Loading summary
Apple Pay
This message comes from Apple Pay. Apple Pay is accepted at millions of places. Literally just tap with iPhone or Apple Watch anywhere you see the contactless symbol, whether you're around the corner or somewhere new, add a card to wallet and start paying. The Apple Way Terms Apply.
Linda Holmes
When your long term boyfriend leaves you for an Instagram influencer, what can you do? In the new romantic comedy series Too Much, the answer is to go to London for work and meet a struggling musician who happens to be very, very handsome with a life almost as messy as yours.
Aisha Harris
The Netflix show was created by Lena Dunham and her composer husband, loosely inspired by their own story. Too Much features a cast full of comedy MVPs, a meet cute and a very unusual dog. I'm Aisha Harris.
Linda Holmes
And I'm Linda Holmes and today we're talking about Too Much on Pop Culture Happy Hour from npr.
Apple Pay
This message comes from Apple Pay. No matter where you're going this summer, odds are you'll need to pay for a few things like a ride, share a souvenir or dinner at that spot on your bucket list. Instead of digging for your wallet every time, just use Apple Pay. It's accepted anywhere you see the contactless symbol and all it takes is a tap with iPhone or Apple Watch. The best part is you'll still earn the card, rewards, points and cash back you love. Easy setup now, easier travels later with Apple Pay terms apply. This message comes from Amazon. Have you ever gotten sick on a very expensive, very non refundable family trip? Amazon One Medical has 247 virtual care so you can get help no matter where you are. And with Amazon Pharmacy your meds can get delivered right to your hotel fast. It's kind of like the room service of medical care. Thanks to Amazon, Healthcare just got less painful. This message comes from NPR sponsor Capella University. Sometimes it takes a different approach to pursue your goals. Capella is an online university accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. That means you can earn your degree from wherever you are and be confident your education is relevant, recognized and respected. A different future is closer than you think with Capella University. Learn more about earning a relevant degree@capella.edu.
BetterHelp
This message comes from BetterHelp. Workplace stress can be difficult to manage and a holiday can help, but it isn't a long term solution. Therapy can help you navigate whatever challenges the workday or any day might bring. Take the steps to care for yourself and relieve stress with BetterHelp, the largest online therapy provider in the world. Visit betterhelp.com NPR for 10% off your.
Linda Holmes
First month joining us today is NPR music reporter Isabella Gomez Sarmiento. Hello, Isabella.
Aisha Harris
Welcome back.
Isabella Gomez Sarmiento
Howdy. Thank you for having me.
Linda Holmes
So too much begins when a woman named Jess discovers that her boyfriend of several years has left her for an Instagram knitting influencer. Jess is played by Meg Stalter, who plays Kayla on Hacks. She gets a chance to be sent on an assignment to help produce a Christmas ad in London, and she's glad to get out of town. When she gets there, she wants to just enjoy the Jane Austen story she's envisioned for herself. Instead, she has a meet very cute with a handsome musician named Felix, played by Will Sharp. I think all the sinks are broken.
Aisha Harris
Yeah, you can still use the soap now. Just rub it in. No, you can't. You, you have to rinse off the soap. Otherwise you have germs and soap on your hands. Plus you'll be like, really sticky. Feel that you're really sticky. Won't be in 10 minutes, though. Why?
Isabella Gomez Sarmiento
What are you going to do?
Aisha Harris
Chop your hands off.
Linda Holmes
The two of them fall into a messy relationship that's pretty happy, but instantly complicated. For one thing, Felix has problems of his own with his own family and a difficult childhood. For another, he's stuck in a phase of his life where he's not sure being in a band is his entire future. Lena Dunham co created the series with her husband, composer Luis Felber, and she directed most of the episodes. Too Much is streaming on Netflix. Aisha, I'm going to start with you. Where did you come down on this one?
