WANTED: Handsome dude, preferably 6 foot plus. Must like cute chubby girls, loud friends, goldfish. Inquire within.
Elliot can’t catch a break. She’s stuck between a dead-end job, Netflix and chilling dudes, and a medically unsound goldish – y’know, just regular gal things. She’s 25 and she’s got to start making those big life choices: swipe left or right? Pizza or dumplings? Audrey or Marilyn – or better yet, Hillary? With the help of her friends Dan, Sal and Emily, she’s leaning in and looking for love – but getting a little distracted along the way.
Like You is nominated for Best Australian Comedy and Best Editing at this year’s WebFest. Producers, Verity Softly & Amanda Clarke created the series hoping to inspire and empower young people, particularly women, to see themselves on screen being bold and confident and making mistakes. Elliot has a lot of problems, but self-confidence isn’t one of them, and that’s what makes her so great.
Why did you choose to make your episodes self-contained rather than having a continuous narrative?
The episodes of Like You focus on particular moments in time that stand out for Elliot, our protagonist – from seemingly small events like a first date that are blown out of perspective, to bigger ones such as a pet dying or a long-term relationship falling apart. Self-contained episodes allowed us to explore the smaller moments within these events, and I think we see more truth and development in Elliot and her friends this way rather than in a continuous narrative.
Do you have any plans to adapt this into a long form series?
We would love to! Shows like The Mindy Project, Broad City and Girls are shining examples to us of strong female leads, great ensemble casts, and funny writing – we’d love to follow their lead and move to a 28 minute comedy format – yes please!
What is unique about your series?
A goldfish is a major character, for one. Also, our cast is funny, smart, and diverse – sadly that’s still unique on TV. We explore both sex and platonic relationships really openly, which is also pretty unique.
What was your target audience and how did you build a relationship with them?
Our target audience is women aged 18-35, but we’ve found we read really well with other demographics as well, particularly with young guys who like the bluntness and comedy of the show. Our social media campaign is definitely focused on the voice of the show – young, funny, direct and open. We use memes and content from our show to promote this voice and drive interest in the series across social media, as well as holding a screening for our series premiere to connect directly with our local audience.
How long did it take to produce and shoot the series?
We took our sweet time writing it – almost a year of very lazy Sundays eating brunch and writing notes – and then smashed through production quickly. We shot in the middle of Summer (a very foolish choice) so that we could release the show in Autumn.
What did you learn from making this series? What would you do differently?
We spent a lot of time wondering if people would like our show, but the best moments (on-screen and off) came when we just didn’t give a sh*t and made a show we’d want to watch. So maybe next time we’d get better at trusting our instincts and just going for it.
What did you want to achieve in creating this series?
We wanted young people, particularly women, to see themselves on screen being bold and confident and making mistakes. Killing the notion of a female lead needing to be self-conscious totally unaware of her own power was very important – Elliot has a lot of problems, but self-confidence isn’t one of them, and I think that’s what makes her so great.
What advice would you give to emerging creators?
The main thing would be – just do it. Don’t delay, don’t get self-conscious, just make work and then make better work. That’s the only way to get better and to get noticed.
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