Leonard & Hungry Paul Overview: A Gentle Series Featuring the Voice of the Hollywood Star Brings a Great Remedy to Modern Life

In a calm neighborhood of the Irish capital, an individual stands outside his home, sporting a tank top and sharing his feelings. “I feel my voice is fading. Harder to see,” says the main character, looking up at the night sky. “Circumstances have evolved and now I believe if I don’t do something, I will continue in this quiet, unremarkable life.” His friend Paul, Leonard’s best companion, reflects on the idea. “Nothing wrong with that,” he answers, his bathrobe flapping gently. “Better than striving for recognition and causing harm instead.”

For viewers weary by the chaos and constant stimulation of today’s TV landscape, this series comes as a cozy wrap and a comforting beverage of Ribena.

Like its harmless protagonists, Leonard and Hungry Paul – a six-episode comedy developed by its authors, inspired by the author’s quiet story – casts a critical eye toward today's world; peering skeptically above its spectacles on everything that involves loud sounds, sudden movements or – perish the thought – excessive aspiration. The series on the contrary, an ode to introversion; a subtle homage of those happy to amble along below the parapet. But. The character (one more sublimely idiosyncratic performance from the star) feels restless. He senses a creeping “need to open the entryways of my life … just a bit.” The loss of his mother has whisked the rug from under his slippers and the 32-year-old, an anonymous author, now feels questioning the choices that directed him to this point (alone; sporting facial hair; creating a range of kids' reference books for a boss who ends correspondence with the phrase “goodbye for now”).

And so Leonard launches on a journey for personal satisfaction, with the slightly bolder friend Paul (the performer) acting as his close companion, guide and co-conspirator during their regular game night functioning as both symposium (“Is the pool warm from kids relieving themselves, or do children urinate as it's heated?”) and sanctuary.

(How did Paul get his nickname? It's unclear. The beginning of the moniker appears lost in mystery. Perhaps the postal worker previously devoured a sandwich very fast, or reacted to an awkward situation by panic-peeling some food items by biting into them).

Entering Leonard's quiet life bursts a vibrant character (Jamie-Lee O’Donnell), a recent spring-loaded co-worker who lightheartedly proposes to get rid of the awful manager (the character) during the office fire drill. The rushing noise noticeable is Leonard’s gentle world experiencing a revolution.

In another part during the opening installment of the comedy driven less by plot and centered around what the under-30s might call “vibes”, we meet Hungry Paul’s dad (the consistently great Lorcan Cranitch), a battered sofa of a man who secretly watches, saves and reviews television game programs to amaze his adoring wife through his fact recall.

Shepherding viewers through all this subtle warmth we hear a narrator that sounds very much like – and truly is – Julia Roberts. Indeed, Julia Roberts. If you are thinking, “surely the inclusion of such a famous actor contradicts the series’ unshowy MO and at first acts merely as a distraction?” that's accurate. Nevertheless, Roberts does a good job, and lines for example “The issue with Leonard is the missing a look of sudden insight” assist in making sure that initial doubts yield if not quite to appreciation, then at minimum tolerance.

But that’s enough grumbling at this time. Leonard and Hungry Paul’s heart is in the right place: that place is “resting on a bench in the company of gentle comedies, indicating its favourite duck.” This is a show that ambles along in comfortable attire, occasionally looking up into space, occasionally down toward the ground, calmly assured that there is nothing in the world as heartening as passing time alongside close companions.

Unlock the entryways in your existence, a little, and let it in.