The Story of Leonard and Hungry Paul Review: A Gentle Show Featuring the Voice of the Hollywood Star Provides an Ideal Remedy to Modern Life

In a calm neighborhood of the city, a man stands outside his home, wearing a vest and sharing his thoughts. “I feel my voice is fading. Harder to see,” states Leonard, looking up at the night sky. “Events have unfolded and now I feel like without a change, I’ll just carry on in this quiet, unremarkable life.” His friend Paul, Leonard’s best confidant, ponders the idea. “There's no harm in that,” he responds, his robe flapping in the breeze. “Superior to attempting to leave an impact and ending up damaging things.”

For viewers weary by the bluster and constant stimulation of today’s TV offerings, this series steps in similar to a cozy wrap and a comforting beverage of blackcurrant juice.

In line with its quiet characters, this comedy – a half-dozen installment comedy written by Richie Conroy and Mark Hodkinson, based on the author’s understated book – looks disapprovingly on contemporary society; gazing critically through its prematurely middle-aged glasses at anything in the way of disturbances, abrupt changes or – heaven forfend – an abundance of ambition. The program on the contrary, a celebration of shyness; a subtle homage to people content to pootle around below the parapet. But. He (one more sublimely idiosyncratic performance by the actor) is unsettled. He feels a growing “need to open the openings in my existence … just a bit.” The passing of his parent has yanked the floor out from under him and this young man, a ghost writer, now finds himself doubting the decisions that directed him to his current situation (unattached; with a protective mustache; working on several educational volumes for a man who ends correspondence with the phrase “goodbye for now”).

And so Leonard launches an exploration for personal satisfaction, alongside his more outgoing friend Paul (the actor) functioning as his trusted friend, life coach and partner in a recurring board games evening which acts as discussion (“Does the pool feel warm from kids relieving themselves, or is it that kids pee since it's warm?”) and safe space.

(Why “Hungry” Paul? It's unclear. The source of this name is shrouded in mystery. It could be that he previously devoured some food very fast, or reacted to a tense moment by hastily opening some food items by biting into them).

Into Leonard’s gentle world cartwheels Shelley (the performer), a new energetic associate who happily suggests to get rid of his terrible supervisor (the actor) at a fire practice. The swift movement audible signals Leonard's peaceful routine undergoing a shake-up.

Elsewhere during the opening installment of this program driven less by plot and centered around what a modern audience might call “atmosphere”, we meet the older generation (the brilliant Lorcan Cranitch), a battered sofa of a man who covertly observes, saves and reviews daytime quiz shows to amaze his loving spouse through his fact recall.

Shepherding viewers through all this subtle warmth is a narrator who closely resembles – and, indeed, very much is – Julia Roberts. Truly, Julia Roberts. Should you wonder, “certainly the inclusion of such a famous actor contradicts the show's modest approach and initially serves only as a distraction?” you're right. However, Roberts acquits herself well, and dialogue like “Leonard’s problem is that he lacks an expression of discovery” contribute to ensuring that first reservations give way if not full admiration, then at least acceptance.

Enough complaining for now. The show's core is well-intentioned: the right place being “sitting on a park bench next to the Detectorists, indicating its preferred bird.” It’s a series that moves gently wearing its simple clothes, occasionally looking up toward the sky, occasionally down at its feet, serenely certain that no experience is in life as heartening as passing time alongside good friends.

Open the doors and windows in your existence, just a bit, and welcome it inside.