Starstruck

Rose Matafeo's sitcom debut is quite a shallow story on the surface - being entirely about an aimless twenty-something who becomes romantically entangled with a film star. The series takes place over a year and manages to be both frustratingly inconsistent and strangely compelling. Whereas it doesn't have the emotional depth of other similar comedies, Matafeo and Patel have solid chemistry and the smartly framed deflation of romantic tropes helps give the central premise some real life. The problem comes whenever they're apart - and the series often feels colder the further you get from Matafeo, with the surrounding characters barely getting much agency or story of their own outside of their relation to her - which makes you wonder where the much-touted second series might actually go. The great Al Roberts feels hugely underused and Minnie Driver (as Tom Kapoor's cynical agent) barely get a look in, which feels like a huge shame, and the whole thing is shot with this wildly abstract wide-screen lens which looks dead fancy but robs it of even more warmth. So, overall, not as charming as it could be, but an intriguing start.

I'm not sure what it is about shows like this where everything revolves around the actress and they are also involved in the production, but I'm liking them a lot.

Basically the main actress is front and center the entire time which takes a lot of guts. On top of that they are involved with the writing and production of the show as well. So hats off.

The Flight Attendant and Russian Doll were similar and also totally worth your time.

Can't wait for season 2 of Starstruck and of course more Rose. Also a shout out to Emma and her character, so much fun!

Today's version of Notting Hill! I thoroughly enjoyed this story, connected with the characters and laughed in almost every episode. Definitely worth a watch!

Jessie is your typical 'Messy Millennial Woman' and comes ready baked with all the tropes you'd expect from that stereotype. Casual jobs she's not really interested in? Tick. Chaotic dating pattern of her own making? Tick. Speaks her thoughts with no filter? Tick. Being impulsive, flaky, spontaneous and self-destructive? Tick, tick, tick. What does Tom see in her?!

And what does she see in him? He's pleasant enough but dull and boring with no discernible personality. His family seem great with bags of wit - why did he not inherit any of those genes? He's a famous film star, is that the attraction? Why would MMW be interested in that? Wouldn't MMW take that Cinderella idea and reject it for the nonsense it is?

And together they are a terrible couple. They lack chemistry which is one thing (though if they had that the show would be much, much better). But here are two adults completely incapable of having a normal conversation. Jessie, forward and brash in nearly all situations, is suddenly incapable of telling Tom she likes him and recognising, despite all the obvious signs, that he likes her. Instead, inexplicably, the baseline expectation is that the other one doesn't really want to be there and just wants an excuse to go home. Maybe that makes sense in the beginning but after they start 'seeing' each other it's still happening and it's just daft - they never seem anything other than strangers speaking different languages.

The whole will they or won't they get together storyline gets old pretty quick, I found it all rather frustrating, didn't warm to the characters and most disappointingly, I didn't find it very funny.

It's very well made however with solid performances and a great soundtrack.