Review: I Love LA, "Game Night" | Season 1, Episode 6

"There are two types of people, Maia. Those who step into the hurricane and those who run the other way."

With just two episodes left, I Love LA continues to stray further and further from the narrative potential set up by its pilot. The show has mechanically ping-ponged around different sitcom scenarios—reputational drama, schmoozing with talent, having an awkward double-date dinner with the boss and her sensory-sensitive partner—but has struggled to give the conflicts that arise from these situations any real consequence or depth. Despite providing some intermittently amusing moments and subtle character flourishes, the writing has mostly offered meager scraps of information around its ensemble and their relationships to one another, making them less empathetic and interesting by the minute.

Like virtually every contemporary satire now, the satire here wants to have its cake and eat it too, throwing pointed but weak jabs at influencer/transplant culture and the grindset mindset of the current workforce. It all just feels as indecisive, contradictory, and chaotic as Maia, torn between wanting to indulge in the carefree hedonism of a young, bougie LA professional lifestyle and wanting to critique it. Both attempts end up feeling too out of sync with each other to work because neither feel fully thought-out, thus making the whole endeavor a bit muddled and aimless.

The season's sixth episode, "Game Night," doesn't do the show any favors either, as it strains to get Maia and the other characters to the next step in their arcs. For Maia in particular, the pressure to maintain Tallulah's momentum and her own status as an emerging talent manager gets forcibly intensified when she decides to get drinks with her former boss Ben. Ben's introduction comes somewhat out of the blue—we first learn about his presence via a letter he sends to Maia at work—and it feels as though he manifested mainly to just motivate Maia to become more aggressive if she wants to get a step up career-wise. Even with their history of working together, I didn't really buy a lived-in professional relationship between the two, as Ben seems to function less as a real character and more as a cipher who represents the end goal of Maia's aspirations (he lives in New York after all, a place that Maia wants to go back to in the long term).

On top of this dissonance in their dynamic, their conversation at the bar is completely tonally jarring, with director Lorene Scafaria almost shifting into drama/thriller territory by employing unnerving, over-the-shoulder extreme close-up shots of Maia and Ben. Scafaria used a similar technique in the pilot between Maia and Tallulah to gesture at the ominousness of their reunion, but the use of it here is more distracting than effective. I get if this choice was made to demonstrate the tension between Ben's menace and Maia's cognitive dissonance, but it also simultaneously sucks all the humor out of the scene (this is supposed to be a light comedy, not Succession!). I also get if this choice was made to highlight the fruitlessness of Maia's well-meaning desire to do things her own way without needing to bring people down, especially after she witnesses Alyssa struggle to articulate the values of her company during their Forbes interview. But at this point, it's more depressing than intriguing watching Maia continue to justify the soullessness of her profession when it's still unclear what about talent management interests her.

Perhaps Maia doesn't even really know, which might speak to why she drinks more wine while out with Ben, using alcohol to literally suppress her uneasiness around working in this spiritually empty industry. But without providing a clearer emotional context for her actions and leaving too much to interpretation, her behavior ultimately just reads as nihilistic. I guess that's apt for a show that depicts a generation whose worldview and sense of humor is built mainly around nihilism. Regardless, it doesn't necessarily make for a fun or entertaining viewing experience nor does it make its commentary inherently more authentic or honest.

This nihilism trickles its way later in the episode when an incredibly drunk Maia returns home to participate in a game night with Dylan and his fellow teachers. I was happy to see Dylan's professional life brought in a little more, especially since we still haven't gotten much from Dylan in general, but seeing Maia act a complete fool was soooo difficult to watch. For comparison, Hannah Horvath has definitely made me cringe by being wildly inappropriate in front of strangers, but not to such a degree where it's predictable or feels drawn-out to prove a point. With Maia, you pretty much know right from the get-go where her inebriation is gonna take her, so there's just a lot of excruciation in waiting for her to say and do something to embarrass Dylan.

Again, I can see why Maia adopts a newly confrontational attitude, as it seems to reflect her insecurity about her place in their relationship. Dylan's work life looks a lot more socially and professionally fulfilling than hers, what with the the warm, genuine, cross-generational camaraderie between him and his co-workers. So far, though, the show hasn't really depicted Maia acting jealous towards Dylan when it comes to work stuff, and consequently her sudden hostility rings a bit hollow. Similar to Maia, Dylan seems stuck in rationalizing his relationship with her for reasons that continue to go unexplained. Despite Hutcherson's earnest and admirable commitment to the role, I was kind of baffled Dylan didn't realize Maia was clearly out of sorts when she arrives home and didn't think to do anything about it. The script seems more focused on extracting cringe comedy out of the situation by having Maia sleazily make out with Dylan in front of the other teachers and bluntly ask his attractive female co-worker Claire if she wants to fuck him.

