Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Trigonometry’ On HBO Max, About A Couple Who Take In A Roommate And Get A Whole Lot More

TV hasn’t been all that kind to alternate romantic entanglements over the years, especially ones where the romance includes more than two consenting adults. “Throuples,” or “triads,” for instance, are treated more as reality fodder or as a source of comedy without exploring the emotions behind why three people connect with each other so strongly. Trigonometry, written by Duncan Macmillan and Effie Woods, attempts to explore a polyamorous relationship from a normalistic perspective, like it’s just any romantic comedy. Read on for more…

TRIGONOMETRY: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: We see what looks like television coverage of a synchronized swimming competition, maybe the Olympics, with a team starting their routine. During the routine, one of the swimmers gets kicked in the face and is pulled from the water, unconscious and bleeding.

The Gist: Gemma (Thalissa Teixeira) and Kieran (Gary Carr) are a young couple living in West London and their relationship is under a lot of stress lately. They live in a flat they can’t afford, which is in the same building as the cafe that Gemma, a well-regarded chef, opened about a year ago. Her margins are so thin she can’t even afford the £500 it costs to get a colorful sign made. Kieran works as a paramedic, whose been on a lot of night shifts lately, and just got hurt after an elderly woman he was helping fell on him. Lately, they’re like ships passing in the night; when he comes home, she has to open the cafe. During one overlap, Kieran and Gemma take a slow walk around their flat just to have some romantic time alone together.

One of the ways they are trying to make ends meet is by taking in a roommate. Ray (Ariane Labed), who has been trying to restart her life after the injury she sustained in that synchronised swimming tournament, wants to move out of her parents’ home and “be an adventuress,” as a note she wrote herself says. When she goes to visit the flat, she’s early, and Kieran is just getting back from work. Since Gemma was just in bed having some phone sex with Kieran (yes, while he was in the ambulance), she accidentally flashes her lower half to Ray, which makes for a heck of an icebreaker.

When she does move in, both members of the couple realize they’re attracted to Ray. After a stressful day at the cafe, the couple finally has a night to themselves, and they plan on going to a quiet bar where Gemma used to work. Kieran definitely intends on asking Gemma to marry him that night. But that plan is scuttled when Ray asks if she can come along.

That quiet drink also goes away when Gemma and Kieran finds out that the spot now has a drag night on Fridays. During that night, they get to know Ray a bit and vice versa; she even lets them in on what she used to do before moving to London. One of the queens calls Ray a “unicorn,” meaning that she’s a “third wheel” whom both members of the couple she’s with are into. Given her attraction to the couple, she’s flattered to hear that. After they get home, they’re trying to get all the glitter off them in the bathroom, and the three of them have a “moment.” Where will this go?

Our Take: Trignometry’s normalistic perspective certainly helps the show, skipping the whole “whoa, this is weird” factor and just telling the story about how Gemma and Kieran find love and support in Ray and vice versa. The show’s aesthetic is somewhat voyeuristic, but not in a bad way; we’re thinking that the grainy footage and loose dialogue is trying to match the cool and hip vibe that the show is trying to project.

What we’re not sure about is Ray’s chemistry with Gemma and Kieran. From their first scene together, Carr and Teixeira look like a longtime couple that are in a stressful phase of their relationship as they try to establish their careers. It’s especially apparent in their banter and scenes like the one we described above where they take an all-too-brief romantic walk through their flat. But Labed’s presence makes things more awkward, at least at first. We’re not really sure why Gemma and Kieran are attracted to her so quickly. The only time we believed that the three of them will connect is that “moment” they have in the bathroom. But we still have no idea what’s attracting Gemma and Kieran to Ray and vice versa.

Trigonometry is just one of those shows that needs to deepen its story first before we can get fully invested. We need to see Ray start to thrive away from the pool and Gemma and Kieran struggle to keep their dreams going. The “meet cute” we see in the first episode doesn’t quite make us want to watch Ray fall in love with Kiernan and Gemma and vice versa, but as they explore their emotions and we get invested in their lives, we think we’ll connect with the three of them, as well.

Sex and Skin: Besides the aforementioned flash of bush, there’s some fleeting nudity during sex scenes.

Parting Shot: After the moment in the bathroom, Kieran stows the engagement ring he was carrying in a piggy bank for safekeeping. Ray goes to sign her lease agreement and finds a pen with a light-up unicorn head on the end.

Sleeper Star: Isabella Laughland, as Ray’s friend Moira, just has a brief scene on a FaceTime call, but it seems like she’ll be a big influence over Ray reshaping her life. She already thinks her friend should go to therapy.

Most Pilot-y Line: Gonna turn this around and highlight this brilliant line of exposition. When Kieran suggests that Gemma hopes that the new lodger is a lesiban, Gemma says, “Yeah, I can’t keep living this lie. This six-year hetero blip is over, and I’m back on the muff.” So that establishes how long they’ve been together, that Gemma is sexually fluid, and that Kiernan might have been her first significant hetero relationship.

Our Call: STREAM IT. It will take a few episodes to get things going, but we believe enough in the chemistry between the members of Trigonometry‘s main couple that bringing a third person in will eventually make for a fine love story.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, VanityFair.com, Playboy.com, Fast Company.com, RollingStone.com, Billboard and elsewhere.

Stream Trigonometry On HBO Max