I Love LA<\/a><\/p>\nRoger & Munchy<\/p>\n
\n Season 1<\/p>\n
Episode 2\n <\/p>\n
\n Editor\u2019s Rating<\/p>\n
4 stars<\/p>\n
****\n <\/p>\n
\n Maia and Tallulah are back to their old ways, much to Dylan and Charlie\u2019s surprise.
\n Photo: HBO\n <\/p>\n
Every person who moves to Los Angeles in search of success, fame, or whatever unholy mash-up of the two they can get will inevitably mix friendship with business. But what does that actually look like on a day-to-day basis? And how the hell do you draw boundaries? The only real attempt in this episode to describe the difficulty of Maia\u2019s position as Tallulah\u2019s manager comes from Maia\u2019s chirpy co-worker (Lauren Holt, a treat every time). Her analogy of choice is a doozy (\u201cIt\u2019s like when I tell guys on the first date that I want a C-section\u201d), but the message is right. Things are different for Maia and Tallulah now, whether they want to admit it or not.<\/p>\n
But when Maia takes Tallulah out for coffee, she can barely say, \u201cI want to talk to you about your career,\u201d before making fun of herself. Then, as she tries to launch into a pitch for \u201cgetting into the health and fitness space,\u201d her first task instead becomes keeping Tallulah from getting arrested.<\/p>\n
When athleisure blonde Paulena (Annalisa Cochrane) looks across the coffee shop and recognizes Tallulah, she makes a huge scene asking for her Balenciaga bag back. Maia\u2019s horrified to realize that the bag was stolen; Tallulah\u2019s mostly just annoyed she got caught. After pouring out all of Tallulah\u2019s earthly possessions \u2014\u00a0loose cash, thongs, several vapes, Bubble Tape \u2014 Paulena takes the bag and flounces off, leaving Tallulah vibrating with rage and Maia quietly panicking. If she wants to make Tallulah marketable to the Midwest (because \u201cthat\u2019s when we buy houses!\u201d), she has her work cut out for her.<\/p>\n
That night at Alani\u2019s, though, Maia clocks out of professional mode to slip back into the rhythms of best friendship. As they knock back wine and laugh at Paulena\u2019s ugly plastic-jewelry line, Charlie asks Alani what Maia and Tallulah\u2019s deal is, anyway (or in his words: \u201cWhy are they being lesbians?\u201d). Alani, as ever, is unfazed. \u201cThey\u2019ve always been super codependent,\u201d she shrugs. \u201cIn college, there was a year when they only called each other \u2018Roger\u2019 and \u2018Munchy.\u2019\u201d Charlie doesn\u2019t love this reminder of his friends\u2019 lives before he met them. \u201cUgh, I hate inside jokes,\u201d he says, rolling his eyes. \u201cIt\u2019s like, why not me, involved?\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Dylan\u2019s spending his evening reading up on WWII, as per normie-teacher boyfriend tradition. Once Drunk Maia gets home, she perches precariously atop his lap and asks if he can \u201cmake [the Third Reich] horny.\u201d The fact that this seems to work for Dylan is a real win for the \u201copposites attract\u201d theory. But they only get a chance to half make out before Tallulah stumbles in, forcing Dylan to scramble to make himself decent as the reunited besties squeal. Suddenly, he\u2019s become the third wheel in his own apartment.<\/p>\n
The next day, we join Charlie at work as a stylist for rising pop star Mimi Rush, played by Ayo Edebiri with a British accent, mullet wig, and bleached eyebrows. Blowing vape smoke in Charlie\u2019s face, Mimi reveals that she wants Zendaya to play her mother in a music video. (For as amazing as it\u2019s been to watch Edebiri become America\u2019s Sweetheart, Mimi\u2019s a solid reminder of how fun it is to watch her play such a purely delusional character.) Charlie short-circuits trying to imagine it, \u201cbecause of \u2026 the age \u2026 that she is.\u201d Fair, tbh!<\/p>\n
Mimi\u2019s assistant clarifies Zendaya hasn\u2019t responded to any of their mood boards, actually. Sensing danger, Charlie doubles down on sucking up. \u201cI\u2019ve heard she does this,\u201d he lies. When employed by a minor celebrity with major insecurity, the move is convincing them that they\u2019re not the problem. He spends the rest of the episode desperately searching for evidence that Zendaya\u2019s a secret monster and not only fails but loses his job once his clumsy digging gets back to Mimi. She makes him return the clothes he\u2019s scored from her closet \u2014 in person, until he\u2019s almost naked in the middle of a scene-y Eagle Rock restaurant, where his designer-jacket hookup dies alongside his dignity. RIP.<\/p>\n
