Billie being the main culprit of this when it comes to the guy she’s in love with, Nicky (Sam Buchanan). One of the funniest uses of text messaging in cinema of recent memory comes in the premiere, when Billie is trying to get Nicky’s attention, sitting outside of her job lambasting him with a barrage of the craziest messages someone could have in their inbox: she simultaneously asks for his attention while threatening suicide if she doesn’t receive it.