‘This Way Up’ Star Aisling Bea On Making A Comedy About Loneliness Amid The Pandemic

The Hulu series, back for Season 2, resists unrealistic movie and TV clichés about mental health.

At the end of Season 1 of Hulu’s “This Way Up,” Aine (Aisling Bea) is talking to her therapist about how she’s doing. “It’s hard, man. It’s hard, you know?” she says. “The dailiness of it can be sort of relentless. But all we can do is give it a go.” That line captures the way the series, whose second season premieres Friday, is refreshingly honest about loneliness and depression, resisting unrealistic clichés. In movies and TV about mental health, there’s often one horrific event that has traumatized the protagonist, who then has a dramatic moment of catharsis or a breakthrough, “overcomes” their trauma, finds “closure,” and the end credits roll.