Review: Lena Dunham's New Show Is a Rom-Com for the TikTok Era
The main character in Netflix's Too Much suffers from a fixation with online therapy culture.
Lena Dunham's new Netflix series Too Much is a meandering, if still highly watchable, rom-com. The show chronicles 30-something Jessica, who relocates to London after a devastating breakup. The frumpy, chaotic Jessica almost immediately falls in love with a handsome indie musician named Felix with a predictably troubled past.
Fans of her 2010s HBO hit Girls will recognize Dunham's tics: oblivious, obnoxious, oversharing characters who are constantly embarrassing themselves. Dunham herself plays Jessica's depressed sister who has recently separated from her husband (Andrew Rannells, who played Dunham's gay ex-boyfriend in Girls).
While Girls was a show for the early days of mass social media adoption, Too Much is a show for the TikTok era. Jessica is addicted to hatescrolling the short-video feed of the influencer her ex is now engaged to (played by model Emily Ratajkowski), and she posts unhinged video replies from behind a private account.
Jessica is also addicted to a certain sort of influencer-speak, agonizing about Felix's "red flags," being "triggered," and her own "anxious attachment" style. This fixation with online therapy culture doesn't help her much. The boyfriend who labeled her "anxiously attached" turned out to just be mean and cold, and Jessica has her own red flags.
Jessica and Felix's relationship, though, is a triumph over today's hyperonline rules for romance. Rather than obsessively seeking a therapist-approved match, Jessica and Felix are drawn together by the old-fashioned rom-com blend of lust and banter. Jessica may be too much, but she still gets the guy.
