Welcome to Los Angeles by Rachel Sinnott

When I first moved to Los Angeles, everyone told me to give it “at least two years.” They said that’s how long it would take to see if I could live there. But to love her, let alone love her? who knows! Everything was beautiful and nothing was real. As a spinner Rachel Sinnott puts it in strangely compelling Video 2020 This is basically a summary of her thesis that is her 2025 show on HBO: “Come on! It’s L.A.! Haha!” What?! It’s Los Angeles! Basically: girls who get it, get it. Girls who don’t do it, don’t do it.

I did, until I didn’t. However, leaving was a more painful breakup than I expected because I really learned to love food so much in LA! Arts! Biodiversity! Vitality! Los Angeles can rule! But seeing some of his more solitary instincts through Sennott’s eyes (and those of experimental director Lorene Scafaria) feels more familiar than I expected, too. as far as I love Los Angeles She will inevitably be compared to Lena Dunham girlsI will clarify that the real predecessors of HBO are footnotewith all the desperate social climbing and dirty Hollywood realities that entails.

This first episode begins with Maya (Sinnott) waking up on her 27th birthday. She’s climbing on top of her cute boyfriend Dylan (appropriately played by her on-screen professional boyfriend Josh Hutcherson), doing her best to have a good time in the middle of an ongoing earthquake, because “if we’re going to die, I just want to come.”

Once this noble task is accomplished, the traditional Christmas tradition of complaining about getting older begins. Dylan does his best to fight her depression, and soon realizes that the sweet sentiment of “Every year you become more and more yourself” isn’t half as convincing to his girlfriend as “And you’re thinner now, which I know you like.” Yes, yes, she does. So one crash avoided, I opened Instagram and went straight to another. Her former best friend, Tallulah (Odessa Azion), has just posted a photo from a campaign they worked on together in New York, before Tallulah seemingly dumped Maya for a bigger-name manager.

In a state of renewed rage, she sets out to meet her friends Charlie (Jordan Firstman) and Alani (True Whittaker) for a quick coffee hike around Silver Lake Reservoir, a classic encounter situation for anyone in Los Angeles who’s vaguely committed to “healthy living” but not enough to hike. Maya absorbs the glare of compliments on her new haircut before walking into Tallulah, because she’s on the verge of a friendship breakup where she needs everyone around her to agree that the friend in question is bad. Since Tallulah went from It Girl to #Influencer, Maya’s resentment has turned into a bitter pill she refuses to swallow. she She says she was the one who turned Tallulah’s brutality into something marketable. “I won’t sit and do nothing while you reap the benefits of my hard work!” And so, with Charlie’s enthusiastic encouragement, Maya blocks Tallulah and feels, she insists, surprising.

Unfortunately, this brief burst of righteousness quickly fades away when she takes on her thankless job as publicity assistant. She disappears forever when her boss, Alyssa (Leighton Meester, who is always a welcome addition to my screen even when playing someone who gives me hives) rejects her case for a promotion. Scafaria’s close-ups of Sennott’s face throughout this experimental film, as in this scene with Alyssa clearing her throat and growling in the background, are very good. When Maya grits her teeth and talks about her experience managing Tallulah — now known to thousands as It Girl Tallulah Steele — it’s clear how painful it is to have that card pulled.

Imagine Maya’s shock, then, when she returns home after work only to be confronted by a tornado that has engulfed herself half-naked, screaming “Merry Christmas!!!! 1” as if nothing had ever happened. Apparently, Ani flew her to Los Angeles as a birthday surprise. (Gotta love my dad’s Oscar-winning money!) Sennott has always had such a compelling charisma, so saying something that makes A’zion instantly makes Tallulah very attractive — with, it must be said, amazing Poetry – It is easy to understand Maya’s fears by comparison. To have a girlfriend who is naturally attractive and fun so you can make things happen It is happening A blessing if it benefits you, and a curse if it inevitably fails.

But Sennott’s script is smart in not making Maya such a joy-killing straight man versus Tallulah. All I needed to understand how these two friends were was their exchange while waiting in line for the club Maya swore she didn’t want to go to:

Tallulah: “Do you remember when you got the roof at Mr. Purple’s?”

Maya“Yes, that night was crazy. They used to bother people here, but then they fixed it.

Tallulah“Oh, what a shame.”

Maya“Yes, I know.”

These two, to quote one expensively departed HBO show, were actually The Disgusting Brothers.

We don’t see what happens after Tallulah somehow meets the club owner in the thirty seconds it takes Maya to humiliate herself while trying to hang up. But it’s enough to leave Maya too hungry the next day to eat those amazing bagels that Charlie has been waiting so long in line for, or to join Tallulah when she insists. He owns To cancel her other plans and go to the beach. (What?? It’s L.A.!) Fed up and exhausted, Maya leaves Tallulah and Alani to go on an idyllic montage — set to Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.” — in which she gets stoned, goes to Erewon and vintage shops, and looks sexy in a swimsuit. Meanwhile, Maya spends all day frantically trying to get her luxurious birthday dinner reservation accepted by a fifth person at the last minute.

But by the time she and Dylan have dinner, the reservation doesn’t matter anymore, because Tallulah has pulled another Tallulah. The very unimpressed hostess leads them away from the restaurant and into the hotel suite next door, which Tallulah has somehow managed to land in for a little surprise party. Even Charlie is now “completely obsessed” with her, much to Maya’s obvious annoyance. Even worse is the fact that Tallulah invited Alyssa too, because Maya told her they were “best friends” instead of admitting she didn’t get the promotion. Biggest insult of all? Tallulah gets the suite in exchange for telling the hotel she’s celebrating Ha birthday. When the cake comes floating towards Maya and the words “Happy Birthday, Tallulah!” The focus is on her, it is understood that she is Maya The thirteenth reason From today.

Maya leaves her party to be alone; Tallulah refuses to read the room and chases her. Although Dylan tries to follow him, Charlie and Alanie know better than to let him. It’s time for the girls to finally get honest in the most sacred place of friendship: the bathroom.

Tired of pretending to be okay, Maya tells Tallulah the truth: “Having you here reminds me of how well you’re doing without me, and I’m a failure.” Fortunately for her vanity, though, they are both of them Flop! Tallulah reveals that not only is she broke, but she busted the rich guy she was dating for “boob pics.” At this point, Maya immediately returned to her side. “Oh my god! I’m sorry, just Google tits.” Look, that may not be the case Nice Instinct, but sometimes, all you need to get over a grudge with someone you really like is to realize that you’re on the same level (and that some guys are rude and inauthentic, obviously).

And with that, Maya and Tallulah returned. With only a Balenciaga bag and a gorgeous face card bearing her name, Tallulah decided she might as well stay in Los Angeles – with Maia as her manager for real. As the Peaches’ “Boys Wanna Be Her” kicks in, they scream, “We’re going to kill it” at each other and rush back to the suite, where a male stripper has already started the party on Alyssa’s lap. After getting her own turn with him, Maya grabbed Tallulah’s phone and directed her into the spotlight instead. And as long as they’re a team again, she wouldn’t mind being the mastermind behind the star — until she inevitably does.

• As a Gemini (iykyk) moon, I feel comfortable saying this turn Tallulah is a Gemini. Good luck with your Saturn return, my dear!

• Dylan being a guy whose day was almost ruined by his bookmark falling over is a small detail, but it’s a perfect detail.

• “I can’t get a UTI again. The doctor said if I get a UTI again, I won’t be able to take medications anymore.”

• “You don’t see me hanging out with Avicii anymore, do you?” “Yes, because.” He died“.