Shrill

I'm halfway through season 2 and can't help but feel this show is trying WAY too hard and sending out so many awful messages. The protagonist I believe is meant to come off as an endearing millennial trying to find her way in the world but instead she is an absolute bully who likes to play victim. Her boyfriend is repulsive and the fact she allows him to treat her like garbage and still goes back to him is sending out such an opposite message to the body positive/strong independent female persona that's simultaneously shoved down our throats. I can't help but feel this is trying to hard to be on the same level as Girls or Fleabag but is completely missing the mark.

Of course all the incels are going to come and rage against this show. They are the same ones that continue to taunt Lindy West to this day. But it's not for them. It's for all the women who have experienced the little traumas Annie goes through and has come out stronger as a person. It's a great show, that's well acted and has body positive messages. Aidy Bryant is very relatable and likable as a lead. It's a strong cast all around and I hope it gets a second season.

I went into watching this completely without any expectations. For the most part, I'd never heard of or even seen most of the main characters in this series. I decided to watch all three seasons before I left any review; hoping there would be a more profound evolution as the show went on.

Although super funny at times, it seemed to be an endeavor that tried too hard at some points. The characters are all in their early thirties to late forties and based on some of the overtly juvenile and weirdly gross depictions of sex, human anatomy and random crudeness, it felt like they were more like teenagers trapped in adult bodies. And it just got a little too literal when maybe a less primitive approach to comedy would work better.

I can't say that I hated it, I didn't. The timing and chemistry between some of the main characters was really great. Yet, there were also times when it wasn't and it was painful. What could've been a journey on self discovery, evolution and personal growth turned in to being more or less a sounding board for how not to be the very thing you claim to hate. And also, middle school level dialogue between grown folks is not my favorite thing.

The show has a lot of elements for a good story, but the main character is insufferably naive with little signs of development. I read the book before the show kicked off, and the book had written comparable moments that are in the show, but with a self-awareness to them that's completely absent here. I recognize character depth comes with time, but we're on two seasons now and the main character is just now realizing her boyfriend (as lovable as the actor is) isn't good for her? C'mon.

Coupled with that, her friends have more character than her, but are barely given any screen time and are treated like fodder. This wouldn't be so noticeably egregious if they weren't minorities; this is improved somewhat in Season 2, but just barely.

And the city itself becomes an overdone gimmick for the stories, written with the disconnect of a tourist who read about it in a book instead of a local who's constantly surrounded by it. It's just Portland. It isn't your embracive, kooky fantasy land that has hip stuff happening all the time; it's a gentrified, NIMBY-filed city with narcissists who treat the microcosm of progressiveness around them like a permission slip to ignore having to do any further political activism.

And I suppose that's my biggest beef with the show, it just feels like it was written in a narcissist's bubble. It's OK to write a show about a narcissist-- there are many-- but when both the character AND the writers stay within themselves, the story feels unendurably claustrophobic and closed-minded, even when it's trying its darnedest not to be.

My only complaint is there was only 6 episodes! Great show loved wardrobe and the writing. Great chemistry with the actors, I couldn't stop watching next thing I know its over :(