Despite being in danger of overexposure, the lovable, cantankerous stand-up has been a staple on TV in recent years and is consistently one of the funniest performers in the British comedy industry.
Despite this, Romesh Ranganathan has never written or starred in his own sitcom. But here is Avoidance.
Avoidance is about a conflict-averse beta guy, Jonathan, played by Romesh himself, who we meet in the first episode after being dumped by his partner (Jessica Knappett), who has finally had enough of his silliness.
Naturally, Jonathan buries his head in the sand and believes that the best course of action is to kidnap their son Spencer (Kieran Logendra) and send him to his sister’s house.
In Avoidance, there are the seeds of a very creative sitcom. On the surface, Jonathan appears to be a good guy, a loving father, and someone who clearly cares about his spouse – so what if he’d prefer to ignore problems than deal with them?
It’s only as you see more of his daily life that you realize how irritating it would be to live with him. As a result, the show is around Jonathan learning to express himself and stop letting life pass him by.
And, at sometime, it works. Most of the comedy come from Jonathan’s connection with his sister (Mandeep Dhillon) and her wife Courtney (Lisa McGrillis).
They both want him out of their apartment as quickly as possible, but it’s impossible to guilt him into doing anything because he’ll simply keep lying and kicking the can down the road.
The show’s emotional impact is derived from his relationship with his son. Jonathan is well aware of the bad example he’s setting for Spencer and clearly doesn’t want him to grow up to be like him; it’s an emotional relationship, and they’ve found a child actor in Logendra who can really sell the hurt of his parents’ divorce, as well as the sheer embarrassment of having a father who will cheat at Laser Quest only to be caught right away.
It’s not all smooth sailing, though, as Avoidance is far from perfect, despite a strong cast and several amusing quips.
A critic said that Knappett as Claire is underused, he said she is wasting her wonderful ‘comic timing’ in a character that mainly boils down to a displeased spouse but Jonathan is the show’s worst problem.
Not Ranganathan, who gives a strong performance in a part that is apparently based on himself he stressed
The issue is that humor is an active medium that flourishes on conflict, whereas Jonathan is a passive character who doesn’t.
You can get around this by making your character extremely reactive, like Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm, but Jonathan isn’t even close to becoming that.
Things happen to him inexplicably. It makes watching him exhausting, and while that’s partially the goal, it won’t stop you shouting at the television for him to get his acts together.
Avoidance could be one of those rare sitcoms that improves as the central character learns more about himself.
Until then, however, it’s a show with a lot of promise, much like its protagonist.
BBC One’ Shows Avoidance tonight at 9.30 p.m.