Once I recall to mind Los Angeles, I recall to mind Rachel Sennott.
Whilst the comic were given her get started in New York, she changed into inextricably related to L.A. in my thoughts due to her 2019 video parody of trailers for motion pictures set in L.A. The combo of Sennott’s manic spinning, her one-liners about medicine and consuming problems, and the thumping beats of Azealia Banks’ “212” make for a hyper-specific pop cultural send-up (see: the trailer for The Bling Ring), one I am prone to quoting each and every time anyone mentions L.A. The video additionally granted audience a style of Sennott’s inventive voice, which she has since fine-tuned in greater scale tasks like Our bodies Our bodies Our bodies and Bottoms. It sort of feels fated, then, that Sennott would go back to L.A. in her first day out as a sequence writer, for HBO’s I Love LA.
To start with look, I Love LA seems to channel the similar power as the films Sennott parodied in 2019. The trailer guarantees glamorous area events, famous person cameos, or even a lady smoking cocaine. (Sure, a thumping techno soundtrack could also be concerned.) However it is been six years since Sennott first declared, “What? It is L.A.!” and now she has extra to mention, at the side of extra space through which to mention it. On account of that, I Love LA proves a hilarious dive into the obsessions and insecurities that come from seeking to have all of it, all instructed throughout the eyes of a delightfully messy new TV buddy workforce.
What is I Love LA about?
Rachel Sennott, Jordan Firstman, and True Whitaker in “I Love LA.”
Credit score: Kenny Laubbacher / HBO
The middle of that buddy workforce is Maia (Sennott), an assistant at a PR company who hopes to transport up within the ranks after years of occupation stagnancy. Her two besties within the town are Charlie (Jordan Firstman), a blunt, unfiltered famous person stylist, and Alani (True Whitaker), the daughter of a celebrated director who toggles between completely oblivious and deeply emotionally clever.
A wild card disrupts the gang within the type of Tallulah (Odessa A’zion), Maia’s closest buddy from school. The pair have been to start with intended to transport from New York to L.A. in combination, however Tallulah selected to stick at the back of. Now, she’s an influencer It Lady at the verge of taking her popularity to the following degree, whilst Maia simply feels caught.
Tallulah’s marvel arrival in L.A. reminds Maia of her personal shortcomings, and her early interactions with Tallulah replicate that. The 2 sling subtly disguised barbs at one any other and prepare dinner up lies designed to make themselves see cooler than they’re. It is all wrapped up within the candy-coated guise of friendship, however the cracks do shine thru, and Sennott and A’zion could have you wincing at each and every backhanded praise.
Mashable Best Tales
In spite of the strain from years aside, Maia and Tallulah notice they have got been striking up partitions and projecting their very own insecurities onto their friendship. They come to a decision that the one means they are able to really make it’s in combination: Tallulah as ability and Maia as her supervisor. So starts a wild trip into the ups and downs of influencer stardom.
I Love LA is a pointy glance into what it takes to be an influencer.
Rachel Sennott and Odessa A’zion in “I Love LA.”
Credit score: Kenny Laubbacher / HBO
For the reason that content material creators at the moment are a key a part of the leisure panorama, I Love LA gives a glimpse on the less-than-glamorous machinations at the back of the aspirational photographs influencers would possibly curate to your feeds. Logo offers, ability groups, disaster control… those are simply the end of the iceberg of what I Love LA has to provide, with Sennott heightening every part of the writer financial system for laughs. A scene of Tallulah filming a TikTok with real-life writer Quenlin Blackwell proves particularly uproarious and biting, because the display’s model of Blackwell calls for a Kubrick-ian ranges of takes for height authenticity.
Nonetheless, I Love LA‘s tackle web tradition hardly ever feels pandering. Past a photoshoot or two, we by no means in truth see the type of content material Tallulah makes. The selection implies that I Love LA does not must apply developments that might already really feel old-fashioned between manufacturing and the display’s unlock. As a substitute, it depends upon A’zion’s efficiency to promote the speculation of “Tallulah as influencer,” and it really works. A’zion bursts with the type of unfiltered air of mystery and self-assuredness that marks the net It Ladies of these days, with Sennott’s incessantly frazzled, tightly wound paintings as Maia serving as the very best counterpoint.
I Love LA options an excellent TV buddy workforce and ensemble.
Jordan Firstman, True Whitaker, Odessa A’zion, and Rachel Sennott in “I Love LA.”
Credit score: Kenny Laubbacher / HBO
Along with Sennott and A’zion, Firstman and Whitaker do superb paintings as Charlie and Alani. The central quartet as an entire has impeccable chemistry, meshing properly with out sacrificing every personality’s individuality. I will see other people claiming a personality within the buddy workforce now, in the way in which that they do for different HBO heavy-hitters like Intercourse and the Town and Ladies.
Early buzz across the display has resulted in Ladies comparisons, and that unquestionably rings true all the way through. There is a identical frank messiness to the buddy workforce, and the characters are incessantly simply as self-centered, to the purpose that I will already believe other people bemoaning I Love LA‘s “unlikeable” characters. (Are they in truth unlikeable, regardless that? Or are they only uncomfortably relatable in some way that forces you to inspect one thing about your self?)
The joys does not forestall with I Love LA‘s core buddy workforce. Leighton Meester is deliciously obnoxious as Maia’s boss Alyssa, whilst Josh Hutcherson supplies a grounding stability as Maia’s boyfriend Dylan. The 2 additionally come to constitute the 2 poles of Maia’s lifestyles: Alyssa echoes her ambition and the full glamor of the L.A. hustle, whilst Dylan gives a spoil from the relentless chaos of Maia’s occupation. I Love LA by no means demonizes Maia for short of a rewarding activity, however it unquestionably questions how this activity (and the insanity of L.A. as an entire) are impacting her connections with others.
Introspective with out being preachy, and satirical with out being exclusionary of non-L.A. aficionados, I Love LA‘s first season is any other sturdy access in 2025’s crop of zillennial sitcoms, which additionally comprises the likes of Overcompensating and Adults. For Sennott enthusiasts and newbies alike, I Love LA has the makings of your subsequent comedy obsession.
I Love LA premieres Nov. 2 at 10:30 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max.
