Is Lena Dunham’s ‘Too Much’ actually any good?
In the early 2010s, Lena Dunham’s Girls became a television phenomenon among teenage and 20-something year olds who didn’t mind watching some of the most insufferable yet hilarious characters on television.
Hannah, Marnie, Jessa, and Shoshanna became the new Sex and the City girls, only the sex was a lot messier and the city much less sophisticated. While everyone loves picking which SATC girl they’re most like, there’s no real good answer to which Girls girl you are—they’re all as self-absorbed and ridiculous as each other.
Yet, Dunham’s genius writing skills, where she is aware of her characters’ distinctive lack of self-awareness, is what makes Girls so good. There are so many stupidly good lines that capture an era of millennial confusion (“It’s like, ‘Sorry I passed you an STD but I really enjoy your quirky web presence’”) which sit among hard-hitting truths about friendships, relationships and the difficulties of navigating a world where you’re not sure who you want to be.
Thus, when her new show Too Much was announced, a quirky rom-com set in London with a Dunham-esque protagonist, Jessica, Girls fans were naturally excited. Yet, reception has been fiercely divided into several groups: those who think it’s great, those who think it’s cringe-inducing rubbish, and those who don’t think it’s great but can’t help but press ‘next episode’.
Too Much is a confusing series. Many elements of it don’t make sense, like when Jessica records herself ranting to her phone about her ex-boyfriend’s new girlfriend in a way that no sane person would (why would you start doing that in a pub toilet?) before accidentally posting all of them publicly online. We get cameos from random TikTok stars who make bizarre videos about how much they love this obsessive, crazy girl, and it feels as though Dunham suddenly has no finger on the pulse like she did with Girls. This is not what social media actually looks like.
Jessica, played by Megan Stalter, is incredibly annoying, but not in the same way as Hannah Horvath. Yes, Hannah is insufferable, but Dunham’s line delivery is so brilliantly executed that you just can’t help loving her far-fetched ridiculousness, because despite this, she still feels real. Jessica, on the other hand, feels totally unbelievable, often spitting out her lines in a jumbled mess or shouting, and you just want to tell her to be quiet for once and maybe take a Xanax.
She meets Felix, played by Will Sharpe, in a pub, and while the clichés feel somewhat acknowledged by the creator, it still seems as though the show wants us to like Felix to a certain degree, as was the case with Adam in her earlier venture. But Jessica’s love interest is your archetypical London male musician wanker. Wearing a leather jacket and Docs with chipped painted nails while arguing with a model-like ex-lover (played by Top Model herself, Adwoa Aboah), Felix is the kind of self-destructive guy who manages to fool everyone into thinking he’s cool, saying things like “I told you I was a fuck up” and cheating on you “by accident”. How are we meant to root for this couple when neither has many redeeming qualities?
But are we meant to root for them? Too Much presents us with an array of awful characters, but it’s clear that we’re still meant to find them palatable to a certain degree, like in Girls, but the pretentious stench of Felix and his friends is simply too strong. And don’t get me started on the pink-haired, borderline offensive caricature of a gay man, Boss, or Felix’s very creepy friend Auggie. Then there’s the ridiculous cameo from everyone’s favourite Primark collaborator Rita Ora and Emily Ratajkowski’s surprisingly forgiving influencer character Wendy Jones. So much of the show actually feels like a fever dream.
It’s unclear how much we’re meant to go along with certain characters, and whether Dunham wants us to see the show as a horror story about modern dating. If she was aiming for the latter, she certainly succeeded, because Too Much only makes me dread getting back out into the world of dating. Is this the best the world has to offer? Should you accept someone who cheats on you multiple times, treats you like shit, and writes crap music, just because ‘you’re as bad as each other’? Is marrying someone after the most tumultuous relationship, clouded by infidelity and flashbacks of your ex, the best solution to turning over a new leaf?
Too Much doesn’t send a clear message, although it had the potential to communicate the terrors of dating in the modern post-Covid-19, social media-saturated world with much more nuance than it does. Instead, it’s weighed down by some truly annoying characters (get the three Pennys off my screen) and disappointing jokes, like when Felix explains the Jaffa Cake debate to Jessica (in 2025…).
While there are certainly many compelling moments, such as when we learn more about Felix’s background or see Jessica bond with Naomi Watts’ Ann, it’s certainly wrought with clichés and lacking the spark that kept Girls lit for six seasons. That doesn’t mean it’s not surprisingly bingeable, even if it is just to see if Jessica or Felix become any less annoying. Spoiler alert: they don’t.