Aisha Harris
I think I started this show Curious. Lena Dunham is a very curious, complex, complicated figure, but I've also liked some of her work. I think a lot of Girls is really smart and like a perfect encapsulation of that moment of time and that very specific type of person. I also really enjoyed Catherine Called Birdie, the movie she directed. I came to it being like, this could be interesting. And at first it felt as though I've seen this story before. It's a rom com. Rom com dramedy. I feel like there have been a lot of recent 30 something, early 40 songs, women TV shows where it's like it opens with a terrible breakup or finding out your boyfriend cheated on you or whatever. And then you're also like in a career rut and all these things have to happen.
Linda Holmes
They're kind of what now? The what now? Rom com.
Aisha Harris
Exactly. You know, how to Die Alone. Survival of the Thickest. These are shows that have also done similar things, I think as it goes on it gets a lot more interesting. And I think a lot of that is due to Meg Stalter and. And just how she's able to sort of both like, embody this Persona that I think we've all kind of gotten from Lena Dunham in many ways. Like, this feels in many ways autobiographical or semi auto autobiographical, but she also has her own personality and I like her on Hacks. So I was eventually won over, even though it was kind of a mixed bag for me overall.
Linda Holmes
Yeah. All right. Isabella, how about you?
Isabella Gomez Sarmiento
Yeah, I totally agree with Aisha. It was sort of ups and downs. I. I came to Lena Dunham's work very, very late. Like, I was sort of too young when Girls was in its heyday and.
Aisha Harris
Was making me feel.
Isabella Gomez Sarmiento
Became aware of it in the, like, downfall of Lena Dunham.
Linda Holmes
Get used to it.
Isabella Gomez Sarmiento
So I started watching it for the first time, like two years ago and was like, oh, my God, this show is brilliant and funny and has so many. There are many valid criticisms of it. But I also became sort of a Lena defender in that way. Like, I think the show deserved the renaissance that it got in the last few years. So I was very excited to come to a new Lena Dunham project, like, in a timely way. I wanted to like it a little bit more than I did, but I think it has a lot of really great things going for it, especially the dialogue and especially the cast and the characters. It's a motley crew of kind of a who's who of people who have worked with Lena Dunham in the past.
Linda Holmes
It really is. Yeah.
Isabella Gomez Sarmiento
And that was really fun.
Linda Holmes
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I felt like as I was watching this, I was mixed on it and the farther I got from it, the more kind of affection I developed for it. I think because I do love a romantic comedy. This is a known thing. I do think that it is an effectively done, very nice meet cute, less the thing in the bathroom and more like a little bit later when he ends up in her apartment. It's all very, like, messy in a way, which is obviously what the show is meant to be. I think Will Sharpe is incredibly charming. My goodness. I think he's really good in this and really understands how to be this guy who is both like the dream guy and also the super messed up guy who in his own life is still struggling with a lot of his own stuff. I think, you know, when you talk about this show kind of starting off fairly familiar, improving as it goes. To me, it improves as you get more balance between the two of Them as it becomes a story about both of them. Because the more it's a story about both of them, the less it's a story just about her trying to fix her life by meeting some guy.
Aisha Harris
Right? Yes. Yes.
Linda Holmes
They like each other from the beginning. There's an early episode where they're just kind of. Of like, obsessed with just being together and spending all this time together that I really liked. I really like the fact that from the beginning they're very attracted to each other. They have all this stuff going for them, and then it's just that they have history and baggage and, you know, who's willing to say I love you and who's not. And all the things that come up in their relationship felt really effective to me. I will say, like, I was not a big girls person. I felt like it was a combination of sort of. I became exhausted by the conversation around it. And also, I never particularly felt connected to those characters and I.
Aisha Harris
Which, like, they're exhausting characters.
Isabella Gomez Sarmiento
They really are.
Linda Holmes
They are exhausting characters. So I was interested to see something of hers that was a little bit more up my alley. It basically worked for me. You both, I think, felt that it dragged a little bit at times and could have been shorter. I felt like the ending is rushed.
