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Graziadaily
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Graziadaily
Netflix's Too Much: Why Criticism Of The 'Sexual Chemistry' Feels Barbed
A week after Lena Dunham's second major TV project since Girls landed on Netflix and critics have, for the most part, been surprisingly ungenerous. Aside from claims that Too Much is an 'underbaked disappointment' and 'not as good as Girls ', plenty of reviews have referenced the protagonists', Jessica (Megan Stalter) and Felix (Will Sharpe), distinct lack of chemistry. Given that the romantic comedy – which is loosely based on co-creators Dunham and Luis Felber's own romance – tracks Felix and Jessica's relationship from their first meeting to their wedding day, and that they have sex in almost every episode, this criticism rings alarm bells. What exactly do they mean? What were they hoping for? In what ways did Stalter and Sharpe, or indeed the directors, fall short on this front? The Hollywood Reporter , for one, accused the Netflix series of having 'intimacy issues', admitting that there is plenty of 'enthusiastic sex' and 'confessional conversation' but too few 'lingering gazes' or 'intense close-ups'. This seems fair. Their critic called Jessica and Felix's romance 'sweet enough to like but too cool to fall head over heels for' and writes that 'for a whirlwind romance, Too Much feels awfully dispassionate'. This I might question. Meanwhile, The Atlantic wrote that 'romance on-screen has never been colder'. The review reads, 'Two years ago, on a New Yorker podcast lamenting the modern state of the rom-com, Alexandra Schwartz noted that the most crucial quality for any romance is this: 'You have to believe that these two people want to be together, and you have to buy in.' On this front, Too Much barely even tries.' Adding that Felix and Jessica have 'almost negative chemistry', they claim the pair stay together 'out of what feels like inertia'. Let's put a pin in that one too. Elsewhere in a Reddit thread discussing the Netflix show, one user wrote that the scene where Jessica gets an Uber to join Felix's protest on the M25 and confess her love for him 'fell totally flat' and made them realise 'they really had no chemistry'. Another review for The Arts Fuse called Jessica 'an infuriating heroine who is very difficult to root for' – surely penned by someone unfamiliar with Girls – and adds, 'I wondered what Felix saw in her, especially since their romantic chemistry is sorely lacking (a point underscored by their many cringeworthy sex scenes).' Lena Dunham, Megan Statler and Will Sharpe at the Too Much UK screening. (Photo by) 'I wondered what Felix saw in her, especially since their romantic chemistry is sorely lacking.' The Arts Fuse While it's unlikely any of these critics had ill intentions, the suggestions that Felix and Jessica have 'negative chemistry', that their romance is 'dispassionate' or that their sex scenes are 'cringeworthy' feel suspicious – and familiar. In ten episodes we see the protagonists stay up all night talking about everything from their childhoods to Paddington Bear , we see them get jealous of one another, we seem them argue, we see them look after each other, move in together and slowly surrender themselves to their expansive and overwhelming feelings. In any sense, it's hard to imagine how this could be deemed dispassionate. Both Felix and Jessica are hapless, chaotic people with a distinct lack of order and purpose in their everyday lives. The fact they are drawn to each other against all odds can only be explained by the inexplicable – as is often the case in real life. Their connection is largely inconvenient and illogical, which is exactly why it's so romantic. We saw similar critique crop up after the hotly anticipated release of One Day on Netflix last year. A review in The New Statesman called the series 'a romcom without any chemistry' and decried the adaptation as 'unconvincing'. Meanwhile The Times called out 'the slightly lacking chemistry between the two main actors', Ambika Mod (who played Emma Morley) and Leo Woodall (who played Dexter Mayhew). We saw it again when Nicola Coughlan's character Penelope Featherington was announced as the romantic lead of season three of Bridgerton . Starring opposite Luke Newton's Colin Bridgerton, it didn't take long before some disparaging think pieces concluded that Coughlan does not have what it takes to be a leading lady. 'Reader, she is not hot, and there is no escaping it,' reads a particularly mean-spirited review in The Spectator. 