Brassic is a British Sky One Dramedy series that premiered on August 2019, with a second series following in 2020.
The series follows the lives of small-time crook Vinnie O'Neill (Joe Gilgun) in the (fictional) village of Hawley, Lancashire, in England, with his friends Dylan (Damien Molony) and Erin Croft (Michelle Keegan). Their lives revolve around joyriding in cars, theft, and getting out of the trouble they get themselves into.
This show contains examples of:
- Author Avatar: Like Vinnie, Joe Gilgun is bipolar and lives in a shack in the woods. Gilgun has also stated in several interviews that the series is partially based on misadventures from his childhood — for obvious legal reasons he hasn't been too specific but the stealing a Shetland pony storyline is one of these.
- Affectionate Nickname: Vinnie nearly always refers to his best friend Dylan as Dyldo.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Vinnie gets hired to scare off the wife in an acrimonious divorce using the threat of violence. It escalates, and they get hired by the wife to kill the husband's koi carp.
- Bait-and-Switch: A few times in 2x04:
- Vinnie stalks and is stalked by a creepy intruder in the pub. It plays into all the typical horror movie tropes, and, due to the creepy atmosphere and the fact that Vinnie is currently working for a violent gangster, the audience eventually expects some kind of terrifying murderer. The intruder is eventually revealed to be a sweet and naive man who is scared of his own shadow and only wants to steal things so he can afford to buy his terminally ill mother a bird bath.]]
- Gideon asks Vinnie to come back to his house to meet his mother. Again, due to the creepy atmosphere and unnerving attitude of Gideon, the audience fully expects some true horror to be revealed in Gideon's house. And then she really is just a kind old woman who is worried for her son and comforts Vinnie.
- And then you see the bird bath is actually a statue with a water feature, and is taller than the length of Vinnie's car.
- Berserk Button: A lot of people make fun of Cardi for being overweight, which does annoy him - but making fun of his stutter will cause him to lose it.
- Hurting Erin and talking shit about his mum are about the only two things you see onscreen that cause Vinnie to resort to real violence.
- Binge Montage: Fairly typical one for Cardi and Carol's stag/hen do.
- Blatant Lies: Almost Once an Episode, owing to the criminal nature of nearly all of the main cast's activities, usually under the nose of the police.
- Special mention goes to Gideon in 2x04, who tells Vinnie that he's a member of the SAS, and also that he's scared of both heights and blood.
- Also in 2x04: when Vinnie is scared of the mystery intruder in the pub, he has an entire conversation with himself (doing two voices) in an attempt to convince the intruder that he's not alone. During this fake conversation, Vinnie "casually" mentions that his imaginary friend is both massive and has an AK-47. Played with in that Gideon (the intruder) actually believes it, and later expresses concerns that they might run into "your big angry friend with the AK-47".
- Body Horror: Pretty much the majority of 2x02: the decapitation, the moving of the decapitated head, the removal of a head from a dead body with a saw...
- Brains and Bondage: Tommo is one of the more intelligent of the group, and spends many hours as a professional dominant.
- British Brevity: 6 episodes per season.
- Cockney Rhyming Slang: The title itself is one: "Brassic" is short for "brassic lint", i.e. skint - having no money
- Butt-Monkey: Cardi.
- Deadpan Snarker: Vinnie and Tommo. Ash also has his moments.
- Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Vinnie in particular is desperate to find a direction in life, but can't move beyond his criminal activities. Erin, at least, is taking steps by studying business management.
- Disappeared Dad: Played with. All the characters apart from Erin think that this is the case with Tyler's dad. In 1x03, she confesses that Vinnie is his father, and he is determined to not fulfill this trope.
- Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: Mr. McCann is very unhappy Vinnie and his friends have stolen his daughter's horse, his money, and his antique, art-piece dildo.
- The Dreaded: Local crimelord Terence McCann. Whenever his and the main characters' paths cross, threats of grievous bodily harm and death go through the roof.
