‘I Love LA’ TV Review: Rachel Sennott Finally Has Her Star Vehicle with Erewhon-infused Social Climbing Series [B+]
Rachel Sennott told me to get an eating disorder in 2019 – not directly, but in a hilarious video posted on her Instagram satirizing trailers for films set in Los Angeles. While dancing to the familiar beat of Azealia Banks’ “212,” she repeatedly, excitedly exclaims, “it’s L.A.!” while intermittently offering other slice-of-life quotes about a stylized version of Hollywood centering drugs and eating disorders. Years later, Sennott has pushed herself into the industry with lead roles in films like Shiva Baby and Bottoms to now having her own series on HBO about a group of young friends in the city: I Love LA.
Created and executive produced by Sennott, I Love LA is also led by her as Maia, a woman in her 20s working her way up the ladder at a client management firm. She’s immune to caring about earthquakes during sex with her boyfriend, Dylan (Josh Hutcherson, The Hunger Games), at their house in Los Feliz and spends most of her time with her closest friends, Charlie (Jordan Firstman, English Teacher) and Alani (True Whitaker, Godfather of Harlem). Charlie is a celebrity stylist who sports merch for Jumbo’s Clown Room and skips the line at Canyon Coffee, Alani has a famous father and a nonexistent creative role at his company, and they’re the only friends Maia still keeps in touch with. The friend group’s connection to one another feels organic and they all play well together. After a failed attempt at a promotion with her boss, Alyssa (Leighton Meester, Gossip Girl), Maia dejectedly goes home to commiserate with Dylan, but is slapped with another, more shocking reality: a friend that she fell out of touch with, Tallulah (Odessa A’zion, Ghosts), is there waiting for her.
Tallulah is famous on the internet for being zany and wild, amassing a following that could care less if she steals someone’s designer bag. Maia’s reluctance to be around her former friend is equally matched by Tallulah’s determination to see her have a good time when the two go out together to celebrate. Maia originally wanted to go to Beverly Hills because she “wanted something a little Republican,” but Tallulah wants to dance. All it takes is one night of heavy drinking on Maia’s birthday for her hesitance towards Tallulah to dissolve, quickly falling back into an interdependence that was likely one of the reasons the two lost touch in the first place – well, besides Tallulah moving to New York. The series makes quick work of pushing past their old issues over oat milk lattes to center its narrative, which keeps discussion of their shared past brief and makes it easily digestible. The day after, Tallulah and Alani do things Maia wanted to do for her birthday, like looking around at Erewhon and vintage shopping at Aralda, while Maia is stuck at home moving around dinner reservations. After a long day, Maia and Tallulah reveal their current circumstances to one another, both offering peaks behind the curtain of social media to confide that things aren’t where they hoped by now, which leads them to a novel idea: Tallulah needs structure, Maia needs a client that will make her look good to Alyssa (that she can ultimately use to get herself on the junior management track). The two reforge their bond in the fires of capitalism and desperation to achieve everything they’ve always strived towards.
In a year rife with comedies focused on young adult friend groups growing together, like Adults and Overcompensating, I Love LA is less focused on broad strokes of familiar stories and more fixated on its own sense of humor and the specificity associated with life as a 20-something adult. Charlie frequently mentions someone from his past that everyone knows about, but he’s anchored to the relationship without closure. Alani’s vision of relationships is afflicted by her own parents’ marriage, creating an unattainable version of how her future should look. The characters are concerned with their ambitions and not without fault, but aren’t self-obsessed cliches of characters before them. I Love LA is mostly concerned about the stability of these relationships. The show’s greatest strength is its ability to navigate the smaller moments while still going for big laughs, like comparing someone who posts frequently on TikTok or Instagram to a serial killer. One of the funniest scenes of the season involves trying to placate someone into not posting a damning video, only to be forced to deal with her coke-fueled insanity for an entire night.
There’s a specific realism to Maia’s progression from annoyance with Tallulah’s return to allowing her back into her life, and though it’s a quick turnaround, it doesn’t feel rushed. The series allows the right moments to breathe across its eight episode run so that its humor is balanced with its sincere inspection into codependency and the pursuit of upward mobility in the corporate ladder. Maia’s attempt at a promotion soon becomes distressing for her relationships, especially being interlocked with her repaired friendship with Tallulah. She begins to lose focus on every other aspect of her life, even ignoring the needs of Dylan, whose unwavering support of Maia is weaponized against him. I Love LA has moments of incisive embarrassment that feel necessary for each character’s growth, all of them unable to move past certain things in their life until they confront it. You’ll be laughing even when Maia’s decisions make you squirm in your seat. While the series isn’t covering any new ground, it certainly maneuvers down a familiar road with upbeat hilarity and fun performances, especially from Jordan Firstman, who makes Charlie’s handling of loss a bright spot in the series.
I Love LA might not be the most novel series about young adults, but it is still one of the funniest shows of the year. Rachel Sennott has deftly moved her comedic sensibilities to television, which will thrill fans of her previous work like Bodies Bodies Bodies. Creating a series suited to her sense of humor works wonders and allows her moments of depth amongst the comedy. There’s a specificity to living in LA that Sennott masterfully weaves into every episode, with references to locations and specific places peppered throughout every episode. It isn’t breaking new ground, but it will make you laugh every week, and perhaps make you think about a friend that you shared a codependency with. I Love LA’s freshman season sees the sun rising on a bright new series.
Grade: B+
The eight episode first season of I Love LA will debut on HBO Max on Sunday, November 2 with new episodes through Sunday, December 21.
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