History Series / PleaseLikeMe

[[quoteright:180:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/safe_image_1692.jpeg]] ''Please Like Me'' is an Australian television comedy-drama series airing on Creator/TheABC starring comedian Creator/JoshThomas. The series revolves around [[TheDanza Josh]], a university student and his coming to terms with his sexuality, and the seemingly impossible search for love.

* DidIJustSayThatOutLoud: Claire's quiet ‘but you’re so pretty’, to Geoffrey.

In January 2017, Creator/JoshThomas announced on his twitter that season 4 was the last.

* AllLoveIsUnrequited: In season 1, Geoffrey’s affections for Josh are mostly unrequited. In season 2, Josh’s affections for Patrick are unrequited, despite some hinting at the opposite.

** [[spoiler: After his break-up with Arnold in season 4, Josh has a string of these, involving amongst others a podiatrist who is addicted to crystal meth and an Indigenous Australian who he keeps making [[InnocentBigot unintentional racist remarks]] to. Surprisingly, he ends up having sex with all of them, but ends up with a hickey (just before a date with Arnold) and has to do a HIV test after his condom breaks.]]

** [[spoiler: In the season 2 premiere, Josh goes clubbing and getting rejected by Patrick. In the season 2 finale, he goes clubbing and rejects Patrick.]]

* CommutingOnABus: Geoffrey and Claire aren’t part of the main cast after season one, but Geoffrey returns for a guest role in season two and four, and Claire returns for several episodes in season two and four, and most of season three.
* CooldownHug: Subverted. In the season 2 finale, Josh wants to give Arnold one of those when he’s having a panic attack, but Arnold tells him to just stay away and say nothing until it’s over.

** Geoffrey’s father is an alcoholic [[spoiler:who dies in season 2]].

* FriendsWithBenefits: Niamh and Tom in season 2.

** [[spoiler: Rose leaves a note for Josh when she successfully attempts suicide for the third time. It's never revealed what's in it though, since season 4 was the last for the show.]]

* InsecureLoveInterest: Josh was like this with Geoffrey and Patrick. Less so with Arnold, who is himself Josh's Insecure Love Interest. It goes full circle in season 4 when Josh goes back to the insecure love interest role when the guy they invited for their threesome is clearly more interested in Arnold than in Josh, and Arnold pretty much forgets about Josh's existence.

** In 'Eggplant', Arnold tells Josh he loves him for the first time while drunk. Overall, Arnold is more honest when drunk, lampshading how [[spoiler:his feelings for Josh are deteriorating regularly during season 4, and his issues with him]].

* TheMentallyDisturbed: Averted. Rose, as well as the rest of the mental patients at the hospital she stays in in season 2, are portrayed very sympathetically.

* MotorMouth: Rose in season 2, after going off her meds.

* NoMedicationForMe: Rose does this in the season 2 premiere. She doesn’t try to kill herself or harm anyone, but she does say a lot of uncomfortable truths to everyone around her in a state of mania (she’s [[UsefulNotes/BipolarDisorder bi-polar]]), which gets her committed.

* PickyEater: Geoffrey, although [[CharacterDevelopment he becomes less picky by season 2.]]

** Despite describing himself as plain looking and undateable, Josh is still a minor example of this. He gets hit on by Geoffrey ''on the day he comes out'', and is seen hooking up with several other men after that. In season four [[spoiler: he has three Grindr hookups in one episode. He also says he had sex with at least 15 men during the last year, whilst having an open relationship with Arnold for most of that period]].

* TimeSkip: Season 2 starts a year after season 1 ended.

* TroubledButCute: Arnold, in season 2.

* UnrequitedLoveSwitcheroo: [[spoiler:Partial example with Josh and Geoffrey. After Josh has had trouble feeling close and affectionate with Geoffrey for most of season 1, he tries to get back together with him in the season finale, only to be rejected because Geoffrey realises they don’t really have this kind of connection, and Josh just wants him close because he’s grieving Auntie Peg’s death.]]

* VomitIndiscretionShot: Josh vomits out of the hot air balloon that [[spoiler:Alan proposes to Mae]] in after a night of some drinking in the season 2 finale.
* WackyMarriageProposal: [[spoiler:Alan proposes to Mae in a hot air balloon in the season 2 finale. She appreciates the gesture but rejects the proposal, and Josh, who is also in the hot air balloon, vomits out of the balloon. It becomes very awkward when it turns out her parents were invited and they chastise her for rejecting the proposal to ‘live in sin’ with Alan.]]

