According to her IMDB, she’s been on several middling-to-bad TV shows over the past few years.
Yeah, that makes sense. She’s really good here, though! Her character is married to some other dude, but she is sleeping with Ethan. So Sam and Ethan are cheating on their respective spouses with each other. There are two more friends from college: Nat Faxon and Jae Suh Park, playing Nick and Marianne. They don’t figure into things much.
Okay, so the show is about Ethan and Sam cheating on their spouses with each other.
Correct. Also the book deal thing.
Tell me why I should watch the show.
There’s a great joke in episode seven.
That’s it?
Yeah, it’s about “Annie.”
The smash-hit movie starring America’s sweetheart Quvenzhané Wallis?
No, an experimental production of the stageplay by the same name.
What else?
There’s a running gag involving a Hamilton-style hip-hop musical about Monica Lewinsky.
That does not sound good.
It’s not. But Seth Rogen shows up in one episode!
Ah, is he funny in it?
Nah.
Oh. You’re no longer doing a good job of selling me on this show.
Kate McKinnon is in an episode or two as Shawna, a YA author, and she’s really funny. Her character is married to the much younger, and absurdly handsome, Sean (played by Billy Magnussen, who is surprisingly funny here and in the upcoming fantastic Aubrey Plaza vehicle “Ingrid Goes West.”) At one point, Shawna shares her philosophy on (her) marriage with Ethan and Max: “There’s two things that matter in this world, nipples and butts. And he’s got all three.” She also says that they’re about to go on safari because Sean wants to see a cheetah, at which point Sean pops his head into the room and enthusiastically declares that “cheetahs are so fast!” It’s a fun episode.
This actually sounds like a perfectly enjoyable four hours. Why have the reviews been so bad?
You ask a good question. I mean, look, these characters are all awful people. They do things and make decisions that take them out of the realm of decent behavior. The show is also just the newest in a recent post-mumblecore TV trend of “Friends” style half-hour sitcoms but less funny and about worse people. These shows all tend to get canceled after a couple seasons, by the way. I think the best point of comparison, as I noted in my “Friends From College” review, is to HBO’s “Togetherness.” So it could just be that there’s a fatigue setting in around shows like this.
Fair enough.
Yeah, and I’ll also say that “Friends From College” also reminds me of one of my favorite TV shows of recent memory — “Happy Endings.” The characters has a similar amount of disinterest in each other’s lives and problems, among other things. This is not to say that “Friends From College” is at the same level of quality as “Happy Endings” — far from it, “Happy Endings” is one of the most consistent and funny shows I can —
This is not a “Happy Endings” review. It’s a “Friends From College” Bingeworthy Breakdown.
It was a “Friends From College” Bingeworthy Breakdown. It’s over now. [C+]