Few comedy exhibits have discovered their exact area of interest during the last three years as skillfully as Starstruck. The BBC sequence created by Rose Matafeo (a verified triple menace who each stars and co-writes the episodes alongside Alice Snedden and Nic Sampson) is now in its third season, and whereas it does really feel just like the present is shifting towards a pure endpoint, that doesn’t imply the journey is any much less heartbreaking or glowing with humor this time round. We viewers fell in love with the romance between Jessie (Matafeo) and A-list actor Tom Kapoor (Nikesh Patel) when the 2 first determined to offer it a return in Season 1, just for them to comprehend in Season 2 that there was a stark distinction between the optimistic fantasy of a love story and the day-to-day actuality of their vastly divergent existence. The emotional ups and downs that ensued have been as entertaining as they have been painful to look at — Jessie’s tendency to at all times attempt to break the strain with a poorly-timed joke by no means helped all that a lot — and perhaps we must always have recognized it was too good to be true when the 2 in the end reconciled by the finale, professing their love for one another in an inarguably filthy pond.
Season 3 doesn’t waste any time in shattering the remaining phantasm. Over a montage that doesn’t demand a single line of serious dialogue — at the least, nothing that may be deciphered by way of a soothing but haunting use of The Affiliation’s “By no means My Love” — Jessie and Tom repeat all of the levels of a relationship, from unbridled affection to incongruent views of their future collectively to in the end, one thing that’s develop into too fractured to restore. Tom’s busy performing profession consistently takes him away from residence, and given what we already know of Jessie after two seasons, there’s no manner she’d ever be content material with a semi-long-distance relationship, spending vital stretches of time alone whereas her boyfriend is off filming one other venture. By the point we discover Jessie sitting in mattress, a single tear trailing down her cheek, with Tom framed simply out of focus in a chair behind her, the gap between them isn’t simply palpable; it’s devastating. But it surely’s how the present chooses to navigate the aftermath of their break up, as they dance each out and in of one another’s orbit and across the thought of getting again collectively, that makes Season 3 probably the most quietly daring installment of this sequence so far.
Within the two years since her breakup with Tom, Jessie’s not precisely prioritizing getting again into the courting sport. Apart from, there are extra necessary occasions to deal with — like her greatest pal Kate (Emma Sidi) lastly getting married to Ian (Al Roberts), which suggests Jessie must get her maid of honor speech so as, even when she’s nonetheless workshopping which jokes are solely applicable to inform proper up till the second she’s wielding the mic in entrance of everybody… and totally and definitively bombs. It’s one other good occasion of Matafeo’s comedic timing, as a result of at the same time as Jessie may be mortified by the reception she’s receiving (full with Kate facepalming from the principle desk and a random, good-looking stranger who applauds on his manner again from the toilet, mistaking the ensuing silence for the top of Jessie’s speech), you’ll nonetheless be laughing by way of vicarious, toe-curling awkwardness.
Whereas making an attempt to dodge Tom (who’s additionally been invited as a visitor) in a while within the evening, Jessie simply so occurs to come across stated good-looking stranger, who means that the quickest manner for her to cease specializing in her ex is to share a pleasant kiss with somebody she barely is aware of — and what higher place to try this than at a marriage? It’s the primary actual occasion we get of Jessie sharing a promising spark with somebody new, and higher nonetheless, he looks like he’s a refreshingly regular dude slightly than the duds she’s been making an attempt so far post-Tom. Lorne MacFadyen brings a novel efficiency to the a part of Liam the electrician, a Scottish Glen Powell in appears to be like in addition to charisma, leaving little question in your thoughts that if Jessie plans to make it official with this man, perhaps it wouldn’t be such a nasty factor.
If Starstruck Season 3 have been solely about Jessie shifting out of Tom’s place and shifting on, although, it wouldn’t be practically as satisfying as it’s — however, because it seems, she’s not the one one who’s discovered somebody new inside these two years since they final laid eyes on one another. Not solely is Tom courting once more, however he’s engaged to Clem (Constance Labbé), a winsome French actress who isn’t simply designed to fill the drained “different lady” trope. As a substitute, we see Clem warmly embrace Jessie and the chums she and Tom nonetheless share, in addition to skillfully taking Tom’s agent Cath (a delightfully shrewd Minnie Driver) down a peg or two when wanted. The overhanging query of Season 3 may be about whether or not Tom and Jessie nonetheless have emotions for one another — and whether or not the attraction that exists is even sufficient to maintain a relationship anymore — however it additionally begs a separate query about whether or not the individuals who get caught up of their emotional yo-yo-ing, like Clem and Liam, should be put in that place.
Though Jessie struggles to grasp the magnetic pull of Tom’s presence, it doesn’t imply the present neglects the significance of her different relationships, with Kate chief amongst them. Now that her greatest pal is about to offer delivery, it’s a precipice for each ladies that feels equally exhilarating and terrifying, particularly as they begin to marvel (even out loud) how the dynamic may change. “Will you continue to inform me all of your secrets and techniques when the infant is born?” Kate sleepily asks Jessie, in a quietly intimate scene between them midway by way of the season. “Can I inform the infant all of your secrets and techniques?” Jessie’s response is within the affirmative, however the complete second feels tinged with a much bigger query of uncertainty — all of her mates are clearly progressing in the direction of the following levels of their lives, all the things involving marriage and children and homeownership. Is it even doable for Jessie to take care of the identical relationships that she did earlier than these milestones, or is she about to get left behind as a result of she nonetheless doesn’t have each single a type of issues herself?
What makes this season of Starstruck the present’s most relatable but is the way it lets Jessie step out on her personal, with out essentially needing to depend on the aspect of a romance or a relationship to outline herself. A few of the questions she’s grappling with are instantly identifiable to these of us who’ve puzzled the very same factor about how far we’ve progressed in our personal lives, however some dilemmas are completely model new for the sequence. Maybe it’s most becoming that Jessie’s greatest wakeup name comes within the type of her bluntest pal Amelia (performed by Snedden), who affords some last-minute perspective on her birthday of all days to “simply recognize what you’ve got whilst you have it.” From that second on, it appears like Jessie lastly lets herself undertake that philosophy after virtually a whole season of making an attempt and failing to get it proper the primary time.
If there’s one message that Starstruck Season 3 affords up, it’s that this has at the beginning at all times been a present about Jessie herself, somebody who is healthier recognized for messing up and making errors virtually on intuition. But it surely’s additionally a season about how true progress, emotional or in any other case, doesn’t occur with out shifting ahead slightly than taking too many steps again into the previous — regardless of how interesting that previous may look on paper. This time round, the present additionally has extra distinct fall vibes, with one episode even revolving round a friend-cation booked in a countryside cottage, however don’t mistake the comfortable aesthetic as an indication of extra relaxed storytelling. As a substitute, Starstruck appears poised to redefine each itself and its winsome main girl as soon as once more, simply because it did when it stole our hearts all the best way again in Season 1.