Lena Dunham, of “Girls” fame, together with her husband Luis Felber, has created a romantic comedy, “Too Much,” premiering Thursday on Netflix. It’s lighter in tone than that earlier present however nonetheless comes with loads of dysfunction, self-sabotage and intercourse. (Medicine too, although it doesn’t make a case for them.) The titles of the episodes set up a detrimental relation to the style: “Terms of Resentment,” “Enough, Actually,” “Notting Kill,” “Nonsense and Sensibility,” “Pity Woman,” “Ignore Sunrise,” “To Doubt a Boy.” However ultimately, it desires what they’re having.
Dunham, who wrote or co-wrote all 10 episodes and directed a number of, has elected to not star, however has introduced in Megan Stalter, from “Hacks” as her stand-in, Jessica. (Dunham performs Nora, Jessica’s depressed older sister, largely from a mattress.) Like Jessica, Dunham is an American dwelling in England, in a relationship with a musician, so we could credit score a minimum of some particulars to the authority of their shared expertise.
Jessica as soon as needed to direct movies, to “say something about the female experience,” however she has been working for 15 years as a line producer for an advert company, a job at which she is evidently good, however which suggests little to her. When her New York agency merges with a British firm, she’s despatched to London for 3 months to assist make a Christmas industrial, starring Rita Ora. Having been left six months earlier than by her longtime boyfriend, Zev (Michael Zegen) for willowy knitting influencer Wendy Jones (Emily Ratajkowski), to whom he’s grow to be engaged, she is able to go — all of the extra so as a result of her pleased place is “love stories set in pastoral England.”
On her first night time on the town, Jessica discovers that the “estate” she thought she was renting just isn’t Pemberley however public housing; she takes a taxi to a random pub, the place Felix (Will Sharpe), the boy on this 30-something love story, is performing a tragic music to some patrons. They meet-cute within the toilet. He walks her dwelling. They speak. He lends her his coat. (There may be, apparently, no try and persuade us that Felix is a serious expertise; certainly, the suggestion is that such profession as he had is on a downward slope.)
Individuals fall out of affection on tv nearly as usually as they fall into it, typically as a prelude to falling again into it, or falling for another person, and fewer usually deciding that they’re in truth happier on their very own. From the wealth of self-help books, recommendation columns, therapists, nation songs and, sure, romantic comedies that fill our tradition, I reckon the messier parts of “Too Much” will really feel acquainted to many. There may be loads of chaos on this comedy, however its greatest moments are available in passages of relative calm. (They’re one thing of a reduction from the dominant emotional mishigas.) A protracted, wordless scene consisting of a single overhead shot of Felix and Jess on a mattress, as she listens to a mixture he made her, is remarkably transferring, not least as a result of the actors are doing a lot whereas doing so little.
“Too Much” on Netflix first look.
(Netflix)
Whilst she turns into concerned with Felix, Jessica continues her follow of recording personal movies on her cellphone, on TikTok, as a kind of therapeutic diary, ranting about Zev; many are addressed on to Wendy Jones. In the meantime, she offers with Andrew Scott as a pretentious director (“We’ve got to make this feel like it’s Ken Loach doing a Christmas film”) and mucks in with new boss Jonno (Richard E. Grant) and colleagues Josie (Daisy Bevan), Kim (Janicza Bravo), who’s excited about Josie, and chatterbox Boss (Leo Reich), who has revealed an “experimental PDF novel, to much acclaim” and broke up with somebody as a result of “he did not have the emotional intelligence necessary to deal with someone whose love language is being a b— in a fun way.” She confounds them together with her loud, childlike American power, filling empty areas with phrases, making jokes that don’t come off. (“Just kidding” is a factor she says quite a bit.)
Just lately sober, Felix has his personal complement of bandmates, pals and pleasant ex-girlfriends, together with three girls named Polly — Adèle Exarchopoulos performs the necessary one — whose historical past with Felix makes Jess nervous. (Jennifer Saunders is a little bit of a shock.) Sharpe, final seen on TV within the second season of “The White Lotus,” performs him quietly, somewhat melancholy, maybe, however not unduly moody; even in a troublesome scenario — he’s carrying simply as a lot baggage as Jessica — his power stays low-key and comparatively grounded, although he might be referred to as upon to do some panicked operating.
If the sequence has a fault, it’s that there’s probably an excessive amount of “Too Much.” Within the films, the enterprise of “boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl” (substitute your most well-liked genders), has historically been settled in underneath two hours. The streaming financial system, nonetheless, has stretched the narrative timeline, elongated the arc, padding out a predetermined variety of episodes with extraneous digressions, giving minor characters issues to do this don’t essentially contribute to the story, whereas not growing into a lot on their very own. There are temporary cutaways to Jonno’s dwelling life, which a minimum of has the good thing about giving us extra Grant, plus Naomi Watts as his spouse, Ann; scenes again in New York likewise give us unrelated time with Rita Wilson as Jessica’s mom, Lois; Rhea Perlman her mouthy grandmother, Dottie; Dunham’s Nora and Andrew Rannells as her ex-husband, Jameson, who left her in favor of “exploring non-monogamy with a couple both named Cody.”
Extra problematic, an exasperating character like Jessica, lived with at such size, can grow to be exhausting, and she or he does. Dunham mitigates this, and the curler coaster of Jessica and Felix’s relationship, by using an episodic construction, setting complete or almost complete episodes in opposition to totally different backdrops: a marriage, a piece journey, a cocktail party, Felix at dwelling along with his dad and mom (Stephen Fry and Kaori Momoi), Jess and Felix up all night time (having intercourse, watching “Paddington”) when she must be recent for work within the morning, and a flashback to Jess’ historical past with Zev (he’s been made a “writer,” shorthand for pathetic). Taken individually, as discrete tales, they’re simpler to digest. The writing is sharp, the performances spot-on.
Stalter, who’s in her fourth season stealing scenes on “Hacks,” performs a personality midway world wide from her character there. The place her Kayla is brash, entitled and self-confident to a fault, Jess is needy, stuffed with second ideas and self-doubts, at the same time as she initiatives a sort of frantic cheerfulness. (“I’m a chill girl, I’m normal,” she tells herself, doubtfully.) Dunham usually shoots Stalter straight on, filling the display screen together with her face, which pays advantages; she has nice presence. (And sings very sweetly too, higher than her boyfriend.)
The endgame, after we get to it, couldn’t be any extra typical — which, I think about, is the thought. One would possibly assume it parodic if it hadn’t been established that that is the dream by which Jessica lives; something much less could be unkind.
I see I’ve uncared for to say the canine. There’s a little canine too, who performs an necessary half.
