What To Watch This Weekend: Too Much

Lena Dunham came to the UK in 2019 to direct the pilot episode for the excellent Industry. It was during this time she met Luis Felber, a British-Peruvian musician. It was a whirlwind romance (they married in Soho eight months after they met), but their transatlantic coming together proved fruitful beyond that. It’s the basis of Dunham’s new series Too Much, which she co-created with Felber – along with a helping hand from the producers of Notting Hill and Love, Actually, two films Dunham says inspired her London-set rom-com. The result is a modern, original, heartwarming story of miscommunication, false starts and what happens when we are brave enough to crack open our true selves.

In preparation for Too Much, I spent a lot of June watching the six series of Girls for the third time. Dunham has come in for some criticism over the years (as a 20-something thrust into the limelight, it’s understandable that she might have said – or tweeted – the odd controversial remark), but I’ve always thought Girls stands up as a contemporary commentary on the lives of four mid-20s women living in a post-recession, early-social-media era. My most recent rewatch confirmed to me that what made it so great was not only the comic timing, but the way Dunham allowed her characters to be flawed and complex, to the point of being antiheroes from time to time.

An assembly of flawed individuals also makes Too Much sing. The ten-part series opens in New York. Jessica (Hacks’ Megan Stalter) is a workaholic advertising exec who, in the wake of a devastating break-up, is sent off to London on a secondment, with Astrid, her hairless Chinese crested lapdog, swaddled in a blanket. From the moment she realises the east London ‘estate’ she’s renting is nothing like her Bridgerton mansion fantasies, Jess is thrust into real London living – from noisy neighbours to Ubers that never show up in the rain. The night she lands, she heads to a pub, overdressed in a charmingly kitsch sailor-style dress. In the ‘bogs’, she meets skint indie musician Felix (The White Lotus’s Will Sharpe). Although thoroughly mismatched, their eccentricities draw each to the other immediately. And so begins a muddled relationship which bundles together all the baggage most mid-30s daters have accumulated by this stage of their lives.

Another series I’ve raced through this year is Hacks, where Stalter stands out in a smaller role. As a foil to Jean Smart’s aging comedian and Hannah Einbinder’s ‘cancelled’ script writer, Stalter’s loudmouth nepo-baby talent agency assistant Kayla becomes one of the show’s great joys. So, I was thrilled to see her land the lead in Too Much. Dunhan has spoken in recent interviews about how her and Stalter hit it off right away, and how she feels like an extension of her – but with a more upbeat outlook. Through scenes in both present-day London and flashbacks to the year prior, when Jess was happily shacked up in Brooklyn with her Pitchfork writer boyfriend Zev (The Marvellous Mrs Maisel’s Michael Zegen), Stalter portrays Jess with a charming naivety, complex intensity and wide-eyed joy. Even when she makes questionable decisions – taking ketamine for the first time; filming daily TikTok rants about her ex’s new fiancée; pushing Felix away when he’s already down – you root for her, Normal People/One Day style.

Will Sharpe came to many people’s attention with his turn as chiselled-tech-bro-with-a-heart Ethan in the second season of The White Lotus. But I’d already devoured much of his work in front and behind the camera, as roguish sex worker Rodney in Giri/Haji, as misguided tour guide James in this year’s Oscar-winning A Real Pain, and in Flowers, the excellent Channel 4 dark comedy he wrote, directed and starred in alongside Olivia Colman and Julian Barratt. It’s amazing to see him in this starring role as recently sober, leather jacket-clad Felix. Straight away, watching him play to virtually no one in a London boozer, you feel for him. By the end of episode one, when he’s made sure Jess gets home safely and has been kind to Astrid, her bizarre-looking hound, his good guy credentials are beaming brightly. But there are depths and darkness to Felix which Jess must uncover, even as he fends off crowds of lovestruck former flames. There’s so much pleasure in watching the two of them fall in love – and I loved the focus on how the couple moves through each complicated stage of getting to know each other.

Across the entire show, there’s plenty to love. First up, there’s an excellent soundtrack: Cate Le Bon, Taylor Swift and Funkadelic all feature in key moments. Then there’s Jess’s fabulous man-repeller wardrobe of joyful, colourful outfits. And of course, there’s the great collective cast and fun (and for now, embargoed) cameos. Of those we can mention, Andrew Scott is perfect as a smarmy film director, model Adwoa Aboah works wonderfully as Felix’s jaded ex, Emily Ratajkowski is brilliantly cast as Zev’s drop-dead gorgeous new influencer fiancée, Richard E. Grant returns to another Dunham project as Jess’s out-of-touch boss, while 1917’s Dean-Charles Chapman brings so much warmth as Jess’s helpful neighbour.

There’s a lot here to please Girls fans too. In episode four (‘Notting Kill’), there’s a great clubbing scene that’s reminiscent of Hannah and Elijah dancing to ‘I Love It’ in series two. Another of the joys of Too Much is seeing Elijah actor Andrew Rannells playing Dunham’s on-screen husband. As Nora, Dunham plays a small but pivotal role as Jess’s older sister, who’s still living at home with their mother (Rita Wilson, who played Marnie’s mum in Girls) and grandmother (Cheers’s Rhea Perlman). Watching Dunham and Rannells spar with one another as their characters navigate a bitter divorce will make you smile. Then there’s Dunham’s trademark body positivity. There are lots of healthy sex scenes in Too Much, but the fact that they show normal bodies is never the storyline. And that’s refreshing.

It’s safe to say Dunham is back. She’s currently in New York filming Good Sex, another Netflix rom-com (this time a film) starring Natalie Portman, Meg Ryan and Mark Ruffalo. She’s also writing a Broadway musical version of 10 Things I Hate About You with Carly Rae Jepsen. But for now, I’m looking forward to giving Too Much a second spin in as many weeks.

Too Much is available to watch now.

Visit NETFLIX.COM