Lena Dunham's Too Much is no Girls – and it suffers for it

Too Much is no Girls, make no mistake. Dunham’s TV return wants you to know it has outgrown the sweaty warehouse parties of Bushwick, as it moves the action across the Atlantic for an upbeat romcom.

The filmmaker takes a step back, letting Megan Stalter shine as protagonist Jessica, a New Yorker in need of a change after her ex Zev (Michael Zegen) finds a new girlfriend, influencer Wendy Jones (Emily Ratajkowski) – always rigorously referred to by first and last name.

The relocation is inspired by Dunham’s own move across the pond after a breakup and her encounter with her now husband, musician Luis Felber.

The couple co-created Too Much, with Felber ensuring all the Britishisms and cultural idiosyncrasies were on point to avoid the Emily in Paris effect.

Too Much might nail the less charming aspects of Brit culture, but it remains a fantasy, only marginally more realistic than a comfort Hallmark movie. If any of those were set in an East London estate rather than a quaint Vermont village, that is.

On her first day in the city, Jess is sucked into a whirlwind romance with troubled British indie musician Felix (Will Sharpe). The lead has her fair share of mental health issues and insecurities unveiled across the 10 episodes, each slipping a pun into the titles of beloved romantic movies.

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As Jess and Felix’s fast-forward love affair progresses, Too Much encompasses issues including loneliness, addiction, grief, historical abuse and a host of undiagnosed mental illnesses, though merely waltzes around them, like Lily Allen in the video of LDN.

A sometimes bleak series that hardly elicited a laugh without forcing an uncomfortable introspection, Girls brilliantly blurred the lines of comedy and drama. It also had a more ambiguous approach to toxic relationships, which seems to be the focus of Too Much instead.

Girls' on-again, off-again relationship between Hannah and Adam was acknowledged as unhealthy, though he never truly wised up to his abusive dynamics.

As for Hannah and Jessa, that friendship could never be mended after the ultimate betrayal — she and Adam dated behind Hannah’s back, only for him to go back to his ex.

The former friends had a hard time realising that flaky, noncommittal, irksome Adam was the weak link in their triangle, with Too Much going in the opposite direction.

While it’s refreshing to see Jess and Wendy having some closure about Zev, the series’s insistence on hitting the same peppy, optimistic note risks losing the bite Girls had.

The coffee-less chat between Jess and Wendy is a rare moment of honesty, providing a much more poignant finale than Jess’s romcom happy ending.

However, there’s little truth to be found elsewhere, especially in Zev’s bare-all session with his therapist, a scene that plays like a shoehorned-in epiphany with no prior or further context.

In a chilling admission that almost resembles a serial killer confession, Zev dishes out on his toxic relationship pattern, with his monologue feeling like a stifled segment of wishful thinking.

Enjoyable nonetheless, Too Much is graced by a stacked cast — Rita Wilson, Richard E Grant, Naomi Watts, Andrew Scott and Adèle Exarchopoulos, to name a few — with great performances across the board.

Stalter, who brought her social media persona to her over-the-top role in Hacks, gives a genuinely moving turn as Jess. The star is comfortable in the more comedic bits but holds her own in the dramatic arena too, helping shape the character beyond Dunham’s proxy.

Yet, with Jess’s rose-tinted glasses on, Too Much screeches when it forces an idealistic denouement on its audience.

The series still occasionally showcases Dunham’s distinctive style and flair for characters who are hard to root for, though the tone is much lighter than Girls’ razor-sharpness.

The shift was deliberate on Dunham’s part, whose intention was to make a "unifying and loving and, at the end of the day, hopeful" show, as she revealed during a Tribeca panel.

And she certainly delivered on the hopeful part, with Too Much being more interested in wrapping things with a bow than producing something authentic.

It intentionally, happily settles for Richard Curtis's cosy vibe, miles away from Dunham’s brand of painfully relatable ‘yikes’ that viewers, particularly those who haven't graduated from the chaotic 20-something status, have come to expect.

Defying expectations is essential to make groundbreaking art, but, sadly, it’s not what Too Much does.

In its overcorrecting of the supposed shortcomings that made Girls so flawed and iconic, the writing disappointingly seems too busy selling an imperfect, clichéd fairytale, more similar to the romcom it wants to parody than it thinks.

Embellishing reality was something Girls — a millennial, realer take on Sex and the City, if you will — hardly ever compromised on, pushing second-hand embarrassment and bittersweetness to new, forever memeable heights.

Polarising as it was, it’s still one of best entries in the Messy Millennial TV canon alongside Broad City, a much more humorous, horny and awkward outlook on disorderly womanhood.

There’s a lot of good in Dunham’s latest offering, with Too Much on track to make some end-of-year lists, but Girls fans will be left lukewarm at its polished facade and traditional resolution.

If a lot of cringe and a little schadenfreude are what you’re after, you’ll find out that Too Much is, in fact, not enough.

Too Much is available to stream on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £5.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

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