Why You'll Love I Love LA

Opening episode one with your protagonist and her boyfriend engaging in birthday sex mid-earthquake is one way to start a show off with a bang. I’ll admit I was skeptical at first during the pilot of the formerly known as “Untitled Rachel Sennot Project”, now I Love LA; however, following episode two, I was pleasantly surprised with the pivot from the plot taking us deeper into the lives of her friends, and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for the remainder of the season, while I am dissapointed there’s only 6 episodes left.

I Love LA follows Maia, played by the show’s creator Rachel Sennot, who works as an assistant in LA. She and her co-dependent friends, along with her boyfriend Dylan, played by Josh Hutcherson, rekindle after time apart, navigating their chaotic lives in La La Land.

Episode one welcomes us into their not-so-small world in LA with a surprise return from Maia’s former, somewhat famous best friend, Tallulah (Odessa A’zion). Maia and Tallulah work out their differences at Maia’s hijacked birthday party while Dylan, Charlie (Jordan Firstman), and Alani stand idly by... with her boss and some strippers. The two best friends agree to work together, with Maia managing Tallulah, in hopes of advancing both their careers.

Episode two picks up where we left off, with Maia ‘managing’ Tallulah, if you can even call it that. The episode thrusts Maia into chaos as she attempts to resolve a conflict between Tallulah and a girl who claims Tallulah stole her Balenciaga bag.

HBO has previously produced comedies about women navigating love, friendship, and their careers, like Insecure and Girls, so I wasn’t worried about the show’s quality; rather, the haphazard depiction of Gen Z, but Rachel Sennot thus far is doing a brilliant job, which isn’t a shock considering her previous work with Bottoms and Bodies, Bodies, Bodies. Aside from the genuinely funny dialogue and extremely niche events on screen, the true standouts for me were the supporting characters in the friend group played by Jordan Firstman and True Whitaker.

These two characters are the glue that holds the show together —and, from the looks of it, Maia too. The chemistry between this bunch is undeniable, and so is the genius comedic timing, though these characters are not reinventing the wheel in any kind of way- a privileged nepo baby, a sarcastic gay stylist, and two codependent best friends who might secretly love to hate each other- I don’t think they need to when the validity is there.

With appearances from Leighton Meister, Ayo Edebri, and more to come, it’s safe to say there is potential for this show to be the next great friend group comedy of a generation, in the running, of course, with the works of Adults and Overcompensating. I look forward to the path the remainder of I Love LA takes and to see how batshit crazy LA influencers really are. Regardless of whether they’re embellishing the altercations in the show between stylist and celebrity, or NY and LA content creators, boyfriend, girlfriend, and best friend trios, they certainly weren’t embellishing the lack of dancing at bars —it is just standing with music, and it is lame.

While I would’ve loved to call “Untitled Rachel Sennot Project” my new obsession, I’m happy to call it I Love LA instead, if you’d like to fall in love with a new group of fun-loving, somewhat fucked-up best friends, join me in tuning in Sundays at 10:30pm on HBO Max from here on out. Till next time, stay flirty, stay thirsty, watch more TV together, make more TV together.

Cin Cin!

Paige B.