'Coughlan is an actress of great value, and might be adored, but she is simply not plausible as the friend who would catch the handsome rich aristocrat Colin Bridgerton's eye in that way.' The difference between the latter critique and the former is that it is not so thinly veiled. What all three shows have in common is an unconventional romantic pairing as their leads, whether in terms of race, body shape or beauty standards at large. It is hard to distinguish the shared 'lack of chemistry' criticism leveraged at all three shows from this fact – even if, thankfully, it remains in the minority. Instead, it shows what actors, producers and casting directors are up against. As a forward-thinking society, we claim we want to see more diversity on screen, and for it not to become the sole focus or storyline. However, three big budget Netflix shows that have attempted to do just that have been labelled unconvincing and unromantic – perhaps the worst thing a romcom can be called. Someone who has thought about this dichotomy a great deal after experiencing it first hand is Mod herself. 'You have a double whammy in this adaptation where a lot of people who know the story and read the book or watched the film probably didn't picture an Emma who looked like me,' she told Glamour . Speaking about the wildly different receptions she and her co-star Woodall received from fans, she added: 'The romance genre can be a double-edged sword at points. For a long time, it has not been a genre that's been respected because it's mainly for women, and now it's having a sort of resurgence. But it always seems to be the male characters and the male protagonists and the male actors who are elevated from having done a rom-com, and it's the female characters who don't get the same recognition, who don't get the same elevation, who don't get the same moment.' The comment about Stalter being 'an infuriating heroine' springs to mind. As does the widespread adoration of Sharpe since the show aired. To tackle this pattern, which has in turn become a problem, it seems like society's gripes with unconventional, complex and diverse female leads is a good place to start. Until we can not only accept but embrace these characters, TV creators will be hard pushed to convince audiences that their romances are worth rooting for. Let's hope the viewing figures – an area where all three shows triumph – continue to successfully drown out the negativity. As Jessica, Emma and Penelope serve to prove, there's great power in numbers.
Boston Globe
18-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Jesse Colin Young, singer who urged everyone to ‘Get Together,' dies at 83
Advertisement 'The lyrics are just to die for,' Mr. Young told the website The Arts Fuse in 2018. 'To this day, it gives me a thrill to play it.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up He composed many other key pieces of the Youngbloods' repertoire during their prime in the late 1960s, including the brooding 'Darkness, Darkness,' which reflected the terror he imagined US soldiers were experiencing during the Vietnam War; 'Sunlight,' a ravishing ode to passionate love; and 'Ride the Wind,' a jazzy paean to freedom. The lyrics to many of Mr. Young's songs celebrated the gifts nature gives, from the dreamy play of sunlight on skin to the unfettered sweep of wind in the hair. "Love of the natural world is as much a theme in my music as romantic love," he told the website Music Aficionado in 2016. "I get more out of walking over the ridgetop in Marin and looking out at the national seashore than any drugs I ever did" — a reference to the Northern California county where he lived for much of his career. Mr. Young's voice was as sensuous as his words. Blessed with a boyishly high pitch, and with the ability to bend a lyric with the ease that a great dancer uses to navigate a delicate move, he balanced his innocent character with a sophisticated musicality. His phrasing, like his composing, drew from a wealth of genres, including folk, jug-band music, psychedelia, R&B, and jazz, both traditional and modern. The same sources informed his solo work, notably a string of successful albums he released in the mid-1970s, including 'Light Shine' and 'Songbird,' each of which broke Billboard's Top 40. Advertisement Although the Youngbloods' albums never enjoyed as much chart success, their songs proved popular on FM stations of the era and inspired covers by several major artists, including Robert Plant, whose take on 'Darkness, Darkness' earned a Grammy nomination for best male rock performance in 2002. It has also been interpreted by more than a dozen others, including Mott the Hoople, Richie Havens, and Eric Burdon. While the legacy of 'Get Together' highlighted the careers of both Mr. Young and the Youngbloods, they weren't the first act to record it. Valenti cut his own version in 1963, although it wasn't issued until three years later, by which time renditions had appeared by the Folkswingers (as an instrumental), the