Feel Good
フィール・グッド
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A non-binary comedian in recovery falls for a woman who has never dated one; love as another substance.
Mae, a Canadian stand-up comedian in Manchester, meets George, a secondary-school English teacher from a buttoned-up middle-class family, at the Gag Bin, the club where Mae performs. They spend the night together, and George, who has only ever dated men, moves in with Mae within three months. Then, on the phone to Mae's parents, she learns that Mae is a former cocaine addict who has dealt drugs and been to prison. George pushes Mae back to Narcotics Anonymous, where an older member, Maggie, appoints herself Mae's sponsor. Mae, in turn, cannot bear being hidden: George tells her friends she is seeing a man.
The first series watches the damage from both sides. Mae treats the relationship like a new drug and floods George with texts when she is away; George acknowledges Mae in front of her friends only on morphine, after an accident at a party. A trip to Blackpool to meet Mae's parents, Linda, quick to blame, and Malcolm, brings the couple closer. But Mae secretly takes oxycodone and, in a stand-up set, says they might be transgender and fear George will one day see them as a girl. The two break up. Mae relapses, sleeps with Maggie's daughter and flies home to Canada.
The second series opens in the Canadian rehab where Mae was last at eighteen. Back in England, Mae finds George with a colleague, Elliott; within weeks the two are together again, retreating into sex and role play. Gaps in Mae's memory and panic attacks lead to a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder, and Mae tells George where it comes from: as a teenager Mae was sexually abused in secret relationships with much older people, among them Scott, who was thirty when Mae was fifteen. George has her own reckoning with a homophobic father and with how much of her life she has spent supporting Mae. When Mae proposes on stage at her school show, George says no. In Canada, under the watch of Mae's parents, George suggests that Mae consider the word non-binary, and Mae confronts Scott about the abuse, holds him, and tells him they never want to see him again. The series ends with Mae and George sitting together on a dock, steadier than they have ever been.
Starring
Mae Martinas Mae
A Canadian comedian in Manchester, a recovering addict who throws themself into love as into a new drug.
Mae’s story
Mae moves George in within three months of meeting her, without mentioning the cocaine, the dealing or the prison. Back at Narcotics Anonymous, they gain a self-appointed sponsor, Maggie, and they cannot bear being hidden from George's friends. Secretly on oxycodone, they tell an audience they might be transgender and fear George will one day see a girl, and the couple split. Mae relapses and ends up in the Canadian rehab they last saw at eighteen. Back in England they win George back, until panic attacks and gaps in memory lead to a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder, and to the abuse they suffered at fifteen from Scott, then thirty. In Canada, Mae holds Scott, tells him they never want to see him again, and ends beside George on a dock.
Charlotte Ritchieas George
A secondary-school English teacher in her first relationship with someone who is not a man, and slow to tell anyone.
George’s story
George has only dated men when she goes home with Mae after a comedy night. She learns of Mae's addiction on the phone to Mae's parents and pushes them back into recovery, while telling her friends she is seeing a man; only on morphine after an accident at a party does she acknowledge Mae in front of them. When Mae's set lays bare their fears and she finds the hidden oxycodone, she ends it. In the second series she dates a colleague, Elliott, who balks when she asks for rougher sex, and she returns to Mae. After a clash with her homophobic father, and told that she lives to support Mae, she turns down Mae's proposal on stage. In Canada she suggests Mae consider the word non-binary, and the series leaves them side by side on a dock.
Lisa Kudrowas Linda
Mae's mother in Canada, guarded and distrustful, who still blames Mae for the years of addiction.
Adrian Lukisas Malcolm
Mae's father, milder than Linda, who finally admits breaking the ornaments she had always blamed on Mae.
Phil Burgersas Phil
George's depressed flatmate, who becomes an unlikely friend to Mae and looks for the father he has not seen in thirty years.
Sophie Thompsonas Maggie
An older Narcotics Anonymous member who makes herself Mae's sponsor while trying to win back her own daughter.
Why it matters
Feel Good is a romantic comedy about two people who cannot stop hiding. Mae hides a past of addiction and, beneath it, the sexual abuse of a teenager by much older people; George hides Mae from her friends, and her own desire from herself. Written by Mae Martin and Joe Hampson from a version of Martin's own life, the series treats recovery and coming out as the same kind of work: saying aloud what shame has kept quiet. It is frank about sex as a way to feel and a way not to, and it lets gender be something Mae is still finding words for rather than a twist. The second series names the abuse behind Mae's compulsions without turning it into a mystery solved in one scene. The question it leaves is whether love can be anything other than a new drug.