** [[spoiler: After his break-up with Arnold in season 4, Josh has a string of these, involving amongst others a podiatrist who is addicted to crystal meth and an Indigenous Australian who he keeps making [[InnocentBigot unintentional racist remarks]] to. Surprisingly, he ends up having sex with all of them, but ends up with a hickey (just before a date with Arnold) and has to do a HIV-test after his condom breaks.]]

* BitchInSheepsClothing: Niamh. [[spoiler:Jenny seems to be a borderline case, arguably triggered by Tom’s behaviour and/or the grief from Gavin’ death.]]

** Season 4: [[spoiler: Rose committed suicide and her house is sold. Josh buys a nice apartment with the inheritance (although it has noisy neighbours). Hannah finds some peace with an old flame, Alan learns to grieve Rose but his relationship with Mae is better than ever and Grace is growing to be a beautiful girl. Ella breaks up with Tom just when they are finally moving together. This leads to Josh and Tom living together again, both single, like they were at the beginning of the show.]]

* CampGay: Josh is a borderline case, in that his only real camp characteristic is that he can be a bit effeminate and wimpy. In ‘Portuguese Custard Tarts’, Alan is worried that he might have cause him to turn gay because he didn’t snip these behaviors in the bud.
** Arnold, like Josh, is also somewhat effeminate (he's soft spoken, dresses quite fashionable and is often seen wearing a large "manbag"). It is worth noting that when he's in the mental hospital he dresses far more casually - so the way he dresses could be related to his insecurities. He also used to be a choir singer, which is considered to be very camp by his dad.

* ComicRolePlay: Alan helps Arnold practice coming out to his dad by role playing the scenario with him.

* CouchGag: The title sequence for episodes 2 to 6 of the first season features Josh (or, in the first series finale, his mum) preparing the food named in the [[IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming episode title]]. This was abandoned on the second season, although it returns in ‘Truffled Mac and Cheese’.

** Rose attempts suicide more of less spontaneously at the very start of the series, although she survives. [[spoiler:She has another attempt at the end of the first series, but changes her mind and survives again.]]
** [[spoiler: Ginger, successfully]], in the middle of second series.

* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Niamh. She only hangs out with the group because she's Toms girlfriend, and that's only because Tom is too afraid to break up with her. Josh and Claire openly despise her and even Geoffrey rejects her attempts at friendship. After Tom and Niamh break up, she shows up at [[spoiler: Peg's wake]], but is bluntly told by Rose that it's really not appropriate for her to be there, and is asked to leave.

* IAmNotPretty: The first episode starts with a monologue where Josh laments his "rubbish face," which is a recurring worry for him. His body issues reach an all time low when Patrick rejects him on the basis of not finding him sexually attractive.

* InsecureLoveInterest: Josh was like this with Geoffrey and Patrick. Less so with Arnold, who is himself Josh's Insecure Love Interest. It goes full circle in season 4 when Josh goes back to the insecure love interest role when the guy they invited for their threesome is clearly more interested in Arnold than in Josh, and Arnold pretty much forget about Josh's existence.

* BillyElliotPlot: Parodied. Josh orchestrates a role play of Arnold coming out to his dad, which involves Arnold singing while Alan pretends to be the disappointed dad who's so moved by his son's performance that he gradually [[SoProudOfYou comes around and accepts him.]]

* ComingOutStory: The first series is one for Josh. Series 3 moreso for Arnold.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Arnold delivers a scathing one to Josh when the latter [[spoiler:breaks up with him during season 4, pointing out all of Josh's flaws and his inability to be happy.]]

* GoodGirlsAvoidAbortion: Averted when [[spoiler: Claire gets an abortion.]]

* YourCheatingHeart:
** [[spoiler:Tom does this to Niamh with Claire in season 1, and later to Jenny with Niamh in season 2. In season 3 he kisses Claire while he's dating Ella.]]
** [[spoiler:Rose sleeps with Stuart, a man in the hospital who turns out to be married.]]
** [[spoiler:Mae admits to Alan in season 3 that she slept with a man she met on a fetish website while she was pregnant. They work things out.]]
** [[spoiler:In season 3, Josh hooks up with Ben through Grindr. While Josh and Arnold are in an open relationship at the time, it still causes some tension later on because Arnold views Josh's time with Ben as emotional infidelity.]]
** Alan says he had affairs before he was with Mae. It's unclear if he means he cheated on Rose or if he cheated on some unspecified person in his past. [[spoiler: in 'Degustation' it's confirmed he cheated on Rose.]]

