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Sometimes the Gods are colluding to give you exactly what you want – even if you didn’t realise you wanted it. After years of celebrity GAA coaches and home improvements, Can’t Cope Won’t Cope is a show I can identify with. Following the lives of two young women from Cork as they stumble their way through life in Dublin, it’s written by Stefanie Preissner (the writer of the sole radio play I have ever listened to more than once) and for once I was actually excited about an RTÉ premiere.

The friendship between Aisling and Danielle is the driving force of Can’t Cope Won’t Cope. The strength of their friendship is incredibly familiar to anyone who has come to depend on their urban family far from home. Aisling is working as a fund manager in the Docklands. Danielle is attending art school as a mature student. Aisling appears to have everything a young woman in her twenties could want – a great job, solid friendships and a superhuman ability to get through work while astonishingly hungover. However, the sparkly dresses and nights in Coppers are a thin veneer of happiness over the growing turmoil in her life. Aisling’s need for near-constant communication between the pair shows her enormous over-reliance on her best friend. Danielle, for her part, is reluctant to distance herself from a friendship that is rapidly becoming toxic.

It is very refreshing to see the complexity of female friendship explored on screen with the nuance usually reserved for romantic relationships. The strain and stress of caring about someone as though they were family without the formality of family ties is beautifully explored. Seana Kerslake gives a terrific performance as Aisling, effortlessly capturing a character who is not entirely likeable, but exceptionally compelling. Nika McGuigan also shines as the put upon Danielle, her comic timing being particularly admirable. Most critically, they both nail their Cork accents. The supporting cast are excellent. Steve Blount’s turn as an amiable Dublin taxi driver is fantastically relatable for anyone who has every poured their heart out to the poor git stuck driving their drunk self home.

Can’t Cope Won’t Cope is a smashing series that captures just how difficult it can be to live your life when you have no idea what you’re doing. This Corkonian cannot wait for the next instalment.