{"id":363313,"date":"2025-12-22T08:22:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T08:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/363313\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T08:22:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T08:22:08","slug":"i-love-la-creator-rachel-sennott-unpacks-season-1-finale-episode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/363313\/","title":{"rendered":"I Love LA Creator Rachel Sennott Unpacks Season 1 Finale Episode"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from the Season 1 finale of HBO<\/a>\u2018s I Love LA<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe first season of Rachel Sennott<\/a>\u2018s comedy series I Love LA does not end in the city it wrestles to make sense of through the lens of a bunch of 20-somethings but, perhaps, its greatest rival: New York. <\/p>\n

\n\tAfter undermining her boss and being fired from her job at Alyssa180, Maia (Sennott) has maxed out her credit cards to make sure that her best friend and only client Tallulah (Odessa A\u2019zion) can attend a flashy East Coast influencer dinner. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think both [cities] are characters in the show, kind of, and I think that New York sort of represents their past,\u201d Sennott told Deadline of why she decided to venture from the West Coast for the final episode. \u201cI feel like throughout the show, especially [with] Tallulah appearing from New York and Maia sort of having this iffy perspective on LA and the pull of the past still being there, I kind of wanted them to go back and face their demons and then leave being like, \u2018We\u2019re going back to LA.\u2019 Like the last line is literally, \u2018God, I miss LA.\u2019 So I think that\u2019s where that came from.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMaia\u2019s taken a big chance on Tallulah, whose loyalty to her friend is often undercut by her utter lack of self awareness. That\u2019s on full display in the beginning of the episode when, at a fitting for the dinner, Tallulah decides she doesn\u2019t really like the dress that the stylist has chosen for her and decides to steal another one off his racks instead. That would be a faux pas under most circumstances, but especially when Maia lost her job to make sure that Tallulah was able to meet and make a good impression on said stylist.<\/p>\n

\n\tTo be fair, her boss Alyssa (Leighton Meester) wasn\u2019t exactly being altruistic either, having lied to Maia and stolen her meeting so that she could pitch her own client to the stylist. In the older woman\u2019s eyes, that\u2019s just showbiz, baby. But, after an entire season of letting Alyssa steamroll all over her, Maia finds her voice and is not about to let anyone \u2014 even her boss \u2014 ruin this moment for her.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think Alyssa is torn a little bit, because she wants to support Maia and uplift her, but to a point, you know what I mean?\u201d Sennott explains. \u201cMaia is kind of doing things a little recklessly and a little different and not by the book, but I think she sort of has to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOr, at least, Maia feels like she doesn\u2019t have another choice, even if she theoretically could play by Alyssa\u2019s rules and probably still be quite successful. It\u2019s a dynamic that young women, particularly of Sennott\u2019s generation (and mine), are likely familiar with. I suggest that, in some ways, it reflected the tension between older women who have succeeded in industries that weren\u2019t designed to meaningfully include them and those coming up under them who might have decided that the only way forward is to break the system and start over.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYes, oh my God, I wish I said that,\u201d Sennott interjects. \u201cThat was really good\u2026because the other thing is, you get frustrated by the system, and you go, \u2018f*ck the system, I\u2019m gonna do my own thing.\u2019 And then you start to do your own thing, [and] you\u2019re like, \u2018God damn it, it\u2019s hard.\u2019 And then the system goes, \u2018Hey, now that you\u2019ve started to do your own thing, we have a place for you here in the system.\u2019 And it\u2019s really tempting to not go, \u2018Ooh, let me get in there, because now they\u2019ve got an opening for me.\u2019 You know?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs with many aspects of Maia\u2019s arc in I Love LA, her decision not only to stand up to Alyssa but to also decline a new and very lucrative job from her former boss Ben (Colin Woodell) felt reflective of Sennott\u2019s own rise through the film and television industry, she says.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFresh out of school, I always wanted to be accepted by the cool film bros, and I felt like they rejected me. They didn\u2019t care about me. Then I was like, \u2018I wonder if there\u2019s any cool feminists out there who can help, and then you look to a woman who\u2019s maybe a little older than you to uplift you, and\u2026\u201d she stops herself. \u201cI don\u2019t want to generalize it all, like, all guys are evil, or all feminists are fake. I\u2019m not trying to say that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat she is trying to say is \u201call the opportunities that I got really early on in my career came from me and my friends, and I kept waiting for someone to reach out and give me something, and then all the opportunities came from looking to who was right next to me and the stuff we did together,\u201d she explains. \u201cIt\u2019s scarier to go and do something on your own. It\u2019s scarier to not lean into someone who already has power. I think sometimes I was like, \u2018I can\u2019t be funny on my own\u2026if the cool comedy guys or the cool film guys or whatever, except me, then I\u2019ll be successful.’\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tUltimately, what she learned, is that the arrogant film bros and the gatekeeping feminists were \u201cjust a different brand of dealing with the same sh*t.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBut, for every modicum of growth in one\u2019s 20s, it feels like there are an infinite number of other set backs, wrong decisions and confusing situations to work your way through. So, while Maia has certainly grown in her professional life, she\u2019s got a bit of a mess waiting for her back home in her personal life. <\/p>\n