- Dress-Coded for Your Convenience: Hilariously subverted in 2x03 when Vinnie's gang attempt to rob a different group of thieves with both groups dressed all in black with balaclavas, resulting in Tommo accidentally punching JJ and a member of the rival gang being pulled into their van for the escape instead of JJ.
- Driven to Suicide: Vinnie thinks this has happened to his dad in 2x05. He does later sit on the edge of a railway bridge, but is pulled to safety before he jumps, and it is never made clear whether suicide was his intention.
- Dylan clearly thinks this will be the case for Vinnie if he moves away with Erin and Tyler.
- Dude, Not Funny!: Cardi is teased mercilessly for giving his girlfriend food poisoning and making her shit herself. He does not see the funny side.
- Dye or Die: What else do you do when a pony that you've stolen from someone will be too recognizable for a competition?
- Faking the Dead: Vinnie fakes his death in order to stop McCann from coming after him. McCann doesn't fall for it.
- Foreshadowing: In the pilot, PC Slater warns Vinnie that his small-time crimes will "lead to medium time, and medium time leads to big-time". By the season 2 finale, Vinnie has been arrested for murder.
- Freudian Threat: Mister McCann threatens to have Vinnie castrated if Vinnie doesn't recover items stolen from McCann.
- Hide Your Gays: In-Universe - Ash's Traveller family really can't handle the fact that he's gay. His mother comes to accept it when Ash is hospitalised after a bare-knuckle boxing competition fight.
- Idiot Ball: Constantly tossed around between the main characters. Only Erin manages to avoid it.
- Improvised Weapon: Vinnie jams a corkscrew into a hockey stick in 2x04.
- Insane Equals Violent: Deliberately averted. Bipolar Vinnie almost always sticks to nonviolent crime, and only lashes out when provoked.
- Instant Sedation: A bottle of chloroform breaks in a van when two of them are trying to steal a pony, and the two humans are almost instantly unconscious, which crashes the car. The pony is unaffected by either the chloroform or the crash.
- Interspecies Romance: Carl Slater bums dogs.
- Heavily implied by the lads when they find out Jim's neighbour Paslowski sleeps in the same bed as his beloved pig.
- Irish Travellers: Although not specifically stated to be Irish, Ash is from a traveller family, who can't deal with the fact that he's gay, live in caravans, and engage in illegal, bare-knuckle boxing matches with other families.
- Loony Friends Improve Your Personality: All of the main characters have a screw or two loose, but they keep each other balanced and their care for each other redeems some of their less savoury characteristics.
- Lower-Class Lout: All of the main characters, portrayed sympathetically as real people with very few choices in life.
- Running Gag
- Carl Slater bums dogs.
- The wanking competition.
- Smug Snake: Carl Slater - especially when Erin is trying to report her assault.
- Stalker with a Crush: Heavily implied to be why Aaron was "passing through the area" near Erin in 2x05.
- Team Dad: Amazingly, Vinnie. Despite his occasional immaturity, his recklessness for his own wellbeing and his harebrained schemes, he cares deeply for his friends and is always looking out for them, and they clearly look up to him and rely on him for help and diplomacy. He frequently steps in when one of them is being picked on too much by the others and comforts JJ after an unpleasant encounter with his cousin, as well as coaching Cardi on the best time to propose to Carol.
- Truth in Television: The scene in 1x01 in which Vinnie tells his GP he's having suicidal thoughts and is told there's a 5-month waiting list for therapy is based on something Joe Gilgun experienced in real life, and is a common problem in the UK mental health service.
- Wham Episode: 2x05 starts off as as a normal episode with the gang involved in their usual shenanigans, but halfway through Vinnie receives a call that his father may have tried to kill himself and finds him so close to drinking himself to death he has to admit him into a rehab centre. Afterwards, Erin is attacked by Jake's brother Aaron.
- Wham Line: Vinnie receives this right at the end of 1x06 when he receives a phone call during his "wake":Terence McCann:: Hello Vin. It's Terence. So tell me, how does it feel to be dead.
