Lady Dynamite based on a real person, yet fictional?

Maria Bamford stars as a fictionalised version of herself.

And the award for meta-comedy of the week goes to this new Netflix series, Lady Dynamite, which manages to take the real life story of Maria Bamford, and create an exaggerated, fictionalised series, which stars Bamford as herself, along with a whole bunch of comedians like Ana Gasteyer, Patton Oswalt, and Sarah Silverman, in a light-hearted look at a real-life psychiatric breakdown.

Confused?

Maria Bamford is a comedian who's had a 25-year-career doing stand up as well as TV appearances, voice-acting roles, web series, commercials and specials.

One of those roles was playing a love interest for Tobias Funke in Arrested Development, and Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurwitz was so impressed with her talent, he decided he wanted to create a series around her.

And it turned out the most interesting subject matter they discussed was Bamford's own breakdown in 2011, so they decided to take that story, place it in the present day, and ramp up the slightly, trippy absurdist elements to create a 12-episode comedy series.

Viewers see Bamford trying to navigate the world of showbiz while also working through her breakdown, which has sent her looking for various forms of treatment.

She's also looking for love, trying to be a devoted friend, a reliable actress, and trying to deal with her grab bag of everyday anxieties.

Throughout the series, Lady Dynamite experiments with structure, often veering away from traditional TV comedies and into surreal, uncharted territory.

Some scenes break the fourth wall, while others are rooted in fantasy.

Also, as fans of Hurwitz's work already know, he loves to take a joke as far as it can go, and then go even further.

Tune in

Where and when: On Netflix now
What: A female version of Louie