September Shorts: Dave and Shrill

I was considering starting this short post with a rallying cry. These two shows, both available on iplayer at the time of writing, are so good I wanted to start with a celebratory 'Hell yeah! This is what we pay our licence fee for!' 

But they're both US imports the Beeb have shelled out for so I guess that might not strike quite the right note. 

Dave and Shrill are, and I cannot overstate this, superb. I've decided to throw them together here because they're both super-intelligent shows about millennial creatives - a rapper and a writer - trying to get their freelance careers up-and-running in a cut-throat world. The're both about self-expression and doubt, about the change that success brings and the pressure it puts on relationships; the dislocation it creates. They're about the emptiness of social media and the hunt for authenticity. They both have crucial turning-points at weddings and parties, poignant and funny scenes featuring boomer-parents, and moments of razor-sharp creative performance.

Go get 'em!