haitangkitty

I recently finished the new Rachel Senott HBO series I Love LA. It's an American satire on influencers. I've watched only romance media these past years so this was a nice change.

The characters are almost as insufferable as in Girls (2012-2017), but gladly this series is more fun and sympathetic about the characters. The series is about a young talent agent and her influencer friend and how she ends up being her client. The influencer, Tallulah (played by Odessa A'Zion), is a very magnetic character who cannot be restricted, which causes a lot of dilemmas throughout the series. In order to please sponsors and talent agencies the main characters have to play by their rules. Lot of the conflicts have to do with whether to dim your light and make money or be yourself and broke? The influencer is just a tool to get money for all these people. Only person who sees her worth is her friend, who struggles with having her best friend as her client. Does capitalism get in the way of friendship and genuine connection and self-expression?

I also like how the critique isn't just about "these dumb talentless women get rich on social media", but about how the industry/culture works in general. The power imbalances, money hungriness, backstabbing, and desperation are all depicted as something quite normal and annoying rather than dramatic. The series is really well written, Rachel Senott being Gen-Z and niche online celebrity herself she really understands it instead of someone looking from outside and being like "social media is bad". It's so interesting to look inside of it since I'm just a basic person scrolling and watching all the trends and controversies.

What I loved about this series is that at the heart of it it's really about friendship.