Aisha Harris
Yeah, Yeah, I agree with that.
Linda Holmes
Wrote a review of this for npr, and one of the things that I said was, like, I think if I had any confidence that Netflix would do, like, four seasons of this, there might be a way to do it that's more. That feels more fully developed in terms of what is actually going on with these people and how they're going to work through their stuff. But that's not the world that we live in. So I understand why they wanted to kind of bring the story to a satisfying conclusion. You know, I agree.
Isabella Gomez Sarmiento
I think something that I really liked about this, to your point that the characters on Girls are exhausting, and most of them, Shoshanna, is exempt from this. Most of them are just completely unlikable by the very end. And something I liked about this show is that it totally takes two rom com tropes, like the neurotic, obsessive, you know, disgruntled ex girlfriend and the sort of like, roll your eyes, indie, toxic, soft boy that is inevitably gonna break your heart. And it manages to really humanize them and make them both really likable and flawed characters as you start to learn more about both of them and you start to unpack that baggage and understand where they're coming from. I did feel much More invested in their relationship to one another and not just their individual storylines. But I thought it took a while to get there. And then I agree that then it sort of rushes into an ending. And I wish we had just gotten some more of that background earlier in the show. I would have felt invested a lot sooner.
Aisha Harris
I feel like that is not a fault of just the show, but it's kind of become a common theme amongst a lot of these TV shows where you don't know for streaming, where you don't know if they're gonna come back. And so they often feel too long, too much, as it were. And then, like, all of a sudden, we're at the end. And the ending could either be a bookend, like, this is the end, or it could lead to another season. And I can understand the creative issues that can arise from behind the scenes, but as a viewer, it's also kind of frustrating. I will say. I don't know if I was as enamored of Felix as you, to be honest. That's never been my type of dream. Like, I've never been into the indie emo rock musician. That's just not my thing. And this is not a fault of Vol Sharp at all, because I do think he's charming. I was way more curious about Jessica, really. And I think for me, my favorite episode. I mean, flashback episodes, honestly, I'm kind of over them as a general rule. That's another part of the formula that's just become so enlarged. It's, we're gonna have this flashback episode. But for me, the big flashback episode, it's not just a flashback, but it cuts in and out, is episode five where we see her relationship with Zev, her ex boyfriend, played by Michael Ziegen. And I think it's like. It's really interesting because I think there are a lot of. There have often been expectations of a leading lady who looks like Meg Salter. Like, what that would entail and like, what that character might be, that she.
Linda Holmes
Would have a lot of insecurities, specifically around the way she looks.
Aisha Harris
Exactly. And I think this episode is really good about showing that she has insecurities, but they don't stem from herself. They stem from her relationship in many ways from Zev. And there's one scene that I really thought was just so cutting and so smartly composed where he's talking about, like, she works in visual. And so she's a very flamboyant dresser.
Isabella Gomez Sarmiento
She's a fashion icon.
Aisha Harris
Yeah, she loves fashion. And she wears things that, like, are just, like, very Eye popping, eye catching. Like, you will walk down the street and you'd be like, there's someone who has style. Whether you like that style or not is one thing, but, like, there's a moment where he addresses that and he says this to her. I swear, you dress as a you to people sometimes, Jess. It's like you want to make them feel like idiots for looking at you. You don't want them to know that you're beautiful or even me to know that you're beautiful. I think you think you can't compete with someone like Jesse Gigi Hadid, so you have to go in the total opposite direction. There is so much happening in that. And the conversation. The conversation keeps going, but it's like, oh, my God, he's both. He's totally nagging her. He's totally being like, you're beautiful. But also, you don't look like the typical beautiful girl. So let me remind you of this. And I thought it was a really smart way to get at this thing that you would expect would come up all the time on the show, but thankfully doesn't. It just shows it through this relationship. And I really liked that.
Linda Holmes
Yeah, yeah. You get that feeling from him where he's basically being like, well, because you're not conventionally attractive, as you know.
