User Reviews

(4/10) | Dir. Lena Dunham | 10 episodes | Netflix This is not television. It is streaming era self-cannibalism, Lena Dunham excavating her own creative corpse, embalming it in 4K, and selling it as prestige. Megan Stalter’s Jessica Salmon does not just echo Hannah Horvath; she is Hannah reconstituted by an algorithm, a nostalgia-branded chaos machine built for subscribers who miss feeling wrecked by privileged twenty-somethings but do not want anything new. The tragedy is that the cast delivers. Stalter brings real vulnerability, and Will Sharpe manages to give his stock "indie musician" love interest some depth. But no amount of acting can rescue writing this bloated and padded, stretching five episodes of story across ten with the limpness of Netflix quota filler. Even the romance feels like cultural anthropology homework more than chemistry. The soundtrack is great. Luis Felber’s contributions almost convince you you are watching something alive, but it is perfume on a corpse. Where Girls felt like a raw VHS confession of millennial panic, Too Much is its digitally embalmed clone: clean, curated, and dead. Bottom line: Too Much is not lightning in a bottle; it is the bottle you left out in the rain, labeled "prestige," sold back to you by an algorithm that knows you will drink anything if it tastes like 2012. (4/10) A well-performed creative regression: Dunham's most expensive therapy session, shrink-wrapped for mass consumption.

'Too Much' is a very personal journey for Lena Dunham, who presents a series with many autobiographical elements as a cathartic experience and an anti-romcom. Honest, well-written, and acted, with a great soundtrack and guest stars.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

I tried to like Lena Dunham’s “Girls,” but it never spoke to me. This new series also isn’t working for me either. It’s based on Dunham’s experience in London with her current husband, substituting Megan Stalter as a woman who’s dumped by her boyfriend and goes there hoping for a typical English rom-com affair. Stalter’s character in “Hacks” is a more obnoxious version of the one here. She’s still got the grating personality, but is allowed a bit more sympathy. As her beau, Will Sharpe is wonderfully sweet and sexy (Dunham’s good at casting the right men). Much of the series is comprised of their time together with lots of sex. Her other interactions with work colleagues continue her seemingly clueless career efforts. Dunham has assembled an impressive list of actors in supporting roles, including Naomi Watts, Rita Wilson, Rhea Perlman, Richard E. Grant, Kit Harington and Andrew Scott. I didn’t see all of them, because I gave up after 4 eps. This isn’t exactly navel gazing, but the dialogue isn’t often interesting and the whole thing feels too self-absorbed, uneven and never especially funny. (Review based on 4 out of ten 30-56 minute eps).

I've only watched the first 3 episodes - so, I feel bad writing a review - but, it is going to take a long time before I get around to watching all of season 1. The issue for me is that I really like Meg Stalter as an actor - but, only in small amounts. Meg Stalter as a lead actor is "too much" Meg Stalter. And, beside that - my evaluation is that "Too Much" is a medium quality, traditional RomCom. The writing is just OK.

A very charming show with some of the same fizzy writing as "Girls." The performances are terrific -- lots of surprising people show up in smaller roles.