HBO has been stuck in a prestige loop making essentially the same show since 2012 with muted tone, awkward realism and characters who aren’t self-aware enough to lean into either humor or emotion. As such, everything has to be a dramedy and socially observant rather than genuinely funny or emotionally indulgent and as a result, their shows exist in an in-between space, where it is not silly enough to be truly comical, yet too intellectual to be soupy. Which was once great, I loved it in Girls, but it’s been repeated to exhaustion in Mrs. Fletcher, Crashing, Insecure, and many others. And now this…

did not finish. admittedly got all the way up to the finale (we are in a josh hutcherson renaissance and he looks very good in this show) but i just couldn’t take it anymore. almost all of the characters are insufferable, there’s no one to root for. i really did want to like it!! it had one funny episode! it has a gorgeous and talented cast, but it just fell so flat.

I know they're fictional characters, but this show has the most fake people and relationships I've watched recently. The only organic relationships were of the MC and Tallulah + Dylan. It was nice seeing that the take-and-take dynamic between them became a conflict later on. The MC is annoying though, I get that the idea is that she's flawed, but this felt at times like a self-insert and Charlie as well. I really loved Alanis, it's funny how the most out-of-touch character ended up being one of my faves instead of the ones the shows tried to make them “relatable”. I'll keep watching for Josh Hutcherson and Odessa A'zion

Has no one noticed that it's a gen z version of The Entourage? Except it's an influencer instead of an actor...currently on episode 3 and that is stuck in my head. Both are slightly plotless and show a very superficial LA lifestyle. Don't love it, kind of dislike it but not yet in the hate category.

This was a comedy? Go figure... :thumbsdown_tone2: :thumbsdown_tone2: