Television series
Trying
Trying is a British comedy about a couple navigating adoption, infertility, and the bureaucratic maze that comes with trying to become parents. It's warm and funny without being saccharine—grounded in real frustration and grief, but genuinely alive to absurdity. For anyone who's watched a friend struggle with family planning, or anyone who loves character-driven comedy that trusts you to care.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you like sitcoms that find real ache inside awkward, low-key domestic comedy, where the funniest moments come from two people who are trying hard and getting it wrong.
Skip it if you want a fast, gag-per-minute comedy, since this one lingers on waiting rooms and quiet disappointments between the jokes.
What it asks of you: Short episodes, five seasons, and a slow build: it asks for patience with long stretches of uncertainty before the laughs land, and staying power through setbacks.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Schitt's Creek2015
A found-family comedy about people learning to love each other across difference and disappointment. It has the same emotional generosity as Trying—funny because the characters matter, not despite it.
But Starts slow and relies on ensemble chemistry that takes a few episodes to land. The early jokes lean on fish-out-of-water cliché.
Fleabag2016
A deeply funny show about wanting things you can't have and the messy, contradictory people we love anyway. Phoebe Waller-Bridge writes comedy that breaks your heart between laughs.
But The protagonist is abrasive and self-destructive in ways that won't appeal if you need to like everyone you watch. Only six episodes per season.
Catastrophe2015
Irish and British comedians Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney play a couple whose unplanned pregnancy forces them to build a life together. Sharp, sexy, real—about how love and parenthood test you.
But Leans into crude humour and sexual content that can overshadow the genuine emotion. Some storylines resolve too neatly for comfort.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Trying
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
La Vie de Bohème1992
Both explore what we're willing to sacrifice and endure for family—biological or chosen—and the tender absurdity of building a life with someone else.
Jim Jarmusch's film about three struggling artists sharing a cramped apartment: broke, desperate, in love with each other. It's about chosen family, making something from nothing, and how desire shapes us. The same emotional frequency as Trying, but deadpan and poetic rather than cute.
But Very slow, very quiet. Shot in black and white. Jarmusch's minimalism can read as coldness if you're not in the mood for it. No plot momentum—it accumulates like memory.
More like this (7)
This Life1996
A cult British ensemble about young lawyers navigating work, ambition, and friendship. The same DNA as Trying—character comedy where the stakes are personal, not just plot-driven.
But Dated in pacing and some attitudes. Requires patience with people making terrible decisions for their own growth.
Nurse Jackie2009
A character study masquerading as workplace comedy. The writing understands how people compartmentalise grief and need, and how that fractures under pressure—relevant to Trying's emotional core.
But Gets progressively darker and bleaker as it goes. The protagonist's flaws stop being charming and become genuinely painful to watch.
Call the Midwife2012
Directly addresses fertility, loss, motherhood, and bodies without a trace of condescension. It's warm but unsentimental about birth and the families it creates.
But Set in 1950s East London and operates at period-drama pace. Not a comedy—more gently humanist drama with moments of joy.
Meet the Parents2000
A Finnish comedy about the surreal, unglamorous reality of having kids. Specific, ungenerealised, genuinely hilarious about the gap between expectation and chaos.
But Subtitled and focuses on a couple already in the parenthood trenches—less about wanting children, more about surviving them.
Scrubs2001
A medical comedy-drama where found family is both the premise and the point. Balances absurdist humour with genuine stakes and interdependence.
But Inconsistent in tone, especially later seasons. Can feel sitcom-y when you want something more grounded.
Parenthood2010
An ensemble drama about a multigenerational family with real warmth and no cynicism. Takes family seriously without pretension. Good if you want earnestness without sentimentality.
But Very long and sprawling. Domestic drama, not comedy—if you want laughs, this isn't it. Some plots meander.
Never Let Me Go2010
Like Trying, it confronts the reality that wanting something desperately doesn't make it possible, and asks how we love and live anyway. Both are ultimately about acceptance, not resolution.
A devastating film about three friends grappling with an impossible future they can't change. Understated and precise, it's about loss and attachment and the brief, ordinary happiness we hold before it's taken. Carey Mulligan gives one of cinema's great quiet performances.
But Deliberately bleak. Not a comfort watch. Some will find the restrained tone frustrating—it refuses to sensationalise the material or give you catharsis.
People
Cast
Writing
- Andy WoltonCreator
Production
- Jim O'HanlonAssociate Producer
- Andy WoltonExecutive Producer
- Joel StokesLine Producer
- Chris SussmanProducer
- Emma LawsonProducer
Recommended by
Motherland, The Letdown, Run the World, A Call to Spy, Break Clause, It Gets Worse