I don’t think it’s trying to distill life in the way you say. It’s the opposite. It’s impossibly thin slices of lives, the length of a conversation at a bus sto

I don’t think it’s trying to distill life in the way you say. It’s the opposite. It’s impossibly thin slices of lives, the length of a conversation at a bus stop, which accrete meaning over the episodes. You are constantly reminded of what you only know because of earlier episodes, and how much goes unsaid. It’s something only empathy can make sense of and it challenges the viewer to empathize across time and culture. The class resonances mean it’s a different experience when watched as a British person too.