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A BritCom focused on two twenty-something friends at crossroads in their lives. Tim is a cynical aspiring comic book artist and hipster geek who is dumped by his girlfriend in the first episode. Daisy is a bubbly aspiring journalist who doesn't have anything to say nor the work ethic to say it. They pretend to be a couple in order to rent an inexpensive flat. The show focuses on their zany adventures as they struggle to get their lives on track. Tim's military-obsessed friend Mike, Daisy's ditzy glamour friend Twist, MadArtist Brian in the flat below and dipsomaniac landlady Marsha complete the main cast.

The show was written by its stars Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson, and directed by Edgar Wright. Because Pegg and Wright went on to collaborate on a string of successful films, Stevenson's contributions are often ignored by overeager marketing executives who label the show as "From the creators of ''ShaunOfTheDead'' and ''HotFuzz''." Still, the show's manic camera work and frequent references to popular genre films and TV shows can ring very familiar.

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!!Contains examples of:

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[[folder: Themes ]]

* SitCom
* MagicRealism: The show presents an exaggerated, cartoonish, and often subjective reality with extreme camerawork, fast editing, and sound effects. Frequent references to genre films and TV shows also blur the lines of reality, while outright dream sequences and fantasies are also very common.
** It happens to such an extent it prompts the characters to question if things they thought just happened really did happen, or to comment on the unbelievability of some of the situations they end up in.
* TheStraightWillAndGrace: Tim and Daisy share a flat, and both are single heterosexuals attempting the {{Masquerade}} of being a couple, nothing sexual happens between them. The audience's expectations of {{UST}} are the source of several misdirection jokes.
** Although it's implied that the reason Daisy attempted to move out in the final episode was partially because the {{UST}} was becoming unbearable for her, and in the Skip to the End extra, it's confirmed that [[spoiler: they are now a real couple with a baby and are still squabbling happily in the same flat. Awwwww.]]
* ShoutOut, {{Homage}}, TheParody: By the bucket, of everything, including some rather obscure films and TV shows. The [=DVDs=] even have a subtitle track consisting purely of the sources of each reference. This troper and one of his flatmates once made a DrinkingGame of identifying them and had to abandon it when unconsciousness loomed.
** The subtitle track in question even sometimes references pure fictional references within the show. In one episode, Daisy is making up a story about working on a movie to impress someone, saying the movie's to be named ''Guacamole Window''. The subtitle on that track then says "Film Ref: Guacamole Window, Directed by and starring Daisy Steiner."
** And indeed itself, when it harks back to the victory walk when Bilbo takes Tim back.

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Characters ]]

* TheLibby: Daisy's friend Twist is as shallow as a saucer, quite vicious and uncaring of her friend's feelings. And a FagHag.
* GenkiGirl: Daisy tries in her half-arsed way to be this, but without much success.
* MadArtist: Brian is incredibly [[TrueArtIsAngsty angsty]] and tortured (not to mention pretentious) though not in a dangerous way. He does find he's unable to paint when he's happy.
* AmbiguouslyGay: Brian is quickly asked point-blank if he is gay, to which he denies after seeming to have just now realized it. He later claims to have had "a romance between two heterosexual men" with his "post-sexual" collaborator Vulva, whom he refers to as a she.
** Mike is hinted to have feelings for Tim at several points.
* [[HeWhoMustNotBeSeen She Who Must Not Be Seen]]: Marsha's daughter Amber, despite her constant rows, is only ever heard, or seen storming down the stairs. Played by the producer's sister in a wig.
* MoodSwinger: Tyres, who has such a short attention span that he can't sustain a single emotion for more than a few seconds.
* BrattyTeenageDaughter: Marsha's daughter Amber.
* LadyDrunk: Marsha.
* StalkerWithACrush: Brian.
** '' "I see all of my ex-girlfriends. Well, not so much as to see as to watch."''

[[/folder]]

[[folder: Tropes ]]

