Yes, I am a millennial and a fan of Girls. I didn't expect Too Much to be the new Girls. But I did hope it would share some of the elements that made it brilliant - flawed, relatable characters, a sort of meta self-awareness, smart, relevant humour and generationally applicable critiques.
It's hard not to compare because Too Much was lacking all the elements that made Lena Dunham a voice of a generation.
Too Much follows Jessica (Megan Stalter) journey to London as she takes advantage of a work opportunity to recover from a break up. There, she meets the handsome and charming Felix (Will Sharpe) and together, they unpack their previous trauma and baggage from relationships, learning how to grow and love together.
Jessica is over the top. Too Much, of course. Maybe I'm out of touch, but I found her to be unrealistic. She moans and stomps her feet when she's frustrated. She trauma dumps on people. She easily embarrasses herself. She's a more female driven version of the manic pixie dream girl trope - lacking in self-awareness, were it not for the plot, I would have suspected that she'd never been told no in her life. She has ambitions of being a movie director, and despite the descriptions of the show describing her as a workaholic, we rarely see evidence that she actually cares, or is all that good at her job (that she landed because of her soon to be ex-uncle James, played by the hilarious Andrew Rannells).
She crosses paths with Felix. A dreamy musician who says all the right things, the sort of nonchalant romantic lines written for Hugh Grant. But, he seems to be pretty distant and non-committal with other women in his life. He's giving serious love-bomber vibes. He's flakey, no job, basically moves in with Jess after first meeting her and a history of drug issues. Just like Adam in Girls. Maybe Lena Dunham has a fictionalised type. Unfortunately, it's my type too.
Look, the show was fine. It was entertaining, often funny, I sat through the whole thing in one sitting. The most moving elements, like the flashbacks to Jessica's relationship with her ex and her reflections on Felix frustrating her were deeply moving (perhaps because I'm in the process of ending my own 7 year relationship). But even these moments were very "poor me" coded. She refused to grow until the very end. Finally, she unpacked the baggage she brought to relationships, her unwillingness to ask for what she needed in a relationship, or why she stayed for so long with a man who clearly didn't love her, and still obsessed over him for a year after it ended. The journey to that payoff was 8 episodes long.
The disappointing part is just how fine it was. Girls was brilliant Hannah was dim, totally lacking in self-awareness, but that was the joke of the series, it was poking fun at her and this group of flawed women with compassion, a balance that's so hard land. Hannah wasn't self aware, but the series was. It's that sort of extra layer of percipience I was hoping for here that never quite arrived.
turnnoffyourmind
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