Girls5eva

I had been looking forward to this release, and it did not disappoint. These four women are extremely funny while Goldsberry often steals any scene she is in.

Girls5Eva starts with a brilliantly idiotic 90s song in which a one-hit-wonder-to-be sings about their inevitable life long success as nonsensically as possible. The series then jumps to the present, when the 4 still-alive but generally forgotten bandmates get a brief moment of attention and decide to ride it all the way to the top.

This is very much in the Tina Fey comedy vein. One negative review described it as more "30 Rock" "Kimmy Schmidt" humor as though that was a negative. I agree with the comparisons but not with the negativity.

The songs are amazing. Some are pitch perfect take offs of the demeaning drivel middle-aged men write for teen girls, like the wonderfully creepy Dream Girlfriend, and as the band tries new material we get fantastic numbers like "I'm Afraid," which goes from relatable fears to weirdly specific and insane ones.

The cast is terrific and the jokes are insane yet support a story of growth and striving.

Highly recommended.

A cluttered, ropey but remarkably likeable slice of nostalgic millennial foolishness from Meredith Scardino - strongly reminiscent of Kimmy Schmidt but lacking its consistency somewhat. It's held together by a strong central cast, some incredibly sharp observations on contemporary (and early 00s) pop culture and a bottomless well of surreal asides and over the top scenarios. Good solid silly fun with some real heart mixed in there too. Thoroughly deserves its deeper continuation on Netflix, although sadly it still seems to have found it's audience really.

Girls5Eva takes the trope of the nineties girls bands, most obviously Spice Girls, and turns it into a great where-are-they-now comedy. Several times I just laughed aloud in every epidode.

The theme is that the girls were, at best, a B level group with one hit record and an exploitative manager. The flashbacks show them at their supposedly prime. Roll on the years and none have been subsequent entertainment successes. Their previous careers forgotten until a popular rapper samples their hit and the group decide, some reluctantly, to make a comeback. However one of the group is dead and the decisions they made as ill informed youngsters now haunts their attempts.

Every character shadows the music industry stereotypes. I just laughed at the sight jokes and also the nostalgia.

Clearly this show has the same writer's room as it's got that hyper-rapid insane jokes-per-minute thing that those two shows share and that makes future re-watches rewarding because you're pretty much guaranteed to have missed at least half of them.

Also - the girls are all super talented (especially Dawn), the songs are catchy as hell - there's not much to not like. I can guarantee the bad reviews here are from the folks don't like the fire hose of over-the-top surrealist pop-culture jokes being fired at you.

Renée Elise Goldsberry is doing a perfect "Jenna from 30-rock" impression in a lot of ways. It's sometimes jarring to be looking elsewhere and hear her voice and think "Jenna!" then turn around and see Renee. Maybe it's just me.

Anyway, big thumbs up from me!