Explicit content warnings are often reserved for grisly, violent programming and super sexy stuff. HBO's comedy Hello Ladies deserves one that reads: Extreme social discomfort past this point cannot be unseen. Stephen Merchant, frequent Ricky Gervais collaborator and co-creator of the show, plays Stuart, a lanky, jerky British web designer who relocates to Los Angeles hoping to find his ideal woman. Incidentally, his ideal is a supermodel. He flails and fails miserably, many times, more agonizingly for the viewers than for him.
He's not alone. Stuart's best friend, Wade Bailey (Nate Torrence), clings to a crumbling marriage much to his wife’s annoyance, and his tenant, Jessica Vanderhoff (Christine Woods), is an older actress barely surviving in a youthful Hollywood. We root for them but their losses get so ugly (but funny) that you laugh with your eyes hidden behind your fingers. Awkwardness up ahead as we look at the Most Uncomfortable Moments on Hello Ladies (So Far).
Written by Frantz Rocher (@frantz_rocher)