Lena Dunham's new A-list filled Netflix show is supposed to show us the hilarious differences between Brits and Americans. Sadly, it is full of woke psychobabble and a torturous main character in her 30s who acts like a teenager: CLAUDIA CONNELL

Daily Mail​

12 hours ago

Whenever Hollywood movies depict people living in London, they're invariably shown inhabiting flats they couldn't possibly afford, usually with a view of Tower Bridge or the London Eye from their bedroom window.
So, it's to the credit of new comedy Too Much that when leading character Jess, an exuberant but needy New Yorker, relocates to London, she lives in a shabby flat on a north London council estate - even though it wasn't what she had in mind.
Like so many Americans, Jess (Megan Stalter) grew up with a romanticised view of 'jolly old England'.
She idled away her time in New York bingeing British costume dramas where 'women fan themselves and then die of tuberculosis'. To her, the word 'estate' conjured up visions of something out of a Jane Austen novel with dashing Mr Darcy and Rochester types at every turn - not grey blocks of flats with drug dealers on corners.
The 'estate' misunderstanding is the first of many that occur, when two cultures collide.
Given Jess's love of British rom-coms, it's fitting that this hotly anticipated series is made by Working Title Films, the production company behind such movies as Notting Hill and Love Actually. It's directed by Lena Dunham, creator of the acclaimed and ground-breaking series Girls, and co-written with her British husband Luis Felber, loosely basing the story on their own experience.
When her horribly arrogant American boyfriend, Zev (Michael Zegen) cheats on her with beautiful influencer Wendy (Emily Ratajkowski), Jess agrees to be transferred to the London branch of the media agency she works for to try and mend her broken heart.
Her nephew waves her off with a sage piece of advice, warning her that 'British people think Americans are stupid and vulgar but funny, while Americans think the British are snotty and pretentious but smart'.
Will Sharpe, who plays Jess's love interest Felix, alongside Stalter. Claudia Connell writes: 'I'm not sure how realistic it is that an achingly cool musician like Felix would date a chubby girl who looks like she applies her make up in the dark.'
By the end of episode one, Jess has already landed a British boyfriend. Wannabe rock star Felix (Will Sharpe) introduces her to Jaffa Cakes, explains what 'bog roll' means and as good as moves into her flat after the first date.
What unfolds over ten episodes is a sometimes amusing, but mostly torturous, romp through their burgeoning relationship as they meet each other's friends and family and wonder if they are right for one another.
Dunham's hit series Girls worked so well because it offered a refreshingly realistic look at the lives of women in their 20s. Still works-in-progress, they were feeling their way, trying men on for size and struggling with careers and finances.
Too Much fails to hit its mark because, although her precise age is never given, Jess is in her mid-30s, yet still living the chaotic life of a teenager. She dresses like an oversized toddler in colourful romper suits and white tights, with giant bows in her hair and spends an awful lot of time crying in bathrooms while stalking Wendy - her love rival - online. Her immaturity quickly becomes grating.
The show is at its best when it highlights the differences between Brits and Americans. There's a great scene where Jess's snobby boss, played by Richard E Grant, gives her a list of ten 'American' behaviours to avoid including her habit of announcing when she needs to pee and removing her shoes at her desk.
It's at its worst and most tedious when the episodes - and sadly it's the majority of them - focus on dissecting the minutiae of every relationship. 'I want to hold space for how you're feeling,' is one example of the psychobabble the show is littered with.
It's to be expected that the Millennial characters exist in a weird and woke bubble but, at times, that wokeness feels contrived and shoe-horned in.
Take Jess's older sister (played by Dunham) who is newly single after her husband left her to explore a pansexual lifestyle. Then there's Jess's London colleagues who are cliched to the point of caricature - from the feisty exec toying with lesbianism, to her pink haired male PA, who spends his weekends at ketamine-fuelled orgies.
If it's all meant to be satire, it's just not smart or original enough.
Dunham has done much to speak out about a lack of body diversity in Hollywood and it's good to see Stalter, an actress who isn't a size zero, in the leading role.
Jess spends much of the show semi-naked enjoying her wild sex life, and clearly loves her body.
But to be brutally frank, I'm not sure how realistic it is that an achingly cool musician like Felix would date a chubby girl who looks like she applies her make up in the dark.
'Too Much' is something Felix accuses Jess of being after she has one of her many meltdowns and it's a phrase that Dunham admits her own husband used about her. Not an insult, rather a polite way of saying that sometimes the loud, brash, no-filter American behaviour needs to be toned down.
Although there are laughs along the way and an impressive roll call of A lister cameos (Stephen Fry, Jessica Alba, Rita Ora, Emily Ratajkowski and Jennifer Saunders to name but a few).
I imagine that, for most Brits, the series - and Jess in particular - really will be 'too much'.
Ultimately, there's a fine line between cute and quirky and irritatingly exhausting and Jess (and the series) - sadly - lands the wrong side of it.