A woman under the influencer

INFLUENCER IS A DIVISIVE WORD. Your gut reaction to it—one that’s likely to be more negative the older you are—will probably be a good gauge of how you'll feel about HBO’s I Love LA, a hangout comedy created by and starring Shiva Baby breakout Rachel Sennott.

- BY JUDY BERMAN

Sennott, far right, leads a cast of California dreamers

The latest in a wave of shows by and about young adults (including FX’s Adults and Amazon’s Overcompensating) that is breaking a little over a decade after Girls touched off a monsoon of controversy about and among millennials, I Love LA understands that there is humiliation inherent in chasing fame, success, and wealth for their own sakes. Sennott has a keen eye for the absurd workings of the influencer world, not to mention some great jokes about it. But her engagement with this new form of celebrity is so superficial for most of the first season that it's hard to tell whether the show, airing weekly as part of HBO’s flagship Sunday-night lineup, is meant as a commentary on shallowness or if it’s just shallow.

Also known for the black comedy