Five shows to watch this week
Lena Dunham returns with Too Much, her first television project since the generation-defining HBO hit Girls. Plus: a behind-the-scenes documentary on the making of Jaws.
Too Much
Netflix
A voice of a generation returns. Lena Dunham is back with her first television project since the HBO juggernaut Girls. Too Much is a semi-autobiographical comedy loosely based on Dunham’s own (extensively documented) life upheaval: breaking up with superstar producer Jack Antonoff, leaving New York in a fug of heartbreak, and moving to London, where she met her now-husband, Luis Felber — who co-wrote the show.
Megan Stalter, best known as the catastrophically useless assistant in Hacks, stars as Jessica, a frazzled workaholic who, after breaking up with her long-term boyfriend, ditches her life in New York (hairless dog in tow) and starts again in England. Will Sharpe (star of The White Lotus and director of Landscapers and Flowers) plays the indie musician love interest — a character so pointedly reminiscent of The 1975 frontman Matty Healy it’s hard to believe it’s unintentional.
The cast is excellent. Girls alumni Michael Zegen and Andrew Rannells return, Richard E. Grant delivers a knowingly heightened (and faintly evil) version of himself as Jessica’s boss, and Rhea Perlman is glorious as her grandmother — a wisecracking, old-school Jewish matriarch.
The whole thing is loud, funny, chaotic, and often unbearably cringe — essentially everything you want from a Lena Dunham production. Side note: if you’re running low on films to fill the school holiday void, it’s worth checking out her feature Catherine Called Birdy (Prime), which is a pleasure for kids and adults alike.
Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story
Disney+
Dun-dun … duuunnn-dun … dundundundundundun … It’s the 50th anniversary of Steven Spielberg’s classic creature feature Jaws, and to celebrate, National Geographic has put together a documentary going behind the scenes of its notoriously troubled production and groundbreaking release. The film famously went over budget, fell behind schedule, and was plagued by malfunctioning mechanical sharks. Stars Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss were often left sitting around for hours, waiting for filming to resume. What better way to cure boredom than to start a legendary barney? Directed by documentary veteran Laurent Bouzereau, the film features testimonials from famous fans including Jordan Peele, Emily Blunt, James Cameron and Guillermo del Toro.
Trainwreck: The Cult of American Apparel
Netflix
This Netflix documentary rummages through the rise and fall of the once-untouchable brand that dressed a generation of hipsters. It is, of course, American Apparel, the company that dominated the 2000s with its scantily clad (read: softcore) ads and ethically manufactured basics, slinging sex appeal with a made-in-America fair-trade ethos. Through interviews with former employees, the film traces the company’s toxic culture under founder Dov Charney, who allegedly ran the business like a sleazy frat house.
The documentary airs storewide calls where Charney would crown a “Fool of the Week”, and a workplace atmosphere best described as “consensual until it wasn’t”. Everyone was hooking up with everyone — but most disturbingly, Charney allegedly made a habit of having young female employees stay over at his home. Full disclosure: I once worked at American Apparel and to its credit, the doc captures the sense that you’d been hand-picked for something edgy and exclusive. As exposes go, there’s little here that hasn’t already been said. But it’s still perversely satisfying to watch the charismatic Charney slowly come undone on camera. Also: the imagery is still so fantastic.
Such Brave Girls
Season 2 now streaming on Stan
Last week we had Hal & Harper, the Mark Ruffalo-led drama about two co-dependent siblings, trauma-bonded by the suicide of their mother. It was lovely and thoughtful and tastefully melancholic. This week, another sibling show, albeit with a polar opposite tone (but just as dark). Such Brave Girls stars real-life siblings Kat Sadler (who also writes the series) and Lizzie Davidson as Josie and Billie, two directionless sisters raised by Deb (Louise Brealey, exquisite), a single mum abandoned a decade ago by a man who nipped out for milk and never returned. Deb is broke and laser-focused on remarrying. She’s currently shacked up with the dull-as-ditchwater Dev, who has a very large house and a very dead wife he’s clearly never getting over. The set-up is brilliant, but the real joy is in the characters: Josie is clinically depressed, in and out of psych wards, convinced she’s an artist (though allergic to ideas), and being pushed by Deb into a sexless courtship with Seb, who is boring incarnate. She’s also a deeply closeted lesbian. Billie, meanwhile, is utterly, gleefully aimless and couldn’t care less, as long as she’s within flirting distance of a boy. This won’t be for everyone, especially those who shy away from crass, bodily humour (the title card alone — Such Brave Girls scrawled in hair stuck to a shower wall — will be enough to put some off). But for those who don’t mind a little lewdness with their laughs, it’s one of the best British comedies going.