[[quoteright:180:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/safe_image_1692.jpeg]] ''Please Like Me'' is an Australian television comedy series airing on Creator/TheABC starring comedian Creator/JoshThomas. The series revolves around [[TheDanza Josh]], a university student and his coming to terms with his sexuality, and the seemingly impossible search for love.

** In ‘Rhubarb and Custard’, Rose inverts this when she's off her meds by telling a lot of embarrassing truths to everyone, including her expressed surprise at Niamh still being a part of the group (‘I admire your tenacity!’) and that Josh has a crush on Patrick.

* {{Adorkable}}: Most of the cast, but Josh and Arnold especially.

** Season 4: [[spoiler: Rose committed suicide and her house is sold. Josh buys a nice apartment with the inheritance (although it has noisy neighbours). Hannah finds some peace with an old flame, Alan learns to grief Rose but his relationship with Mae is better than ever and Grace is growing to be a beautiful girl. Ella breaks up with Tom just when they are finally moving together. This leads to Josh and Tom living together again, bot single, like they were at the beginning of the show.]]

The first season began airing in Australia on [=ABC2=] on the 28th of February 2013.

On July 2013 it was announced that the series would air in the United States as part of the launch programming of Pivot, a new digital cable and satellite television channel. On that same month they announced they had picked up the show for a second season.
Season 2 premiered in the US on the 9th of August and on the 12th in Australia.

On July 2014 Pivot announced they had picked up the show for a third season.

On July 2016, it was announced that the show had been picked up for a fourth season.

On January 2017, Creator/JoshThomas announced on his twitter that season 4 was the last.

* ComicRolePlay: Alan helps Arnold practice coming out to his dad by role playing the scenario with him (which later leads to a CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming).

[[quoteright:180:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/safe_image_1692.jpeg]] ''Please Like Me'' is an Australian television comedy series airing on Creator/TheABC starring comedian Creator/JoshThomas. The series revolves around [[TheDanza Josh]], a university student and his coming to terms with his sexuality, and the seemingly impossibly search for love.

** Tom eats some truffled macaroni and cheese he finds in the fridge, not knowing it has sentimental significance to Josh. Josh gets revenge by [[DisproportionateRetributionbarricading Tom in his room and turning off the wifi.

* BumblingDad: Alan is a downplayed version: while he supports Josh financially [[spoiler:until he retires]], he’s fairly clueless and awkward.
* CampGay: Josh is a borderline case, in that his only camp characteristic is that he can be a bit effeminate and wimpy. In ‘Portuguese Custard Tarts’, Alan is worried that he might have cause him to turn gay because he didn’t snip these behaviours in the bud.
** Arnold, like Josh, can also be somewhat effeminate (he's soft spoken, dresses quite fashionable and is seen wearing a large "manbag"). It is worth noting that when he's in the mental hospital he dresses far more casually - so the way he dresses could be related to his insecurities. He also used to be a choir singer, which is considered to be very camp by his dad.

* ComicRolePlay: Alan helps Arnold practice coming out to his dad by role playing the scenario with him.

** Rose, Hannah, Arnold and Ginger are all mentally ill, and spend most of the second series at a mental hospital.

** Rose, at the very start of the series, although she survives. [[spoiler:Also at the end of the first series, but she changes her mind and survives again.]]
** [[spoiler: Ginger]], in the middle of second series.
** [[spoiler: Rose tries again during the fourth series, and succeeds this time. It's implied this attempt was not spontaneous like the first two, as she is seen holding a note for Josh.]]

** Averted twice: In 'Margherita' Patrick walks in the ocean naked at night while high and could have quite possibly drowned if Josh didn't save him. In 'Natural Spring Water' Josh, Tom and Arnold take MDMA. While Josh and Arnold are just very affectionate towards each other and don't experience any negative effects, they all get overconfident which leads to Tom breaking his arm.

* ForcedOutOfTheCloset: Geoffrey outs Josh to his dad, Peg outs Josh to his mom (and Peg's whole church). Both outings are treated as a nonissue, as Josh doesn't really seem to mind.

* TheFundamentalist: Auntie Peg is a subversion, originally portrayed as homophobic due to her fierce adherence to religion, warms up to Rose and Josh and [[spoiler:delivers a speech re-affirming her dedication to Josh despite his homosexuality]]. In the season finale, [[spoiler:Josh reads at the funeral the note she left behind, which says she was actually going to church mostly out of inertia after a while]].

