Category: Television

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‘Too Much’ review

‘Am I the Meghan Markle of, like, fat white bitches?’

Lena Dunham is BACK! With the Gen Z answer to the post millennial-depression that the lack of ‘Girls’ left. Too Much follows Jess through her anti-Emily in Paris move to London to reconnect with her passion for work after a tumultuous break up. The ten episodes were far too easy to binge watch in two sittings; Dunham can go from punchy one liners that will have you giggling for days to come to the most gut-wrenching scenes (no spoilers but prepare yourself for episode five). Dunham’s ability to write powerful (and realistic) dialogue shines through in Too Much, with Megan Stalter’s performance as Jess being the cherry on top of the fabulous show. Too Much explores workplace/creative burnout, the complexities of a messy break up and the emotional fallout that comes with it.

Although Jess moves to London temporarily for work, the focus of the show is on her love life; she meets musician ‘Felix’ on her first night in London and falls into a whirlwind romance whilst dealing with the trauma from her ex-boyfriend. Dunham beautifully and hilariously depicts the chaos of meeting someone new and unexpected whilst dealing with a breakup and all the ‘love-bombing’ from previous relationships. From Jess’s secret online diary where she uploads ‘letters’ to her ex’s new fiancé to googling ‘red flags to look out for’ whilst at work, the show exemplifies the all too relatable feeling of simply wanting to be loved and respected whilst dealing with the many hurdles that life throws at us.

My favourite element of the show (very difficult to pick just one) was the depiction of complicated, “messy” women. Since Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s ‘Fleabag’ I feel that modern TV has been seriously lacking a somewhat unlikable and imperfect female main characters. Too Much depicts men, whether they are partners, peers, fathers or father figures; trying to quieten the female experience or take away the sparkle from a bold, wonderful woman. The show is unapologetic in depicting the “messy” misunderstood woman, who is more often than not, just a human trying their best in this messy modern world.  

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Review: 13 Reasons Why

 

Viewers were shocked to see the character of Hannah Baker in ’13 Reasons Why’ slit her wrists open and bleed to death in the bathtub. Although this show sparked controversy about suicide, this controversy may just be the reason suicide and mental health needs to be discussed more.

 

’13 Reasons Why’ follows the recordings Hannah Baker left behind for specific people to hear after her suicide. Episode by episode, the audience finds out what brought her to commit suicide. Through the narration of Hannah, her former friend Clay Jensen listens to these tapes one by one. At first it seemed shocking to me that someone would leave 13 tapes telling people that they were the reasons they killed themselves, but as I learnt about each character and the pain they had caused Hannah, it became more obvious why she had left the tapes. Each character seems innocent at the start of the series however their innocent act wears off, as Clay gets deeper into the tapes. These characters try to defend themselves and hope no one else finds the tapes that show their lack of remorse for Hanna’s death and call her “attention seeking” for killing herself.

 

The ‘suicide is not an option’ posters in the school are ironic as they were put up after Hannah’s suicide, which shows even the school disregarded any bullying happening in their school halls. All the flashbacks are filmed with yellow, bright lighting in comparison to the scenes set in the present which are much more darker and blue. Scenes that caused the most controversy were the rape scenes and one of the last scenes when Hannah is shown in the bathtub, slitting her wrists open. As disturbing and upsetting as these scenes may have been, their purpose is to make the audience feel uncomfortable. The reason being is that issues like sexual assault and suicide are not widely discussed because they make people feel uncomfortable but these are both issues that need to be spoken about as they continue to happen all over the world. One quote that really disturbed me was when Hannah’s rapist said, “If that’s rape then every girl at this school wants to be raped.” This shows how some people have this mentality and think that it’s acceptable.

 

’13 Reasons Why’ now has a crisis information page for anyone who was affected by the content of the TV show. Despite the controversy, I think this TV show has raised awareness about serious issues like suicide, mental health and sexual assault, and will enable young people to discuss these issues and do something about it.