Getting Off On Getting On

Is anybody watching the new HBO show Getting On? I discovered it this weekend looking for something to watch while I was on the stair stepper (it is FINALLY raining in California which is fabulous but puts a crimp in weekend running and cycling). It’s a comedy that takes place in the an Extended Care Unit of a hospital in southern California. I know. Super funny. Dying old women and the people who take care of them.

It is hysterical. I realize I’m probably the ooey-gooey center of the Venn diagram that would represent possible viewers for this show.1)  I’m surrounded by medical professionals (especially nurses) so I’m used to their humor. 2) I’ve spent a lot of time in extended care units, rehab hospitals, assisted living facilities and skilled nursing facilities with my parents so I know what they’re like. 3) I like my humor a little dark.

The characters could be kind of two-dimensional, but Laurie Metcalfe, Niecy Nash and Alex Borstein really elevate the material. They take what could be caricatures and breathe life into them. No one is all good or all bad. Everyone of them is the heroine of her own story.

I’m curious as to why I haven’t heard about this show before. It’s not like I’m a huge pop culture maven (although I did get the Beyonce question right at the Pub Quiz), but I do read Entertainment Weekly most weeks and pay some attention to what’s out there. I don’t recall having seen anything anywhere about this show.

There are only six episodes of the show and I’m dying to hear if it was picked up for a second season.

Anybody else watching this? Anybody else want to watch it so we can talk about it?