Isabella Gomez Sarmiento
You know.
Aisha Harris
Yes, exactly.
Linda Holmes
You know.
Aisha Harris
Yeah, yeah. It's so harsh, but also real. It feels very nuanced in a way.
Isabella Gomez Sarmiento
That scene in particular made me want to throw something at my tv because. Agree. I think it was so refreshing to be like, no, she's awesome and she's confident and she has a great sense of style. And this guy's kind of a loser who's, like, projecting his insecurities onto her and trying to bring her down.
Aisha Harris
And.
Isabella Gomez Sarmiento
And I think that it gives so much more context to why she's struggling in a way that's like, oh, you've just had to put up with this really horrible relationship, and that's what's making you question yourself, and that's what's giving you all of this, like, inner turmoil is actually just your loser ex boyfriend. And she's awesome. And that was a really refreshing character development, I think.
Linda Holmes
Yeah, I agree. And shout out to Michael Ziegan. I mean, listen, this is the same guy who played Joel Maisel on the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and is really carving out this niche as, like, the guy. You can understand why she loved him, and you can really understand why she doesn't love him anymore. And he is, in this, I think, worse than he is in that. And you get a real sense that he was. Whether or not he ever sat down to intentionally, like, do a number on her, really did a number on her. And as she goes forward, she really is dealing with a lot of fallout from decisions that he made.
Aisha Harris
I mean, there's also a world where, you know, the Emily Ratajkowski character of Wendy, who is Emily Rudajkowski? Like, she's a model. Like, in real life, she is the blurred lines girl. Like, that's how we know her. But, like, I also think the way that the show subverts that dynamic and how it's not about her and it's all about Zev, and she is not the villain in this situation. Even though Jessica spends much of the show creating video notes for her and being like, how dare you? What do you do?
Linda Holmes
Like, video notes?
Aisha Harris
Yeah, private video notes directed directly at Wendy. It's a way that I think Lena Dunham, she just has this understanding, I think this clarity around that aspect of herself, even if it doesn't come through in other ways. Like, I think this is one avenue where she's just, like, very clear about her understanding of the way these things work. And I just really appreciated that.
Linda Holmes
Yeah, totally.
Isabella Gomez Sarmiento
It was never Wendy. Even though I will say I love the knitting influencer of it all. I thought that was so funny.
Linda Holmes
It's a funny bit. And I think, like, I don't want to play defense all the time in terms of, like. Well, you know, because it's Meg Stalter, I would expect somebody to spend a lot of time talking about that. She's insecure about how she looks, but I kind of would with a lot of creators and the idea of all the things that are an issue between her and Felix, she does not walk around being like, am I pretty enough?
Aisha Harris
Oh, God, no.
Linda Holmes
He's so handsome. Am I pretty enough? Like, that is not really part of what is going on between the two of them. He is into her from the beginning. He makes it clear that he's into her and being able to see her have a whole story that's not about that. I really do appreciate it because it allows you to see all the other great things about her, this character, but also this actress who, you know, like, people who mostly know her from Hacks, which is not everybody, but she came on Hacks as a very much like an exaggerated kind of comic relief character who is sort of always, you know, turned up to 12.
Aisha Harris
Yeah, she's a lot.
Linda Holmes
She's a lot on that show. But over time, they have given her more depth also on that show. And I think the more you see of that, the more you understand how much there is to her ability to get into characters. I do want to just mention, like, the supporting cast on this thing is with people who are really good at comedy of a lot of different types. Right. Cause her, you know, at home, she's got her sister, who Lena Dunham plays, and her mom, who Rita Wilson plays, and her grandma, who Rhea Perlman plays. And I'm so delighted to be seeing more Rhea Perlman again. But also, like Andrew Rannells is in this. Richard E. Grant is in this. Naomi Watts is in this. In a part that I would not have expected to be the Naomi Watts part. She's the wife of the boss. There are just a bunch of people. Stephen Fry gives this really devastating performance as Felix's father. They just really, like, pumped up this cast with a lot of great people. Janicza Bravo is in it and also directed an episode, but also plays her co worker. I think they have a fairly established collaboration, her and Lena Dunham.
