As with Sideways, it shoots us off on unexpected asides, some funny, some tragic, all engaging. This unlikely trio may go on a predictable trajectory - from mutual dislike to acceptance and even flickers of friendship - but the way the story unfolds never feels cheap or formulaic.
And relative unknown Da’Vine Joy Randolph, playing school cook Mary, is magnificent too, stolid and practical - the polar opposite to Hunham’s Cicero-obsessed academic - but mired in grief for her dead son, the lone Barton Boy dispatched to Vietnam on account of his skin colour. Newcomer Dominic Sessa is terrific as central student Angus, abandoned by his mother and stepfather to a winter of discontent: a decent guy seething under a surface of pain and anger. And Payne fills his wintry yarn with a brace of other memorable characters. Of course, it’s not just the Giamatti solo show (though we’d watch it).
