Mona's Worst Enemy review

The setup

Mona is chanting at an environmental rally when her stepbrother rolls up and leans on the horn, which is roughly how their relationship works. Their father and his partner are away for work, so the two of them are sharing a house and a grudge. On the drive home she trashes his ego to a friend, he cheerfully admits where his eyes keep landing, and a sudden stop gets blamed on a raccoon nobody else saw. She bans staring. Then she confides that the staring was, annoyingly, almost charming.

Episode 2

A chore standoff kicks off episode 2. Their dad's partner wants the dishes done, Mona wants her stepbrother to do them, and he counters with a bribe: she scrubs, he takes her clubbing. She refuses, he gets crude, she scrubs anyway while he openly enjoys the show. His reward is a gift for the night out. She tries it on, fishes for a compliment, and gets a predatory promise instead. It ends on a disgusted groan, their default setting.

Who's who

• Mona: an activist with a megaphone temper who insists she is immune to her stepbrother
• Her stepbrother: shameless, crude, and convinced that every insult is secretly a flirtation

Verdict: 6.8 out of 10

The two free episodes are basically one long argument with a dress code. Mona has the better lines and the sharper tongue; the stepbrother has one note, and he plays it at full volume. The raccoon excuse is a genuinely funny beat, and her private admission gives the hostility a pulse. What drags is the repetition: stare, insult, recoil, repeat. The club night is a decent carrot for the paid episodes, if you can tolerate his idea of charm for a while longer.

Episode guide