A sheltered graduate returns home and takes a vow to be wildly impulsive in order to fight his depression, much to the dismay of his family, who just want him to get a real job.

SYNOPSIS:

A Master’s In Happiness is a 6 X 30 sitcom that uses wit, humour and black comedy to follow the journey of a lost graduate as he battles against modern, suburban life; with all its anxiety, over-inflated egos and social climbing. Jack Barnes is a sheltered graduate, living back at home with his class-conscious parents, a mountain of debt, no job and no reason to get out of bed. With nothing to lose, Jack decides to follow every single impulse he has: from getting his kit off in front of a complete stranger, to kidnapping his mother’s boss. Jack ignores all the social embarrassment and legal consequences, forcing himself and his family into a menagerie of hilarious situations.

Over the course of several months, Jack shatters the delicate ecosystem of idyllic Sunday barbecues, self-congratulatory retirement parties, sombre funerals, farcical family weddings, tense Christmas dinners, shambolic school recitals, vengeful reunion drinks and suburban life in general. Unsurprisingly, Jack meets resistance from his family and friends, who struggle to accept the new Jack and try to push him back to normality.

Liz, his social climbing, ferociously competitive mother, rallies against Jack’s embarrassing impulsivity as she juggles the equally important issues of coming to terms with her son’s depression and finding the perfect lasagne recipe to impress the ‘ladies-that-lunch’.

Al, his salt of the earth, Northern father, thinks the solutions to Jack’s problems are a stiff pint of bitter and a packet of cheese-and-onion crisps. He battles against his own impending retirement and the poison chalice of ‘free time’ by hiding in a mountain of easy-medium difficulty crossword puzzles.

Diana, his secretly bisexual, acid-tongued sister, devilishly undermines her family, using Jack’s bizarre antics as a distraction whilst she prepares to avoid university and become a full time video game streamer.

Douglas, Jack’s uninhibited Scottish grandfather, mourns the loss of his wife by acting out for attention, mirroring the actions of Jack; together, the two of them push each other into crazier capers, waiting to see who will break first.

Finally, Zarah, the naive girl-next-door, struggles to mask her intelligence in favour of newfound popularity as she begins a doomed relationship with the philandering Jack, much to the envy of Diana.

Will Jack ever beat depression and find happiness? Can he return to normality? And how many lives will he have to change before he does? A Master’s In Happiness turns the hollow post-graduate experience into a comedic whirlwind which tears through drab family life, constantly asking the question ‘who here is truly happy?’