Aisha Harris
Yeah, they did that show camping a few years ago. Yeah.
Isabella Gomez Sarmiento
Also notable mention Andrew Scott, who played a really sort of out of left field character.
Aisha Harris
Yes. Yeah.
Isabella Gomez Sarmiento
It was one of those things where he. Yeah, he popped up and I was like, what? You're here too?
Linda Holmes
Like, yeah.
Isabella Gomez Sarmiento
Yeah. I think to your point, Linda, like, I really appreciated that because we weren't so focused on how the character of Jessica feels about herself based on the way she looks. We also get to see all these other ways in which she's actually flawed and how she is or isn't dealing with them. And that is just infinitely more interesting. Like, you know, the part where she's meeting Felix's friends and she wants to figure out what the, you know, the friends who are girls, one of which is actually one of his exes, and she's sort of trying to be the cool girl, but immediately fails and is just like, so over the top asking them questions to figure out the dynamic. Like.
Aisha Harris
Right.
Isabella Gomez Sarmiento
I love that. I love that there's other moments in which you're sort of cringing at what she's doing, but it's also so relatable because she's just like, getting to the point in a not very graceful way. And Meg Stalter just absolutely killed the ability to be such a complex character without it being hung up on tropes that we just don't need in 2025.
Aisha Harris
I would counter a little bit that I love pretty much all of the Secondary characters in this show, but I think there were actually too many. I love Janicza Bravo and Richard E. Grant and Naomi Watts, but I think the employment aspect of it, the workplace comedy part, kind of fell flat for me because it tried to insert them in moments where I wasn't quite sure did they cut sc like, why is this all of a sudden part of a montage? There were moments where I was just like, I wanted them to either have more to do or have less to do. I get that. But I do think I love seeing the friend group of Felix, especially seeing Adele Ezaku plus, who is like. I think her kind of breakout was blue as the warmest color. But she's since popped up in a lot of really great movies over the last few years and as one of the polys. Cause there's like multiple.
Linda Holmes
Yes, there are multiple women named Poly. Yeah. Women named poly.
Aisha Harris
Yeah. I really love that because a lot of Jessica's insecurities come from not feeling cool enough. And I think it's very relatable. And she's in Europe, and so, of course, like, Americans often, you know, think that Europeans are way cooler. Whether or not that's true or not. It felt very real. And I loved those interactions. And I could have lived with more of that and less of the workplace comedy stuff.
Linda Holmes
I get that. I get that. I think I enjoyed it for itself. I think Richard E. Grant is having a great time in this.
Aisha Harris
He's so fun.
Linda Holmes
And so is Leo Reich, who plays one of her, like other co workers, who I think is also having a great time. So I think for those reasons, it stood up for me. I definitely think that you have a point that it probably was not as well integrated into the entire story as it could have been. It's almost like if you make this kind of show like the workplace and how she's fitting in at the workplace is always part of it. So it's in there. But again, I can kind of understand saying, like, I either want to see the six episode version of this or like the three or four season version of this. I totally. I think both of those could perhaps be either more tightly developed and concisely developed or kind of more fully like. But I'm always the person who looks at TV characters and is like, therapy. You need a lot of therapy, and rarely does that happen.
Aisha Harris
I'm surprised we didn't get that. I'm surprised that wasn't a component of the show.
Linda Holmes
Well, it is for one person, but not for.
Isabella Gomez Sarmiento
Not the one we want.
Linda Holmes
Not the one we want, not the one we want. And it doesn't seem to be doing very much for said person. Ultimately, it mostly worked for me, but I do get it. Well, we want to know what you think about too much. Find us@facebook.com PCHH that brings us to the end of our show. Aisha Harris, Isabella Gomez Sarmiento, thank you so much for being here.
