Laid

First I want to address the reviews complaining about this show centering around an awful person. This is true. Guess what? That's the premise of Seinfeld, Difficult People, Will and Grace, Curb Your Enthusiasm, VEEP, Girls, Will and Grace, Arrested Development, Strangers with Candy, Archer, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia AND Absolutely Faboulous. This is nothing new, it's not specific to this generation, and I would even say that Laid, if it continues to be as hilarious as it is, will stand among these shows as one of the better comedies, particularly *because* it is about an awful person and still manages to make us (eventually) root for her. If people are complaining about this promise now then you can throw out the last thirty years of comedy too.

Beyond that, the premise it super interesting, the show is well paced and the jokes are very funny throughout. There is a scene in first (maybe second?) episode that is one of the funniest thing I've seen in years.

If you need your characters to be selfless angels in unfunny situations this show is not for you. But if you're looking for something extremely funny and fun give this a chance.

I love a good romance and I love true crime, this show was a nice blend of the two in a way that was, yeah, kind of over the top, but ultimately fun. Ruby isn't really likeable and she's not meant to be but that was kind of endearing and I enjoyed the show from start to finish. She was incredibly selfish but people are and I don't think the heroine in a rom-com needs to be perfect and bubbly and all that each and every time.

I loved her best friend, AJ (back to my own true crime obsession) and her dry delivery of every single line. The dark and raunchy humor was a nice twist and I hope there's a season 2.

The first episode was hard to watch, but you need it because it lays out how horrible Ruby is. It's necessary. It gets so much better and more ridiculous as the season goes on, especially the gravitas Stephanie and Zosia give the most inane situations and conversations. Give it time and get to know the characters. Everyone has a weird and shiny moment, and there's a big laugh almost every episode. There are a couple of surprise guests along the way, adding to the zaniness, although with one of them, I got a little uncomfortable with how she sent up some of her famous history for a laugh, but with the other, who to me will always be the doctor from Lost, I had no complaints. He needs to be a mysterious figure on every show, in my opinion.

I laughed harder at a show than I have in years. (I went to business school...) We had to rewind so many times to hear dialogue we'd missed because we were laughing too hard. Or crying. We did some of that too.

The first one or two episodes moved pretty slowly as the writers took their time in demonstrating the self-involvement of the lead character. But the show picks up quickly and is worth every minute. Every episode brought more laughs than we've had from most comedies. The story arc is almost entirely character-driven, but there is real revelation and development rather than the rinse and repeat cycle of most TV dramas.

We can't wait for a second season.

First.. watch the original 2011 New Zealand show (same title - same premise).

This incarnation of the concept is decent.

Hsu does a fantastic job. No complaints with any of the cast really. The acting across the board is pretty good.

However, the writing is a bit lackluster.. funny in spots for sure, and it shines when the focus is comedy or the dark humor. Unfortunately, this show moves a bit too far into the "sappy" side of things. It's a bit too much of a "love story" overall. Seemingly just sticking with dark humor was not enough. In addition, it gets a tad tiring listening to every single character berate Ruby episode after episode after episode.

If anyone has seen the original NZ version of the show, it's based on the same premise.. "killer v"... but is far, far, far less "sappy" or "love story" oriented. That was the charm of the show originally, the dark nature of the humor without all the over indulgent self-reflection and apparent need to create some drippingly sappy love story.

In this series, by the end of episode 6 the series ending starts getting fairly predictable. It becomes so easy to predict how the last 2 episodes will play out.

Overall.. if they removed all the "love story" stuff it would have been a MUCH better series, but even with that in mind, it wasn't that bad. I don't regret watching it once, but will probably never watch it again. I'd tune in to a renewal, but wouldn't be surprised if one season, ending on that ever-present cliffhanger, is all it gets. The NZ series did have (only) 2 seasons, so there's precedent for that.. we'll see.