It is no small thing to say that I have had quite a year. With one thing and another passing by, it has been hard to really translate the effects, except to my therapist. We both agreed that I needed maybe to find a bit of, well Joy in life. Then along came Amy Huberman in the Irish TV series that is gentle laughs, easy watching and heartfelt sentiments of how life can be a little more sunny than first seen. This is not an easy feat to do in a world of rising tensions, right wing rhetoric and a sense, that the doomsday clock is ticking the wrong way….

The premise is simple (and yes, you should by the series one and two box set to get the grasp of it). Joy (Huberman) is a journo that is coasting along. The love of her life, Aidan (Lochlann O’Mearalin) dumps her. She feels defeated.  Then it gets worse. She is told to replace Ireland’s most-beloved vlogger, Flora the Happy Hunter. Yep, with a name like that, after a thing like she went through, shit that’s gonna be hard. Turns out, she is actually really good at it. Huberman reveals in being a lovely, funny soul. Tagged up with a crazy roommate (Aisling Bea), who is both beautiful and hilariously skilled at delivering the quirks in her character, we have lift off. You hope that as the end of series one comes around, they might stop there. You know, like me, that we might get a second series that is just a stab at the former glory.

Well they worked it out well. Series two sees Joy embark on a stint of her own interaweb celeb. I found it more heartfelt, funnier and sometimes quite pointed at showing life’s little idiosyncrasy. The fact that Charlene (Jenny Rainsford) delivers a more blunt voice through serves to herald that time away, is time dear and we might get more from life, if we try to see it. So in other words, it is equally as good. The two series, across two discs, are a joy (sic) of simple stories, told well, with humour and empathy. The cast is universally great and as the titles roll on the second series, I look forward to season three!

OUT TODAY!