Aisha Harris
Thanks, thank you, thank you.
Linda Holmes
And just a reminder that signing up for Pop Culture Happy Hour plus is a great way to support our show and public radio. And you get to listen to all of our episodes sponsor free. So please go find out more at plus.npr.org happy hour or visit the link in our show notes. This episode is produced by Janae Morris and Mike Katsiff and edited by our showrunner, Jessica Reedy. Audio engineering was performed by Sina Lofredo and hello, Come in provides our theme music. Thank you for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from npr. I'm Linda Holmes and we'll see you all next time.
BetterHelp
This message comes from Warby Parker Prescription eyewear that's expertly crafted and unexpectedly affordable glasses designed in house from premium materials starting at just $95, including prescription lenses. Stop by a Warby Parker store near you.
Apple Pay
This message comes from NPR sponsor Oracle. In business, they say you can have better, cheaper or faster, but you only get to pick two. What if you could have all three at the same time? Oracle Cloud infrastructure is the blazing fast platform for your infrastructure, database, application development and AI needs. With oci, you can run any workload in a high availability, consistently high performance environment and spend less than you would with other clouds. To try OCI for free with zero commitment, go to oracle.com NPR this message.
BetterHelp
Comes from Warby Parker. What makes a great pair of glasses at Warby Parker? It's all the invisible extras without the extra cost, like free adjustments for life. Find your pair@warbyparker.com or visit one of their hundreds of stores around the country.
Pop Culture Happy Hour: Episode Summary - "Too Much"
Release Date: July 14, 2025
Hosts: Linda Holmes, Aisha Harris, Stephen Thompson, Glen Weldon
Guest: Isabella Gomez Sarmiento, NPR Music Reporter
In this episode of Pop Culture Happy Hour, hosts Linda Holmes and Aisha Harris welcome NPR music reporter Isabella Gomez Sarmiento to discuss the newly released Netflix series "Too Much." The conversation delves deep into the show's narrative, character development, performances, and its place within the romantic comedy genre.
"Too Much" is a romantic comedy series created by Lena Dunham and her husband, composer Luis Felber. The story follows Jess (played by Meg Stalter), who, after discovering her long-term boyfriend has left her for an Instagram influencer, relocates to London for work. There, she meets Felix (Will Sharpe), a handsome yet troubled musician, leading to a messy yet compelling relationship.
Linda Holmes introduces the show:
"When your long term boyfriend leaves you for an Instagram influencer, what can you do? In the new romantic comedy series Too Much, the answer is to go to London for work and meet a struggling musician who happens to be very, very handsome with a life almost as messy as yours."
(00:21)
Aisha Harris adds:
"The Netflix show was created by Lena Dunham and her composer husband, loosely inspired by their own story. Too Much features a cast full of comedy MVPs, a meet cute and a very unusual dog."
(00:37)
Aisha Harris shares her initial curiosity about the show, influenced by Lena Dunham's complex reputation and her previous works like Girls and Catherine Called Birdie.
"I think a lot of Girls is really smart and like a perfect encapsulation of that moment of time and that very specific type of person. I also really enjoyed Catherine Called Birdie, the movie she directed. I came to it being like, this could be interesting."
(04:14)
She continues, expressing reservations about the show's premise feeling familiar but ultimately appreciating the depth brought by Meg Stalter's performance.
Isabella Gomez Sarmiento resonates with Aisha's perspective, noting her late introduction to Lena Dunham's work and her evolution into a supporter after recognizing the show's strengths.
"I started watching it for the first time, like two years ago and was like, oh, my God, this show is brilliant and funny and has so many... I also became sort of a Lena defender in that way."
(05:56)
The discussion shifts to the show's character dynamics, particularly focusing on Jess and Felix's relationship.
Linda Holmes praises Will Sharpe's portrayal of Felix, highlighting his charm and the complexity he brings to the character.