Kingston Trio, and Jefferson Airplane, who featured it on their debut album. After the Youngbloods' hit, the song was rendered by many other artists, including Joni Mitchell and Nancy Wilson of Heart. Nirvana sarcastically included some of its words in the 1991 song 'Territorial Pissings.' The Youngbloods' version later appeared on the 'Forrest Gump' soundtrack and was even covered by Lisa Simpson in an episode of 'The Simpsons.' Oddly, the song didn't become a hit the first time the Youngbloods released it on their debut album in 1967. Only after it was featured in a major public service announcement by the National Conference of Christians and Jews, and pushed by an ambitious A&R person at RCA Victor, the band's record company, did it reach the charts in 1969. Advertisement Jesse Colin Young was born Perry Miller on Nov. 22, 1941, in the New York City borough of Queens to Fredrick Miller, an accountant, and Doryce (Vansciver) Miller, a violinist and singer. He chose his Western-sounding stage name in the early 1960s by melding the monikers of the outlaws Jesse James and Cole Younger, as well as Formula One designer and engineer Colin Chapman. Encouraged by his parents, he studied piano as a child and as a teenager won a scholarship to attend Phillips Academy in Andover. He studied classical guitar there, although he preferred playing Everly Brothers songs. He later enrolled in Ohio State University, where he lived behind a record store, which exposed him to the music of blues artists such as T-Bone Walker and B.B. King. After transferring to New York University, he became entranced by the thriving Greenwich Village folk scene and quit school to play music full time. Soon after that, he met jazz pianist and songwriter Bobby Scott. Scott connected him to Capitol Records, which released Mr. Young's first album in 1964, 'The Soul of a City Boy,' a raw acoustic collection of folk and blues songs. His follow-up, 'Young Blood,' had a similar sound. While playing in Cambridge, he met guitarist Jerry Corbitt, and the two formed the Youngbloods, rounded out by pianist and guitarist Lowell Levinger, known as Banana, and drummer Joe Bauer. Because there were two other guitarists in the band, Mr. Young had switched to bass by the time the Youngbloods became the house band at the Café Au Go Go in the Village. Advertisement That exposure helped earn them a contract with RCA, which released their debut album. The contract allowed them to choose their own producer, and they chose Felix Pappalardi, who was well known in folk circles but who would soon become better known for producing albums by Cream and for being a member of the hard-rock band Mountain. On the Youngbloods' albums, Mr. Young dominated the lead vocals, although some were handled by Corbitt or Levinger, both of whom also wrote some of the group's songs. Mr. Young discovered 'Get Together' after hearing Buzzy Linhart play it at a club in the Village. 'The heavens opened and my life changed,' he told Goldmine magazine in 2021. 'I knew that song was my path forward.' By the group's third album, Corbitt had developed a fear of flying and left. (He died in 2014.) By that time the group had relocated to California, inspired by the temperate weather and generous West Coast radio play that made them more popular there than they had been in New York. Their 1969 album, 'Elephant Mountain,' produced by country-rocker Charlie Daniels, focused more squarely on Mr. Young's talents and is widely regarded as the group's finest work. A live album released in 1971, 'Ride the Wind,' captured the band at its instrumental peak. But the next two studio albums watered down the band's sound, leading Mr. Young to break it up and revive his solo career with the album 'Together' in 1972. By then, he was living in Marin County, whose rolling landscape and broad vistas found reflection not only in his lyrics but in his breezy, increasingly jazz-oriented music. By the 1990s, Mr. Young's albums were no longer selling well, but he continued to release them independently at a steady clip. He quit performing in 2012 while battling chronic Lyme disease, but he returned to form four years later. His final album, 'Dreamers,' appeared in 2019. Advertisement Mr. Young is survived by his wife and manager, Connie Darden-Young; their son, Tristan Young, and daughter, Jazzie Young; and two children from his first marriage, Juli and Cheyenne Young. Throughout his life, Mr. Young treasured the hopeful message of 'Get Together' and felt that it finally needed to be fulfilled. 'It's like the finishing of a circle,' he told the Maryland publication The Beacon in 2018. 'It's time to not just try to love one another, because we know the difference between trying and doing. It's time to do.' This article originally appeared in