** In ‘Rhubarb and Custard’, Rose inverts this by telling a lot of embarrassing truths to everyone, including her expressed surprise at Niamh still being a part of the group (‘I admire your tenacity!’) and that Josh has a crush on Patrick, while she’s off her meds.
** In ‘Sausage Sizzle’, Claire gets drunk at Jenny’s play and tells her [[spoiler:they saw her menstrual pad’s wings during the play]] when they meet up after.
** In 'Eggplant', Arnold tells Josh he loves him for the first time while drunk. Overall, Arnold is more honest when drunk, lampshading how [[spoiler:his feelings for Josh are deteriorating regularly during season 4, and his issues with him.]]

** Tom eats some truffled macaroni and cheese he finds in the fridge, not knowing it has sentimental significance to Josh. Josh gets revenge by barricading Tom in his room and turning off the wifi.

** Season 1: [[spoiler: Rose attempts suicide again, Geoffrey and Josh have broken up and Aunt Peg is dead, but Josh is there for Rose, Rose decided to cling to her will to live, Auntie Peg managed to reconcile with Josh and Rose, Josh and Geoffrey are happy to just be friends and Rose and Mae are friends.]]
** Season 2: [[spoiler: Josh and Arnold's date is ruined by a very drunk and high Patrick, which culminates in Arnold having another anxiety attack and checking himself back into the hospital. Mae rejects Alan's marriage proposal, and Tom is so desperate that he almost has sex with a prostitute. On the other hand, Rose and Hannah decide to check out of the hospital, to start their lives anew, and Josh accepts that - for the moment - he and Arnold can just be friends and shows up at the hospital to support him.]]
** Season 3: [[spoiler: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]], tensions escalate over Christmas lunch, which leads to Arnold having another anxiety attack, declining Josh's offer to move in with him and leaving to spend Christmas with his own family. After delivering an epic TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to his friends and family, the episode ultimately ends with Josh eating a trifle in the park, alone.]]
** Season 4: [[spoiler: Rose finally kills herself. Her house is held in auction and with the money Josh buys a new apartment with noisy neighbours, Hannah finds some peace with an old flame, Alan learns to grief Rose but her relationship with Mae is better than ever and Grace is growing to be a beautiful girl, Ella breaks up with Tom just when they are finally moving together, Tom comes back to live with Josh just like they were at the beginning of the show.]]

* WhenYouComingHomeDad: Alan wants to avert this with his and Mae’s daughter Grace and retires early, forcing Josh to earn his own income.

* WhenYouComingHomeDad: Alan wants to avert this with his and Mae’s daughter Grace, making him [[spoiler:tell Josh to get a job and declare that he’s retiring]] in ‘Lapin la Cocotte’.

* [[BritishBrevity Australian Brevity]]: The first series has 6 episodes, the second and third all of 10.

* YourTomcatIsPregnant: Josh and Tom get three pet chicks ([[NamedAfterSomeoneFamous named Shakira, Beyonce and Adele]]) thinking they're all female. When Adele grows up, they realize she's actually a rooster.

* AllLoveIsUnrequited: [[spoiler:In season 1, Geoffrey’s affections for Josh are mostly unrequited. In season 2, Josh’s affections for Patrick are unrequited, despite some hinting at the opposite.]]

** In ‘Spanish Eggs’, Josh references ''DegrassiJuniorHigh''.

[[quoteright:180:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/safe_image_1692.jpeg]] ''Please Like Me'' is an Australian television comedy series airing on TheABC starring comedian Creator/JoshThomas. The series revolves around [[TheDanza Josh]], a university student and his coming to terms with his sexuality, and the seemingly impossibly search for love.

** [[spoiler: At the series finale Tom and Josh are both single and living together again at Josh's new apartment.]]

** [[spoiler: Rose leaves a note for Josh when she successfully attempts suicide for the third time. It has yet to be revealed what's in it though.]]

** Season 4: [[spoiler: Rose finally kills herself. Her house is held in auction and with the money Josh buys a new apartment with noisy neighbours, Hannah finds some peace with an old flame, Alan learns to grief Rose but her relationship with Mae is better than ever and Grace is growing to be a beautiful girl, Elle breaks up with Tom just when they are about to move together at last, Tom comes back to live with Josh just like they were at the beginning of the show.]]