Lena Dunham is an expert at crafting messy TV romances. Take your pick from Girls, with options including (but not limited to) Hannah and Adam, Marnie and Charlie, or Jessa and Adam.
Each pairing prompted its fair share of misgivings or straight-up red flags, to the point that I spent most of my time watching Girls praying for the show’s couples to break up instead of hoping they’d stay together. In many ways, that was the point of the series: to show all the mistakes — relationships included — that go into figuring yourself out throughout your 20s.
In Netflix’s Too Much, Dunham’s first major TV project since Girls, she once again delivers a messy love story, this time between Jessica (Megan Stalter, Hacks), an American woman recovering from a brutal breakup, and Felix (Will Sharpe, The White Lotus), the London boy she falls for after traveling to England. (The series is loosely based on Dunham’s own experience of moving to London and meeting her husband, musician Luis Felber, with whom she co-created the series.)
This time, though, Dunham’s romantic leads are in their mid-30s, reaching a point where their immature chaos clashes with external pressures to settle down. These pressures, coupled with Dunham and Felber’s personal ties to Jessica and Felix, make Too Much more of a conventional rom-com than Girls, one where the show actively wants you to root for them as opposed to hoping they split.
That doesn’t mean Too Much is a rosy romance. Far from it! Jessica and Felix are nothing short of a disaster couple, much in the vein of Girls‚ Hannah and Adam. You’ll likely toggle between thinking they’re great for each other, or that they need to sprint far, far away from one another. But instead of letting her two leads cut and run, Dunham sticks with them throughout the season, emphasizing the work it takes to keep a relationship going, even if it seems like it’s going off the rails. Does it always work? Not quite, especially when it comes to Too Much’s fairy-tale ending. Yet the journey is as flawed and chaotic and absorbing as the show’s central couple (not to mention Dunham’s own public persona).
Too Much’s Jessica and Felix follow in the footsteps of Girls‚ Hannah and Adam.
Credit: Netflix
Too Much does quite a bit to separate itself from Girls, from its London location to its focus on one core romance, as opposed to a friend group. But hints of it remain, especially in the dynamic between Jessica and Felix, which echoes that of Hannah and Adam.
Like Hannah, Jessica is an often-unaware oversharer, talking at a mile a minute about UTIs and her sex life to anyone within earshot. The role is a perfect showcase for Stalter, who has proven herself to be the reigning queen of cringe comedy, thanks to projects like Hacks and Cora Bora. However, Too Much also gives her an opportunity to tap into more grounded dramatic work, especially when it comes to Jessica’s grief over the end of her eight-year relationship with her ex, Zev (Michael Zegen). He’s moved on to peppy influencer Wendy Jones (Emily Ratajkowski), the seemingly perfect avatar to whom Jessica addresses private video diaries whenever she needs to work through a particularly hard time.
When Jessica moves to London for work, leaving New York and all its memories of Zev behind, Jessica crosses paths with indie musician Felix in a pub loo. Like Girls‚ Adam, Felix fits into the „brooding artist“ archetype but comes with his fair share of idiosyncrasies. (He finds voicemails „sort of violent,“ and he’s obsessed with Paddington.) He’s often distant, with his fair share of intimacy issues, but he shows up for Jessica in times of need. In turn, Jessica idealizes him and her relationship with him, seeing him as the lead in one of those English-set romance films she so enjoys. Of course, he’s anything but. However, Sharpe perfectly toes the line between charming and troubled, to the point that viewers understand Jessica’s fascination with him while also wondering, „Is this a good idea?“
Too Much makes you root for Jessica and Felix — while also wanting them to take a step back.
Credit: Netflix
That question of „Is this a good idea?“ haunts quite a bit of Too Much. After all, Jessica is in a fragile state, processing a devastating breakup and all alone in a brand-new city. Meanwhile, Felix is similarly fragile, as he’s struggling financially and attempting to get sober. Will the chaos and codependency of their new relationship help either of them sort their lives out, or will it make their already-precarious emotional states worse?
The answer, it turns out, is a little of Column A and a little of Column B. As Jessica and Felix’s relationship moves from a fling to something deeper, there are screaming matches, accusations of love bombing, and questions of fidelity. There are red flags and relapses and judgment from everyone looking on, be it friends and family, coworkers, or even the audience.
But in the middle of it all, there are moments of sweetness. For every time Jessica lashes out at Felix over his crowded romantic past, there’s a time when she holds him close and listens to his trauma without judgment. For every instance of Felix ditching Jessica to go out or play a gig, there’s a moment when he returns to her, bringing her a much-needed cup of tea or her adorably ugly dog, Astrid — gestures Zev rarely afforded Jessica when they were together.
Too Much relishes the messiness of these contradictions, suggesting that these two broken-down, hurt individuals are exactly what the other needs for support. They just need to be ready to work hard for it, because there’s a lot of ground to cover between a meet-cute and a happily-ever-after.
Your mileage may vary on just how well Too Much treads that ground, especially since there are times when it seems like neither Jessica nor Felix truly want to put in any work, or when the series gets lost in a variety of side characters‘ thinly sketched relationship woes. But through it all, Dunham, Stalter, and Sharpe stir up sparks during even the most awkward or cringeworthy moments of Jessica and Felix’s relationship. (And given that it’s a Dunham project, there are many such moments.) In the end, this cross-continental pairing often teeters on the edge of disaster, but Too Much finds joy in their messy journey of trying to pull back from the brink.