* AirVentEscape: Done by Tim in the episode "Help".
* [=~Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!~=]: Played with. Tim starts to explain to Daisy about how easily distracted Tyres has been an certain occasions, but he himself immediately gets distracted by the TV.
* BerserkButton: For Tim, anyone complimenting The StarWars prequels and even throw a little kid out of the comic book store he works at for wanting a Jar Jar Binks action figure. Bilbo Bagshot also end up punching ''anyone'' who calls ''HawkTheSlayer'' rubbish.
* BigNo: Parodied, particularly in "Combat" after Mike takes a paintball for Tim.
* BloodFromTheMouth: Parodied with Mike's TakingTheBullet of a paintball pellet, which is set up earlier in the episode:
-->"Now, I don't want you eating any of them this time."
* ComplimentBackfire: Most of Twist's communication with Daisy in particular takes the form of possibility unintentional but definitely hurtful and snide backhanded compliments.
* ColdOpening
* DaydreamSurprise: And plenty of them. In some cases, Tim and Daisy break from the fantasy, then follow it up by doing exactly the same thing later.
* FightClubbing: The "Robot Club."
* GirlishPigtails: Twist can been seen wearing these quite a bit.
* GroinAttack: Paintballs.
* HoYay: Tim and Mike, so very much.
* IncrediblyLamePun: "You've got an answer for everything."
* IrrevocableMessage: Tim's unflattering caricature of Damien Knox, which was of course inadvertently sent to Knox as part of a job application.
* {{Metaphorgotten}}: Daisy's likening of her failed relationship with Richard to a sandwich maker gets a bit off message, eventually leading to a BrokenAesop ("Ditch your boyfriend, have a sandwich")
* MurderIsTheBestSolution: Daisy's PlanB on getting a dog.
--> ''"And if it doesn't work out... we'll kill it."''
* ObstructiveBureaucrat: Daisy does not have a good time in the Job Centre: "No, this is the A-b form, you need the A-''B'' form, capital B." The clerk responds to her questions with a simpering smile and an inane, "I'm sorry, I don't understand."
**The Job Centre worker in question had immediately clocked Daisy for exactly what she was, a would-be benefit sponge. Daisy had also been rather rude to him and tried it on with a really feeble attempt to cry and pretend to be ill. He was almost certainly playing the Obstructive Bureaucrat to have a little fun at her expense.
*** Probably not. All of this is entirely standard practice in British Job Centres. Working there seems to require a degree in Obstructiveness and post graduate study in people-hating.
*** Or a little bit of both, maybe?
* PacManFever: Averted, ''hard''. Tim plays what were, at the time, relatively up-to-date video games, and the several scenes feature then very overtly.
** And, in fact, Simon Pegg was actually playing the game through each take.
* ReverseFunnyAneurysm: "...as sure as eggs is eggs and every odd number ''StarTrek'' movie is shit." Sorry, what was that [[PromotedFanboy Scotty]]?
* SeriousBusiness: Tim and Bilbo take their fantasy/sci-fi fandom extremely seriously. Tim was so disappointed by ''ThePhantomMenace'' that he burned his Star Wars paraphernalia in a scene mirroring Darth Vader's cremation. Bilbo admits to punching out two people for describing ''HawkTheSlayer'' as "rubbish". One of them was his dad. Even still, he sacks Tim for verbally assaulting a child in search of a [[TheScrappy Jar Jar Binks]] doll. Then, when Bilbo offers Tim his old job back, Tim manipulated his new boss into sacking him by saying to him "BabylonFive is a big pile of shit!"
* [[SmokingHotSex Smoking Hot]] [[strike:Sex]] [[SmokingHotSex Vacuuming]]: Tim and Daisy decide to resolve the lingering issue between them when they first move in. Instead of screwing, it's cleaning the apartment.
* TakingTheBullet, LeapAndFire: Mike does both on a paintball trip, along with many other war tropes.
* ThePaolo: Sophie
* TheThingThatWouldNotLeave: Subverted: Mike moves in for a little while and when he leaves Daisy and Tim are actually disappointed.
** Although this is at least partially because both of them had lost what little income they had and were kind of hoping he'd help them pay the rent.
* TookALevelInBadass: Daisy, between series 1 and 2.
* TrueArtIsAngsty: Brian's art is completely defined by negative emotions. He later finds that he can't paint when he is happy.
* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible: Brian's friend Vulva performs incomprehensible performance art pieces that he finds ingenious. When Daisy tries her hand at a similarly ridiculous performance, Brian is moved to tears.
* VideogameCrueltyPotential:
-->'''Brian:''' What are you playing?\\
'''Tim:''' ''TombRaider 3''.\\
'''Brian:''' She's drowning.\\
'''Tim:''' Yeah.\\
'''Brian:''' Is that the point of the game?\\
'''Tim:''' It depends what mood you're in really.\\
'''Brian:''' What sort of mood are you in then?\\
'''Tim:''' Well, I got a letter from my girlfriend this morning three months too late explaining why she dumped me. It was full of you'll always be special and I'll always love you platitudes designed to make me feel better while simultaneously appeasing her deep-seated sense of guilt for running off with a slimy little city boy named Duane and destroying my faith in everything in the world that is good and pure.\\
'''Brian:''' So it didn't really work then.\\
'''Tim:''' No, it ''made me want to drown things!''
* VolleyingInsults: "Well, Sarah ''[[CrowningMomentOfAwesome obviously]]'' does!"
* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotAwesome: Scenes from films are re-enacted with a fraction of the budget, in far more mundane circumstances. Played for bathos or pastiche.
** The gunfight.
** The ''paintball duel''. And Mike's HeroicSacrifice, complete with [[BloodFromTheMouth Paint From The Mouth]].

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