Rosie Molloy Gives Up Everything

Rosie Molloy Gives Up Everything – a neat, inquisitive double entendre of a title about an addict indeed. Is Rosie Molloy going to successfully give up her numerous vices, or just give up, going full goblin mode? It is a dichotomy faced by millions of addicts, from the moderate to the Rosie Molloy ends of the spectrum. 

Sheridan Smith plays the titular character, whose personality is interminably inflected by her drug and sex addiction, and severe alcoholism, so much so that we are introduced to her in a hospital bed after ruining her brother’s wedding with her signature debauchery. It is behaviour that does not stop at work, engaging in casual sex, drinking and drug taking in the office (although her practical competency doesn’t seem to be in question), and it is facilitated by her bi-sexual flatmate, Nico (Oliver Wellington), an unpleasant character who, bordering on caricature, leaves a slightly bitter taste in the mouth. 

Elsewhere, Rosie’s unruly but large-hearted parents represent something of a treat for acolytes of a certain parochial home off the coast of Ireland. Ardal O’Hanlon and Pauline McClynn make a much-publicised on-screen reunion almost 25 years after the conclusion of Father Ted. Their presence together alone is enough to warrant a few nostalgic beams of joy here, while the script does deploy some of its best lines for the pair. The lack of a sickly aftertaste at the sight of Father Dougal and Mrs Doyle together as man and wife is enough to suggest that the performances and script are just about good enough. Smith’s performance in the central role is also chaotically watchable, as she clearly revels in the disastrously narcissistic character she is charged with breathing life into.

Rosie Molloy does use the frenetic energy of its central character as credit in the bank, leaving the show with a slight deficit of substance and subtlety. It rarely coaxes much more than a chuckle, while its formulaic characters feel less like fully rounded agents than carefully sculpted monoliths, each a mechanical cog in the sitcom machine. Its attempts at surrealism (one of which features Smith donning neanderthal chic, writhing her way through hospital corridors) feels jarringly out of place and shoehorned in. It’s a sequence executed with undeniable commitment from the lead, but one that simply doesn’t need to be there – none of which prevents Rosie Molloy from being serviceable Christmas fodder, to be best enjoyed, ironically or otherwise, after too much food and wine. Once dry January kicks in, however, it’ll probably be all but forgotten.

Matthew McMillan

Rosie Molloy Gives Up Everything is released on Sky on 7^th December 2022.

Watch the trailer for Rosie Molloy Gives Up Everything here: