'Too Much' review: Lena Dunham's new show is just enough

The Herald Scotland

11-07-2025

So there's a poignancy to Stalter's Jessica, a boisterous woman who feels like she needs to button up. And while her actions are sometimes more extreme than the average woman might relate to (the series opens with Jessica breaking into her ex's apartment), her struggle is infinitely relatable. "Too Much" thrives on the quiet, intimate dialogue, whether between Jessica and her new beau Felix (Will Sharpe, "The White Lotus"), or journal-like videos she makes while pretending she's speaking to her ex's new fiancee. It's a series built on talking, on the conversations that make us fall in love or discover ourselves or other people. And it never really feels like there's too much of that.
When we meet Jessica, she's at her lowest. Aimless after being dumped by her long-term boyfriend (Michael Zegen) for a social media influencer, she gets a work opportunity in London that seemingly will give her a chance to start over. But she can't stop watching TikToks of that new fiancee (Emily Ratajkowski) and worrying that every move she makes is a mistake.
On her first night out, she meets Felix, a sober musician who has gotten close but never hit it big, and has his own troubled past with relationships. They're instantly drawn to each other, although Jessica vacillates between not believing Felix is attracted to her and worrying that he's a "red flag" guy. The pair bumble and fumble through the early, heady days of attraction and connection, while each also struggles in their professional lives.
More: Meg Stalter mastered the art of cringe comedy. Now, she's ready to show you her 'earnest' side.
The series is the apex of cringe comedy, luxuriating in the awkward moments between characters and focusing on the banalities and uncomfortable moments of life with a zoomed-in lens. Although the humor can be too edgy and the stories can drag on a hair too long (like so many streaming shows, the series could do with shaving a few minutes off each episode), "Too Much" is a thoughtful, affable show about finding yourself and finding love. Stalter and Sharpe make a dynamic pair, surrounded by famous guest stars ranging from Rita Wilson to Naomi Watts to Dunham herself and set against a grungy London aesthetic.
It's refreshing to see a series built around someone like Jessica, all sharp corners and untapped potential, looking and sounding more like a real woman than any Hallmark big-city girl ever could be. She's awkward with a deep need to be liked, a defensive response to a world that doesn't always welcome plus-size women with big personalities with open arms. She has a habit of entering wild conversations (she is willing to discuss sex and medical problems with a staggering number of recent acquaintances) and has a neediness that radiates off the screen. Some viewers might hate her as much as the internet hated Dunham's "Girls" character Hannah Horvath, but nobody will treat Jessica as poorly as she treats herself.
Stalter and Dunham are a match made in a very awkward heaven. Despite their generational divide they have a shared language of comedy. The series is semi-autobiographical for Dunham (with Felix as a stand-in for Dunham's music producer ex Jack Antonoff), and if she isn't the person to play herself in the story, Stalter is an excellent stand-in.
The series is very funny and sweet, but also at times distinctly melancholy, and it navigates its different moods gracefully. The series is entirely influenced by Jessica's complex emotions and personality, which would surprise the excessively humble protagonist greatly. At one point Jessica tells Felix that adulthood is constantly having to do things you don't want to do. When Will replies that he believes it's about making time to do what you really want, Jessica doesn't know how to respond. Life, as far as she's lived it, has never been about her.
Thankfully, she's got a Netflix series all to herself now.