Jacek Poniedziałek stars in playwright Paweł Demirski’s eight-part comedy series The Stroke as Jacek Trocki, a celebrity food critic who, at the ripe old age of 58, has reached a stage in his life and career where the thrill is well and truly gone. Openly gay but not partnered, Jacek has assembled a de facto family that includes food truck operator Benek (a.k.a. The Burrito Guy) (Konrad Eleryk), tough-as-nails Marta (Marta Malikowska) and her long-time partner Krzysiek (Rafał Maćkowiak) and their transgender child Mira, slightly dopy assistant Kubik (who is also queer) (Jan Sobolewski), Teresa (with whom Jacek long ago co-founded the independent TV station where his show airs) (Ewa Skibinska), and his agent, a single mother struggling to fulfill Jacek’s commitments for travel, ads, books, and everything else in the chaotic life in which he’s lost interest.

When Jacek suffers a stroke, the crisis throws everything into even more turmoil — but, more tellingly, it sends out ripples that upset everyone’s precarious lives. Relationships falter, job prospects evaporate, power plays ensue, and new relationships are forged as everyone pulls together (some less enthusiastically than others) to offer caretaking to the cantankerous celebrity as he makes a slow, and often thankless, recovery. Lurking on the periphery are Jacek’s parents, Marek (Jerzy Bonczak) and Danusia (Anna Seniuk), who are just as given to dramatics as their son, but even they pale in comparison to a more surprising character: Jacek’s childhood teddy bear, which comes to life in Jacek’s hallucinations to torment him with nasty, mocking monologues.

“The series’ portrayal of a gay protagonist is notable, as LGBTQ identity remains politically and socially contested,” press notes for the series — which originally aired in Poland in 2023 — observe. This is no screed nor tragedy, however; the show’s queer characters are hardly bowed, especially Mira, who seems very much a modern 13-year-old: More self-possessed than her elders, unimpressed by their antics, and taking life at her own pace. She’s perhaps not unlike Jacek himself forty-odd years ago. As for the show’s dramatic beats, they have more to do with the kinds of life paradoxes that many, if not all, of us are sure to face: Who are we as we age? Who were we before? What stays the same, who sticks by us, and why?

This is essentially a show about found family, family of origin, family you can’t escape, family you can’t keep, and family you assemble along the way. The final episode ties it all up perfectly at the mother of all family occasions. Those who grumble about “traditional family values” need only watch to find those values, and clashes, represented here.

The Stroke is streaming now at Viaplay.