Season 2 opens with Jenna conducting a new research study, but being forced to deal with an unhappy participant; Dawn struggling in her new role as Jenna's research assistant; DiDi approaching Patsy for a raise; after a day of personal medical issues, Dawn making a massive discovery.
What Getting On does so well is pivot from humor to sadness. It's almost Chekovian in the way that it walks the line between comedy and tragedy. It's a dark comedy- heavy on the dark. Yet, I think that's appropriate given the subject matter.
"Now in its six-episode second season, the superb workplace comedy continues to explore themes of power, gender, class, corporatization, mortality, and the mysteries of the stuff that comes out of our butts."
When Getting On truly shines is when it shrugs off the wink-wink-gasp rhythms of the comedy it wants to be and relaxes into the tough, uncompromising series it actually is.
The show is also very sharp about the awkward interactions of doctors and nurses with their patients, who get treated like children even if they used to be brilliant, respected scientists and writers.
It is a dark, unblinking comedy, offering unvarnished truths taken to extremes about subjects rarely shown on television-death and the care of the elderly.
Laurie Metcalf's performance, along with her role in the network sitcom The McCarthys make her TV's comedy powerhouse of the season. She does some amazing stuff.
Getting On finds great comedic tension between the gravitas of getting on (as in getting old and dying) and the levity required for getting on (as in just getting through the workday).
Humor so dark you'll be embarrassed for laughing, fun rooted in death and dying, a sendup of the soul-killing bureaucracy of health-care institutions -- that's Getting On, the best comedy you're not watching.
