There are two kinds of series.
Type 1: Straightforward dialog anybody over 12 and with the concentration span of a 13 year old can follow. Character's lines are typically drawn up from a list of 100 words and 10 melodramatic quotes to convey the maximum 3 types of emotions allowed. To compensate, the performances are either ridiculously over the top in an attempt to be original, or the kind of performance that takes itself WAY too seriously, as if humans are all walking tragedies. Plot lines are equally as simple so as to not cause even a flicker of confusion, enabling you to watch in a semi-conscious state where you use about 3 brain processes.
Type 2: Characters that surprise and intrigue you from the first episode, who you may like one second and dislike the next (much like real people). Characters that don't do everything but look straight into the camera and say LOVE ME, REPEAT MY QUOTES or HATE ME, BUT ALSO REPEAT MY QUOTES BECAUSE I AM HARD. Dialogue that is rapid-fire and unique to a particular kind of people (because nobody speaks sitcom in real life), that makes you feel like you're eavesdropping on real people. Characters who aren't defined by their looks but by their, wait for it, CHARACTERS. No glamour injected into lifestyles that are actually ordinary. Plots that reveal fresh and sometimes uncomfortable truths about life. Or paramedics.
Sirens is Type 2. It's excellent, gritty comedy with a bit of world weary wisdom thrown in. The comedy ranges from witty banter between the three main characters, to some brilliant caricature from Fonejacker virtuoso Kayvan Novak, to black fatalistic medical humor which never strays into the melodramatic. If this were a Type 1 series, the pretty Madden would be held up for female consumption as the good-enough-to-eat male lead; instead he opens a frank door onto the gay lifestyle without glamming it up. The best material, however, comes from Rhys Thomas. A character who is hardened to the point of being a sociopath, his cynical, sterilised insights into human nature are pure gold.
These characters aren't people you'd sell your soul to be; they're just people you'd like to know.
