Hulu’s smart ‘Casual’ takes its family comedy seriously

  • By Mary McNamara Los Angeles Times
  • Thursday, October 8, 2015 6:48pm
  • LifeGo-See-Do

Amid panicked rumors that television has peaked, the new shows this fall are chockablock with Look-At-Me twists, from super-mind-power film-franchise adjacency to a naked tattooed woman.

All Hulu’s new half-hour comedy “Casual” has going for it, promo wise, is executive producer and director Jason Reitman, he of “Juno” and “Up in the Air.”

Oh, and the fact that it’s smart, funny, disarmingly sincere and sneakily self-aware.

Viewed at a certain level, “Casual” is a work of objet trouve, constructed from a mélange of currently popular TV tropes down to Silver Lake as the new Brooklyn. In the first five of the 10 episodes — two available this week, then new episodes will join them each week — top notes include “About a Boy” “You’re the Worst” “Ben and Kate,” “Trophy Wife” and even “Transparent.”

Yet “Casual” is very much its own show. Much of this is due, initially, to the always-welcome presence of Michaela Watkins, here relieved of the high dosage wackiness she was prescribed as ex-wife No. 3 in “Trophy Wife.”

As Valerie, she is once again an ex-wife, a state of affairs so new that she and her 16-year-old daughter Laura (Tara Lynne Barr) have moved in, “temporarily,” with Valerie’s younger brother Alex (Tommy Dewey). Though tightly wound and understandably bitter (her husband has, we are told repeatedly, left her for a 20-year-old), Valerie is also a competent professional, a therapist, in fact, which creator Zander Lehmann mercifully does not play for cheap laughs.

Her brother is more of a stereotype, the attractive man-child, here so emotionally stunted that he must rig the coding on the singles website he co-founded to find a match.

“Casual” refers to the type of sexual relationships all three of the main characters claim to pursue.

It’s an old device: Valerie needs to unclench and have fun, Alex needs to straighten out and grow up, while Laura, the teen, often seems more together than either of them. As in most of Reitman’s films, there is much amusing banter, delivered with brisk comedic timing and tricked out with pop culture references including to waxing, helicopter parents, mid-life texting and the habits of online dating.

Born to “free spirit” parents, Alex and Valerie raised themselves. It’s a fact initially used to explain why Valerie is still clinging to a marriage that never made her happy and why Alex remains a sophomoric jerk who considers any woman weighing more than 98 pounds a “4.”

Then Frances Conroy shows up in Episode 4 and things get a bit more complicated. “We spend our lives waiting for our parents to apologize,” Valerie is told a few episodes in by the most unlikely sage imaginable. “They spend theirs waiting for a thank you.”

That kind of thinking, and writing, is what turns “Casual” from a pastiche of familiar themes into a rueful examination of them.

This being a streaming service rather than a broadcast network, sex occurs regularly and the talk can get raunchy; “Casual” is for “mature audiences.” But the “mature” also refers to show’s ability to be ruthless, but not brutal, humane but not sentimental.

Valerie and Alex are both oblivious and self-involved, but they also love each other, and Watkins and Dewey save them from stereotype with strong sibling chemistry and a surprisingly natural inclination for truth.

This emerges slowly, in bits and pieces, often camouflaged by one-liners and set pieces (adjacent blind dates! the first one-night stand! Mom comes to town!), but it is truth nonetheless, hilarious, heartbreaking and miraculously resilient.

“Casual”

Streaming on hulu.com, TV-MA

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Life

Sarah Jean Muncey-Gordon puts on some BITCHSTIX lip oil at Bandbox Beauty Supply on Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024, in Langley, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Bandbox Beauty was made for Whidbey Island locals, by an island local

Founder Sarah Muncey-Gordon said Langley is in a renaissance, and she’s proud to be a part of it.

A stroll on Rome's ancient Appian Way is a kind of time travel. (Cameron Hewitt)
Rick Steves on the Appian Way, Rome’s ancient superhighway

Twenty-nine highways fanned out from Rome, but this one was the first and remains the most legendary.

Byrds co-founder Roger McGuinn, seen here in 2013, will perform April 20 in Edmonds. (Associated Press)
Music, theater and more: What’s happening in Snohomish County

R0ck ‘n’ Roll Hall of Famer Roger McGuinn, frontman of The Byrds, plans a gig in Edmonds in April.

Mother giving in to the manipulation her daughter fake crying for candy
Can children be bribed into good behavior?

Only in the short term. What we want to do is promote good habits over the course of the child’s life.

Speech Bubble Puzzle and Discussion
When conflict flares, keep calm and stand your ground

Most adults don’t like dissension. They avoid it, try to get around it, under it, or over it.

The colorful Nyhavn neighborhood is the place to moor on a sunny day in Copenhagen. (Cameron Hewitt)
Rick Steves: Embrace hygge and save cash in Copenhagen

Where else would Hans Christian Andersen, a mermaid statue and lovingly decorated open-face sandwiches be the icons of a major capital?

Last Call is a festured artist at the 2024 DeMiero Jazz Festival: in Edmonds. (Photo provided by DeMiero Jazz Festival)
Music, theater and more: What’s happening in Snohomish County

Jazz ensemble Last Call is one of the featured artists at the DeMiero Jazz Festival on March 7-9 in Edmonds.

Kim Helleren
Local children’s author to read at Edmonds Bookshop

Kim Helleren will read from one of her books for kids at the next monthly Story Time at Edmonds Bookshop on March 29.

Chris Elliott
Lyft surprises traveler with a $150 cleaning charge

Jared Hakimi finds a $150 charge on his credit card after a Lyft ride. Is that allowed? And will the charge stick?

Inside Elle Marie Hair Studio in Smokey Point. (Provided by Acacia Delzer)
The best hair salon in Snohomish County

You voted, we tallied. Here are the results.

The 2024 Kia EV9 electric SUV has room for up to six or seven passengers, depending on seat configuration. (Photo provided by Kia)
Kia’s all-new EV9 electric SUV occupies rarified air

Roomy three-row electric SUVs priced below 60 grand are scarce.

2023 Toyota RAV4 Prime XSE Premium AWD (Photo provided by Toyota)
2023 Toyota RAV4 Prime XSE Premium AWD

The compact SUV electric vehicle offers customers the ultimate flexibility for getting around town in zero emission EV mode or road-tripping in hybrid mode with a range of 440 miles and 42 mile per gallon fuel economy.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.