We also get a window into Alani\u2019s whole deal, and it is \u2026 wild. In True Whitaker\u2019s hands, it\u2019s also extremely funny. Not only is her delivery hilarious, but having Forest Whitaker\u2019s daughter play an unabashed Hollywood nepo baby is a sly bit of meta casting that pays off big time here. While picking up a package at her dad\u2019s office, Alani \u2014 a.k.a. the company\u2019s absentee \u201cVP of Creative Projects\u201d \u2014 horrifies a \u201cGen-Z Clueless\u201d writers\u2019 room into silence with her high-school stories of L.A. debauchery past. They were ready for anecdotes about making out in convertibles, not \u201cmy 28-year-old boyfriend was so annoying about his newborn.\u201d In stark contrast to her friends, Alani\u2019s never experienced shame a day in her life, but she sure has experienced a lot!<\/p>\n
Still, this episode\u2019s prize for \u201cDoing the Most\u201d has to go to Paulena. Sure, yes, Tallulah stole her bag. But Paulena\u2019s threat of filing a police report is apparently indicative of her entire ethos, which is dangling nuclear-level threats (e.g., extortion, calling CPS on capable parents, etc) against anyone who won\u2019t give her exactly what she wants. Hoping to keep her from pulling that trigger, Tallulah invites her over for a home-cooked meal with a side of groveling.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not enough. Paulena insists they all do coke with her \u2014 including Dylan, who unwittingly gives up a perfect bit of potential blackmail when he reveals that he\u2019s a teacher minutes before snorting her drugs. Not ideal. When it becomes clear that she\u2019s not planning to leave anytime soon, Tallulah and Maia hatch a plan to force her out by fighting fire with fire: faking an absolute fucking meltdown that can scare even the likes of Paulena away.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately for Dylan, there\u2019s no time to let him in on it, leaving him completely confused when Maia turns her faux fury on him for allegedly staring at Paulena\u2019s tits. \u201cWhen I jerk off, I literally think about you!\u201d he sputters. \u201cWhen I look for porn, I look for girls who look like you!\u201d Maia, embracing her chaotic character, shatters a plate of food, grabs a kitchen knife, and screams, \u201cYou watch PORN? Should I kill myself on Instagram Live or TikTok Live?!?!\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s Tallulah\u2019s cue. As Maia wails in the background, she tells Paulena that she\u2019ll probably go to jail if Maia kills herself after taking her drugs. Paulena panics and gets the hell out of there in record time. Dylan can only look on in shock as Maia and Tallulah celebrate \u2014 too soon, as it turns out.<\/p>\n
Paulena\u2019s almost in an Uber before she makes a last-minute decision to \u201cmake a poor addict\u2019s day\u201d and give Tallulah the Balenciaga bag. Instead, when she gets back to the apartment, she overhears Maia and Tallulah laughing about how dumb she is. Livid \u2014 and, lest we forget, high out of her mind \u2014 Paulena leaves, records a scathing video naming Tallulah as a bag thief, and posts it. Nuclear option thus deployed, all she has to do is sit back and let her followers tear Tallulah\u2019s reputation into shreds.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Another bit of very good nepo casting that I somehow missed the first time around: Odessa A\u2019zion is, indeed, Pamela Adlon\u2019s kid. Should I have known the second she opened her mouth and that rasp fell out? Probably! But here we are.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Even more so than the pilot, this episode has a ton of great one-liners. For instance:<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t want to be, like, 35 and posting to your Depop account.\u201d
\n \u201cI think you don\u2019t understand because you don\u2019t have a brain for film. You have a brain for clothes \u2026 and being gay.\u201d
\n \u201cShe stays up all night and breaks all the mirrors in the house! She calls it \u2018bad luck patrol.\u2019\u201d
\n \u201cYou were boho. I made you cunt.\u201d<\/p>\n
If I missed any, here\u2019s your open invite to add and\/or correct me in the comments. Have at it!<\/p>\n
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