Noose’s misuse kicks off quirky farce ‘Flowers’

The fun begins when Maurice Flowers, the author of a children’s book series, carries a rope and a chair out into the yard, tosses the rope over a tree limb and tries to end it all. Among the series’ most memorable bits: a blood-soaked clown, a young woman who gets hit by lightning while riding her bike, a young Japanese man who is told to hide a lasso and thinks he’s being told to hide Lassie, a lonely widower who brings cheese and toast to leave on his wife’s grave, and a would-be inventor whose creations include a self-contained cheese smoker that blows up in the middle of a party and biplane wings attached to a car in the vain hope of inventing the world’s first flying car. Maurice cannot tell her about the failed suicide attempt, and the more taciturn and moody he becomes, the more Deborah is sure he’s having a late coming-out and is in a relationship with Shun. Donald is the serial inventor of hare-brained creations, while Amy spends her time writing moody love songs about the girl next door, Abigail (Georgina Campbell, “After Hours”). Abigail’s father, George (a slimy Angus Wright, “Peep Show”), is hot for Deborah, as is Barry (Colin Hurley, “David Copperfield”), the lonely widower whose face gets a fresh coat of melted cheese when Donald’s cheese smoker explodes. [...] Maurice is haunted by his life — literally, as it turns out, because Nana’s ghost pops up at regular intervals to remind him of his deception. Sharpe’s writing is on point at every moment, with a wondrous attention to detail, such as having the adult Amy go off bike-riding with Abigail for their first date — on a children’s bike with training wheels. Early on, when Maurice opens up about his inability to summon the courage to tell Deborah the truth about trying to kill himself, Shun delivers a sadly comic aria comparing his boss’ dilemma to having to produce a very large “poo.” In addition to sure-handed direction and crazy brilliant direction, Sharpe provides a performance as Shun that perfectly grounds both the comic and serious elements of the series. Seeso made its debut in January and offers comedy content such as “Saturday Night Live,” from its parent company, NBC Universal, and shows like “The Cyanide & Happiness Show,” originally a Web series whose second season was available to stream on Seeso. David Wiegand is an assistant managing editor and the TV critic of The San Francisco Chronicle.