Order Up! Season 1 Review: Red’s Coffee Serves Up Chaos, Friendship and Plenty of Personality

Workplace comedies live or die by their ensemble, and Order Up! wastes little time making sure viewers know exactly who they’ll be spending their shifts with.

Set inside Red’s Coffee and Diner in Stratford-upon-Avon, the scripted series follows a colorful group of employees navigating bad management decisions, career ambitions, complicated friendships, workplace rivalries and the kind of everyday chaos anyone who has worked in hospitality will probably recognize immediately. Across its first three episodes, Order Up! establishes itself as a comedy with plenty of personality, but there is also a surprising amount of heart underneath the jokes.

At the center of the series is Melissa Bennett, newly promoted manager of Red’s and suddenly responsible for keeping both the business and its increasingly unpredictable staff under control. Sheridan Smith gives the character an easy warmth, and Melissa quickly becomes the grounding force of the ensemble. Whether she is preparing for a stressful inspection or trying to stop Justin and Jonathan from turning the diner into their personal battleground, Melissa is constantly walking the line between being a boss and genuinely caring about the people working for her.

That Justin and Jonathan rivalry provides some of the biggest laughs during the opening episodes. Justin, played by Jonathan Lipnicki, is theatrical, ambitious and more than a little dramatic after being passed over for the assistant manager position. Harry Lloyd’s Jonathan enters Red’s with corporate confidence and immediately finds himself clashing with someone who believes the job should have been his. Their ongoing feud gives the workplace comedy plenty of fuel, especially because neither character is completely right or completely wrong.

William Gao’s Ryan and Charlie Wernham’s Chaz provide another strong dynamic. Their friendship feels effortless, whether they are joking around in the kitchen, debating music or talking seriously about Ryan’s dream of eventually running his own business. Ryan’s decision to move from the kitchen to Front of House also gives the series a natural way to shift relationships while bringing Bukky Bakray’s Lydia more fully into the ensemble.

The third episode, “World’s Smallest Violin,” shows that Order Up! is interested in going beyond simple workplace hijinks. Justin’s reunion with his estranged father brings a more emotional storyline into the series, giving the character additional depth while exploring the pressure of living up to someone else’s expectations. It is a surprisingly heartfelt turn for a show that can move from family drama to jokes about pigeons, training videos and malfunctioning workplace technology without missing much of a beat.

That mixture of comedy and sincerity is part of what gives Order Up! its charm. The characters have clearly defined interests and personalities, from Phil’s love of film to Chaz’s obsession with heavy metal and cooking, Chloe’s creative ambitions and Jonathan’s Formula One fandom. Those details help make Red’s feel like an actual workplace filled with people who have lives outside of the diner.

The series also finds an interesting ongoing storyline in Red’s increasingly corporate direction. Self-service kiosks, automated coffee machines and kitchen technology begin threatening the personal touch that many of the employees value.

It adds another layer to the series, especially for characters like Phil and Chaz, whose identities are closely tied to their craft.

Three episodes in, Order Up! already has the most important ingredient a workplace comedy needs: a group of characters worth spending time with. Red’s may be struggling, the staff may be dysfunctional and management may occasionally make everyone question their career choices, but there is enough chemistry among this crew to make another shift feel worth clocking in for.