Fig. 1: This is not the actual cafe from the show. In fact, this is Brighton, not Weston-Super-Mare. But it is an octagonal building on the seafront, so it's the best I could do.
Note: I manage to spoil the conclusions of both seasons in this ... you were warned.
Those with the dubious privilege of knowing me well may be aware of my enthusiasm for "The Cafe." Indeed, I consider "The Cafe" to be one of the most underrated shows Sky has ever produced. It likely suffers from the fact that it becomes more interesting the more times you watch it, meaning that to the casual observer it seems, as one reviewer put it, to be a remake of "The Office," but in a cafe. I have never watched "The Office" in either the British or American versions, so I am unable to comment on this comparison.
What I can say is that "The Cafe" is a program which rewards prolonged contemplation. This is more fun than it sounds.
First, a little background. "The Cafe" is set in a cafe (surprise) inhabited by three generations of women, Sarah, her mother Carol, and her grandmother Mary. Sarah is an aspiring childrens' book writer who has gotten dumped and quit her job in London to move back to Weston-Super-Mare. The rest of the characters are the regular customers at the cafe.
So far, this all sounds quite dull. However, with these components, "The Cafe" manages to make a poignant and relevant commentary on what sustains human relationships.
As a Classicist, I am particularly drawn to the way "The Cafe" reworks one of the core tenets of both Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy, that there are many permutations of love. It doesn't need to be romantic, familial, or even for a person at all, but there is no doubt that in the world of the cafe, love is everywhere.
In one respect, "The Cafe" exemplifies Aristotle's claim that the bedrock of a community is the sense of love its members have for each other, in a friendship sort of way. In Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle singles out philia as the bedrock of the just society, and "friendship for the good" as being an individual's greatest interpersonal goal. The first season of "The Cafe" demonstrates such an Aristotelian telos: Carol, faced with the impending foreclosure of the cafe, simultaneously fears the destruction of the community of cafe regulars. However, it is that same community which comes together at the end of the season to crowdsource the money to save the cafe. The narrative of the first season thus perfectly captures Aristotle's idea that the flourishing society is made up of members who feel a sense of care towards each other and view their community as a project towards which they can all contribute.
If the first season represents an Aristotelian take on love, the second season takes a more Platonic view. The pressing question this time around is "what does it mean to really love something?" Or, as Sarah and her sometime-love interest Richard debate, is love about compromise or sacrifice?
Each character in this season has to confront the question in some manner. Sarah has to choose between Richard and her family in Weston and "feeling trapped," Richard has to choose between his music career and his fiance, Carol has to choose between her suddenly-returned ex-husband and her loyal friend Stan. Each of these pairings tackles the question of whether love is for an individual, or for the larger way of life which that individual presents. This is a question which has plagued Platonists up to the present day, with no clear conclusion: is love ever really for one person, or is it about values, systems, and ideals?
But much like Diotima's ladder in the Symposium, "The Cafe" is not solely about romantic relationships. It also explores how people love practices and arts, and how to love yourself as a moral person.
Kieran, the local living statue, attempts to win his mum's therapist's approval (yes, the therapist's approval) by giving up his theatrical dreams and becoming a candy floss fluffer. However, the change leaves him feeling tremendously empty, something which no quantity of free candy floss can remedy. Candy floss fluffing does not, as Plato would say, enable him to "give birth to the beautiful." To achieve flourishing, Kieran needs the creative outlet which performing art provides.
Chloe, the local hairdresser and Sarah's best friend, experiences a similar realisation about what it means to love yourself. At the beginning of the season, she is having an affair with a married estate agent. With time, she finds that this relationship is destroying her respect for herself. The estate agent's wife is one of her clients, and Chloe decides that the fun of the relationship isn't worth the deception. This element is reminiscent of Plato's claim in the Phaedrus that humans desire to perfect themselves morally in order to make themselves worthy of love.
In these cases, "The Cafe" explores love as a realisation of our true selves. At the same time, Sarah and Richard's relationship (or failure thereof) reveals that love is also directed towards the flourishing of the other person. Sarah and Richard are both tied to practices and ways of life that they love and feel are essential to their identities: Sarah to the freedom of being a writer, and Richard to his sense of belonging as a nurse and guitar teacher. Their conflict in priorities prevents them from having a settled romantic relationship, yet they still manage to love each other in a way that puts the other person's flourishing first. Sarah plans Richard's wedding reception because she feels that Ava (his fiance) can give him everything that she can't, while Richard says to John, the villain in a Porsche who lies to Sarah about being single, "just do what you think is best for Sarah."
The Sarah-Richard relationship reveals the paradox that is love: it is a profoundly selfish thing centred on the pursuit of a person or object for oneself, but at the same time it is a profound loss of self, since the love-object becomes the centre of the lover's universe.
Nevertheless, the conclusion of "The Cafe'' suggests that there is a middle way. After Richard and Ava's disastrous non-wedding, Sarah says "I knew she'd make him unhappy, ever since I offered her a piece of caterpillar cake." For context, when Sarah offered Ava a piece of caterpillar cake at Carol's birthday party, instead of taking the cake itself she only took one of the jelly beans on the exterior. The caterpillar cake incident is a metaphor for relationships. When you are with a person, do you want all of them (the cake) or do you want only such parts that fit your needs and wants (the jelly bean)? Sarah's comment about the caterpillar cake reveals that true love requires the embracing of reality more than it requires idealism. It requires not only the willingness to perfect oneself but also the acceptance of the whole person.
Fig. 2: I believe the cake from the series was the Asda version, with a green face, but the metaphorical efficacy is the same.
In this way, "The Cafe" offers a far more subtle exploration of human relationships than you might think, which is what draws me back time and time again. On a less serious note, it is also eminently quotable. I offer a selection of choice one-liners:
(In Batman voice) "It's never just darts!"
"Carp the diem"
"It wasn't Titian, it was Turner!"
"Pressure is for tires"
"Let's make like a bamboo and shoot!"
And for the Classicists among you:
"Homer."
"Iliad?"
"No, Simpsons."