Girls gone bad

Lena Dunham's Netflix series Too Much is a frustrating, self-indulgent rehash

- TATAT BUNNAG

Remember the popular HBO series Girls from over a decade ago? The show was widely recognised for its postfeminist commentary on female sexuality and millennial angst and it ran for a surprisingly long six seasons.

To this day, I still don't really understand the rave reviews. I only watched a few episodes here and there, so I won't pretend to be an expert on it, but what I saw never quite resonated with me.

Now comes Too Much, a new Netflix drama-comedy created by none other than Lena Dunham — the same voice behind Girls. And after watching all 10 episodes, Too Much feels like a spiritual sequel to Girls. Whether that's a compliment or a criticism is open to interpretation.

But to me, it felt like Dunham took everything that was frustrating, cringe-inducing and painfully self-conscious about Girls, gave it a new coat of paint and dropped it into a different setting — London.

The show follows Jessica (Megan Stalter), a New York-based workaholic in her mid-30s who is reeling from a heartbreak that she still hasn't emotionally recovered from. Her daily life in Manhattan is now haunted by the ghosts of her past missteps — streets that remind her of arguments, restaurants that remind her of failed dates and friends she's slowly pushed away.

So what does she do? She takes a job in London with the plan of disappearing into a life of romantic solitude — imagining herself as some kind of modern-day Brontë sister. But her grand vision is quickly interrupted when she meets Felix (Will Sharpe), a charming but clearly problematic Englishman with a laundry list of red flags. Their messy, chaotic and at times toxic relationship becomes the central thread of the series.

Genre-wise,