\n\tMaia and her boyfriend Dylan (Josh Hustcherson) are on the outs after Maia completely embarrasses herself at Dylan\u2019s game night with his co-workers. Dylan feels like Maia constantly prioritizes work and her friends over their relationship, but Maia feels like Dylan doesn\u2019t always truly understand her or highly regard what she\u2019s working toward. It comes to a head when Maia senses a bit of chemistry between Dylan and another young teacher at this game night, and, unfortunately, lets the worst version of herself take over in those interactions. <\/p>\n

\n\tIn the finale, the two are on a break, and Maia is fully prepared to cheat on Dylan with her hot former boss Ben, but when she goes to his hotel room, he basically humiliates her by coercing her into masturbating in front of him, giving nothing in return. While the situation is an eye-opening one for Maia, what she doesn\u2019t yet know is that Dylan has also cheated on her\u2026with that teacher he assured her that he was definitely not attracted to.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe whole season, everyone\u2019s like, \u2018Oh my God, [Maia\u2019s] such a bitch.\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018Okay, but have you ever tried to have a job and support your boyfriend?\u2019 It\u2019s a lot, you know?\u201d she tells me. <\/p>\n

\n\tFor the record, she thinks that both of them make valid points and, while it\u2019s hard to imagine Maia is going to react well to ever finding out about Dylan\u2019s rendezvous, the most exciting place to be as a writer is in a situation that has no clear answer.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe relationships I had when I was younger, I always kind of viewed it through this lens of like, \u2018I\u2019m the victim and everything anyone else does is wrong,\u2019 and I think as I got older, you have relationships where you\u2019re like, \u2018This isn\u2019t a bad person. I still love this person. I still have love for them in my heart, but we are not meant to be together,’\u201d she says. \u201cI think sometimes that\u2019s even more heartbreaking, because you can\u2019t walk away and villainize that person, and I really didn\u2019t want to villainize either of them. I really wanted to hit that balance of like, obviously she should have texted him that she stabbed herself, but also, she\u2019s not wrong for wanting more and pushing herself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs for how that\u2019s all going to pan out, we\u2019ll have to wait and see. I Love LA was renewed for Season 2 last month<\/a>, so Sennott says she\u2019s still sorting through the possibilities of where to go from here. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think there are so many places we can go from here, and I have a lot of ideas, but I\u2019m excited to get into the writers room too and talk them through with everyone and see, because I think we teed ourselves up for a lot of action, but we can go in different directions with it, which I think is really exciting,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\n\tIn some ways, Sennott, like Maia, is still finding her voice. There\u2019s been plenty of online discussion about the freshman season of her comedy series, which is the first major project that she\u2019s created, as it settled into itself over the course of eight episodes. The multi-hyphenate 30-year-old says she, personally, thinks she fell into a rhythm in Episode 6 \u2014 the infamous game night. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat\u2019s where I feel like we lean into who the character is, or the best comedy elements of Maia,\u201d she says, adding that the series \u201ckeeps discovering itself as it goes and hopefully deepens and gets funnier and better as it goes on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShe continued: \u201cI would so much rather have people like the show more as it goes on than the reverse. Do you know that meme that\u2019s a horse and the beginning of the horse is drawn really well, and then the horse gets [really bad]? I would rather have people be like, \u2018Oh, I like it more as I go\u2019 instead of the horse meme.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAll eight episodes of the first season of I Love LA are currently streaming on HBO Max.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from the Season 1 finale of HBO\u2018s I Love LA. The first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[88,1035,76711,46919,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-363313","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-hbo","10":"tag-i-love-la","11":"tag-rachel-sennott","12":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363313","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=363313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}