"Will Sharpe is incredibly charming. My goodness. I think he's really good in this and really understands how to be this guy who is both like the dream guy and also the super messed up guy who in his own life is still struggling with a lot of his own stuff."
(06:31)
Isabella Gomez Sarmiento appreciates how the show humanizes typical romantic comedy tropes, making both Jess and Felix likable and flawed.
"It manages to really humanize them and make them both really likable and flawed characters as you start to learn more about both of them and you start to unpack that baggage and understand where they're coming from."
(10:02)
A standout moment discussed is a flashback episode that delves into Jess's past relationship with her ex-boyfriend Zev, played by Michael Ziegan.
Aisha Harris highlights a poignant scene where Zev confronts Jess about her flamboyant style, revealing underlying insecurities.
"There is one scene that I really thought was just so cutting and so smartly composed where he's talking about, like, she works in visual. And so she's a very flamboyant dresser... 'I swear, you dress as a you to people sometimes, Jess.'"
(12:01)
This exchange not only underscores Jess's personal insecurities but also portrays the toxic dynamics of her previous relationship.
Isabella Gomez Sarmiento adds her frustration with the scene's rawness:
"That scene in particular made me want to throw something at my TV because... she is awesome. And she's confident and she has a great sense of style. And this guy's kind of a loser who's, like, projecting his insecurities onto her."
(13:28)
The series boasts an impressive supporting cast, including:
Linda Holmes commends the ensemble, noting their seamless integration and contribution to the show's charm.
"They just really, like, pumped up this cast with a lot of great people."
(17:43)
While the hosts appreciate the show's character development and performances, they also critique certain aspects:
Pacing Issues: Both hosts felt that some parts of the show dragged and the ending felt rushed.
Linda Holmes:
"I felt like it was an effectively done, very nice meet cute, less the thing in the bathroom and more like a little bit later when he ends up in her apartment... it improves as you get more balance between the two of Them as it becomes a story about both of them."
(07:39)
Aisha Harris:
"I think it took a while to get there. And then I agree that then it sort of rushes into an ending."
(10:02)
Supporting Characters Overload: While the main characters are well-developed, the abundance of supporting characters sometimes felt overwhelming.
Aisha Harris:
"I think there were actually too many [supporting characters]. I loved seeing the friend group of Felix, especially Adele Ezaku plus, who is like... one of the polys."
(18:32)
Workplace Comedy Elements: The integration of workplace comedy was perceived as less effective compared to the personal storylines.
Aisha Harris:
"The employment aspect of it, the workplace comedy part, kind of fell flat for me."
(19:54)
Despite some shortcomings, the hosts acknowledge the show's overall appeal and the potential for further development if it continues beyond its current scope.
Linda Holmes reflects on the possibility of expanding the story over multiple seasons to allow for more comprehensive character exploration.
"I think if I had any confidence that Netflix would do, like, four seasons of this, there might be a way to do it that's more... more fully developed."
(08:40)
Isabella Gomez Sarmiento echoes this sentiment, appreciating the depth added to characters and the nuanced storytelling.
"I really liked that there's other moments in which you're sort of cringing at what she's doing, but it's also so relatable because she's just like, getting to the point in a not very graceful way."
(18:32)
Overall, "Too Much" is praised for its heartfelt performances, particularly by Meg Stalter and Will Sharpe, and its ability to balance humor with genuine emotional depth.
Linda Holmes wraps up the discussion by encouraging listeners to share their thoughts on "Too Much" via social media and reminds them to support the podcast through Pop Culture Happy Hour Plus.
"I think ultimately, it mostly worked for me, but I do get it."
(21:09)
Isabella Gomez Sarmiento and Aisha Harris express their gratitude for being part of the conversation, highlighting their enthusiasm for the show's potential and their appreciation for nuanced romantic comedies.
For more discussions and insights on the latest in pop culture, tune into future episodes of Pop Culture Happy Hour.