I suppose Maia's successful attempt to coax Dylan into having sex with her when he's angry illuminates a little more about why Dylan would enable Maia for this long. His slightly fraught facial expression post-coitus in the final shot vaguely captures some kind of internal push-pull, but much of that attempt at complexity is undone by a question I brought up in last week's review, which is why he wants to be with Maia in the first place. It'd be one thing if he was being conflict-avoidant so as not to disrupt the life they've already built together and it'd be another if he gets off on self-flagellation or dating someone who needs taking care of. However, there's still not much subtext drawn in the story to suggest either and thus little reason to invest in the relationship at all, which makes their rough sex session (and Maia's carnal fantasy for the more alpha Ben) all the more unearned and emotionally incoherent.

Another underwritten relationship that gets briefly revisited in "Game Night" is Charlie's years-long tryst with Andrew, the hunk he sleeps with in episode 2. The two bump into each other at Lukas' funeral, where Andrew informs Charlie that he's moving to New York, a development that Charlie initially dismisses and then inevitably gets angry about. Because Charlie is a more minor character, I didn't necessarily mind this more low-key subplot, especially since it just gave us more time away from the secondhand embarrassment-inducing stress of Maia's A story. At the same time, I didn't care all that much about Charlie's decision to delete his sex tape with Andrew either, particularly when he cries while watching the sex tape and texts Lukas to tell him that he's thinking about jerking off.

It's a moment that seems to try to be both sincere in alluding to Charlie's loneliness and funny in calling back to the Accountability Squad group chat, but it doesn't quite land as either because again, I Love LA hasn't fully fleshed out its characters enough for any of their actions to hold any kind of weight. Does Charlie actually care about Lukas and Andrew and genuinely miss both of them? Or does he text Lukas while watching his sex tape with Andrew simply because the scene helps tie both plot threads together?

There's an argument to be made that it's the former, wherein Charlie has a softer, more vulnerable side to him that he doesn't want other people witnessing, hence why he might've asked Alani to leave the room while he rewatches the sex tape. But because we've barely seen Charlie spend time with Andrew, it's difficult to buy that he would secretly miss him after all this time, so the latter feels more likely. Perhaps losing both Lukas and Mimi Rush made Charlie more nostalgic than usual—Charlie tells Alani that he and Andrew first started hanging out when he was still living in a small apartment in WeHo and styling capes for older female studio execs. That said, Andrew's mention about his move to New York made me realize Charlie's yearning for their relationship could simply be another choice made out of narrative convenience to set up a potential NYC-set finale.

Despite also not being super well-developed, I found Tallulah's C story to be the most compelling of the three subplots from "Game Night," especially after she didn't have much to do in last week's episode. Here, Tallulah encounters some more conflict when her sexuality is put on blast by Ritz Crackers, the latest brand she's collabing with. At the beginning of the episode, Maia lets it slip to the Ritz marketing folks that Tallulah is dating a woman, so naturally, they decide to co-opt her gayness in one of their marketing campaigns.

This joke probably would've worked better a few years ago before corporations started rolling back on their DEI initiatives, but I'll admit that the mural of Tallulah posing with rainbow-colored Ritz crackers made for a very funny sight gag. I also found it really endearing when Tessa puts Tallulah at ease by showing her a video of her making a Hamilton-themed Sunday brunch for a news segment. Tessa's point about sometimes needing to tokenize your identity in order to get paid is also quite salient. Still, I would've liked for there to be a little more exploration of how Tallulah feels about her identity being publicized in this way and how that might create friction between her and Tessa. It's possible the two of covering up the mural with white paint is Tallulah's way of expressing her discomfort or a desire to have more control over how people view her, but much like Maia and Charlie's situations, it still doesn't feel like enough.

Stray observations

• "I was on the jerk off thread. Who among us was on the jerk off thread?"
• Loveeee Maia's cherry earrings. Need me a pair.
• Didn't buy Tallulah not knowing what Hamilton was at all. Felt like the writers were stepping on the joke there a little bit.
• We don't see the text, but Charlie's description of Tallulah's response to Maia's message in their group chat about the Ritz mural did make me laugh: "You sent a picture of SpongeBob and then said, 'Yes, bitch,' dollar sign, dollar sign, dollar sign."
• Although Tessa hasn't really had much screen time, Moses Ingram is doing really solid work in that role. She has a strong presence and I like seeing the warmth and silliness she brings out of A'zion. Plus, her Hamilton food rap and her semi-earnest/semi-embarrassed delivery was also quite funny.
• Another performer I haven't discussed much is former SNL cast member Ashley Holt as Alyssa's assistant Courtney. She's another character I think could stand to be a bit funnier, but Holt does a good job playing up her obsequiousness.
• Maia and Tallulah seem to be on good terms, so the tension teased at the beginning of the season seems to have all but evaporated. Makes me wonder what will ultimately become of their relationship in these next two episodes.