{"id":261426,"date":"2025-10-30T20:06:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T20:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/261426\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T20:06:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T20:06:07","slug":"critics-weigh-in-on-rachel-sennotts-new-hbo-comedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/261426\/","title":{"rendered":"Critics weigh in on Rachel Sennott\u2019s new HBO comedy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rachel Sennott\u2019s I Love L.A.<\/a> is earning applause \u2014 and a few eye rolls \u2014 from critics ahead of its HBO debut on Nov 2. The eight-episode comedy follows a codependent friend group that reunites, navigating how time apart, ambition, and new relationships have changed them. The series currently holds a 76 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with most reviewers praising Sennott\u2019s sharp, self-aware satire and confident ensemble, while some argue it barely skims the surface of the influencer world it aims to skewer.<\/p>\n

At RogerEbert.com<\/a>, Clint Worthington calls the show \u201cuproarious\u201d and \u201ca stare down the barrel at the age of Internet \u2018it\u2019 girls,\u201d praising Sennott\u2019s voice as both acerbic and insightful. He says the series \u201cfinds a beautiful cadence for the kind of tossed-off, vocal-fry-laden witticisms these like-obsessed sociopaths spill from their mouths,\u201d arguing that the creator-star \u201ccaptures her setting and cohort perfectly.\u201d<\/p>\n

More from Gold Derby<\/p>\n

IndieWire\u2019s<\/a> Ben Travers draws comparisons to HBO\u2019s Girls but says Sennott\u2019s show \u201clargely avoids the reductive label of \u2018Girls: L.A.\u2019 by piling on its own steady (and stealthy) jokes.\u201d While noting it doesn\u2019t quite deliver the \u201csavage satire promised by the pilot,\u201d he grades the season a B+, commending its \u201cmix of empathy and acrimony\u201d and calling the ensemble \u201ca tight-knit crew out to get theirs before the world comes crashing down.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over at The Hollywood Reporter<\/a>, Angie Han describes I Love L.A. as \u201cfitfully charming, frequently exhausting,\u201d writing that \u201cits perspective is that of a New York transplant trying and failing to convince herself she does love Los Angeles.\u201d Though she finds the early episodes uneven, Han praises Sennott\u2019s performance as Maia, saying that by the second half \u201cthe series starts to find its footing\u201d as it embraces \u201ca subtle and ever-changing mix of unease, desire, excitement and devastation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sharpest criticism comes from USA Today\u2019s<\/a> Kelly Lawler, who labels the series \u201ca masturbatory (literally and figuratively) prestige TV fantasy of the chronically online.\u201d Rating it one-and-a-half stars out of four, she contends that Sennott and her cast are \u201cshallower than a puddle in the desert\u201d and that I Love L.A. \u201ccan\u2019t find authentic feeling anywhere in its eight-episode first season because it is so bogged down by its cool-girl aesthetic and party-all-night vibes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, most reviewers agree that Sennott\u2019s satirical instincts and fearless self-portraiture make her one of the most distinctive new voices on HBO. Even the detractors acknowledge flashes of brilliance \u2014 particularly in her chemistry with Odessa A\u2019zion as a toxic-but-tender influencer duo whose friendship teeters between codependence and collapse.<\/p>\n

I Love L.A. debuts Sunday on HBO and airs weekly through Dec. 21.<\/p>\n

Best of Gold Derby<\/p>\n

Sign up for Gold Derby’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Click here to read the full article. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rachel Sennott\u2019s I Love L.A. is earning applause \u2014 and a few eye rolls \u2014 from critics ahead…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[88,77398,1035,46919,17108],"class_list":{"0":"post-261426","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-gold-derby","10":"tag-hbo","11":"tag-rachel-sennott","12":"tag-rotten-tomatoes"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}