Television series

Brassic

Name: Brassic
Genre: Drama, Comedy, Crime
Released: 2019
Cast: Joseph Gilgun, Ryan Sampson, Aaron Heffernan, Tom Hanson, Michelle Keegan

Drama

Brassic is a northern English dramedy about a tight-knit gang of working-class mates navigating their twenties—love, loyalty, crime, and mental health—with genuine warmth beneath the chaos. It's funny and brutal by turns, never patronising. For anyone who loves characters more than plot, who knows that real friendship survives contradiction.

TVMaze rating

3.9

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like crude, affectionate comedy about a loyal gang of misfits drifting through petty crime, where the laughs sit right beside real tenderness about mental health.

Skip it if you need plot to drive every episode, since its loose, ambling storytelling and seven series of similar scrapes can start to feel repetitive.

What it asks of you: Each episode runs about three-quarters of an hour, so it is easy to get through in a binge, though its mood swings between belly laughs and heavy, quiet scenes.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

This Is England2007

Same unflinching mix of humour and hurt set in working-class Britain. Shane Meadows captures how belonging to a group can save and destroy you in equal measure, with a cast that feels lived-in and true.

But Begins as comedy but darkens into something genuinely uncomfortable. The tonal shift arrives without warning and stays there.

Trainspotting1996

Addiction, friendship, North Britain, and the energy of people with no good options making terrible choices together. Sharp, funny, furious. Shows how belonging can be the most dangerous drug of all.

But Brutal drug use scenes that don't soften for comfort. The film makes no apology for what it shows, and that's the whole point.

It's a Sin2021

Found family in crisis, genuine love between people doing their best in impossible circumstances, and a core group whose loyalty survives everything. Russell T Davies writes characters who feel like people you know.

But The historical tragedy is the entire point, so if you need hope over grief, this isn't for you. Very heavy final episodes.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Brassic

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

In America2003

Both understand that people in hard circumstances are funny and tragic simultaneously, and neither ever mocks them for being poor. The emotional honesty under the chaos.

Jim Sheridan's film about an Irish family surviving poverty in Manhattan. It has Brassic's warmth—the way love survives poverty without erasing it—but trades gang loyalty for family love. Same moral clarity, different unit.

But Deeply sentimental in places, which some find maudlin. Slower than Brassic, more meditation than incident. The grief at its center never lifts.

Kidulthood2006

Loose gang, London streets, petty crime, real stakes, one day that spirals. Feels lived-in and angry. Shows how quickly things can collapse when you're young with nothing to lose.

But Punchy and brutal rather than warm. No one here is lovable, and the film doesn't ask you to like them, just understand them.

The Sopranos1999

The template for

But A different class entirely, but the same structure: men bound by loyalty and money, therapist sessions that double as philosophy, every episode making you question whether these people are redeemable.Brassic in the way characters contradict themselves and refuse to improve. Therapy scenes that function as actual character work, not exposition.

Chewing Gum2015

Found family, messy love, comedy that lands in emotional places. Michaela Coel writes characters who are flawed and beloved simultaneously. Joyful in a way that doesn't erase hardship.

But Only two seasons. The shortness feels like it cuts off before the story's ready, and rewatches feel more bittersweet than satisfying.

Attack the Block2011

South London gang, aliens as metaphor for class anxiety, friendship under threat, funny and political without preaching. Teen characters with real voices and real stakes.

But Low budget shows, sci-fi is secondary to the human drama, and some viewers find the accents challenging. The ending doesn't wrap everything neatly.

Top Boy2011

Both treat gang structure as a family system with its own rules and emotions. Both show crime as economics first, morality second, but never forget the humanity underneath.

London gang drama that focuses on the specific friendships and loyalty codes within criminal enterprise. Quieter and more novelistic than Brassic, but the same unflinching look at how people justify terrible choices to people they love.

But Much darker, far less comedy, and the violence is never cartoon. If you're watching for laughs, this will disappoint. Also sometimes sacrifices character for plot.