I Love LA But Characters Just Love Being Vaguely Cool

KEY POINTS

•The new HBOMax series I Love LA follows aspiring talent manager Maia and her friends in Los Angeles.
•While the show aims to create relatable characters, many personalities feel indistinguishable and lack depth.
•This raises questions about the current state of TV characters and their relevance in a changing media landscape.

HBO Max's 'I Love LA' starring Rachel Sennott as Maia and Odessa A’zion as influencer-client Tallulah tries to channel 'Girls' energy but ends up serving a bland smoothie of uniform dry 'cool-girl' talk, apparently reflecting all of Gen-Z’s gray Angeleno vibes circa 2025. Critics fear TV is stuck in a 'mid' era post-2020, lost among streaming clogs, with iconic antiheroes now replaced by TikTok clip-ready quips and viral-ready vulgarities like Sarah Paulson's 'c--burger' insult on Hulu’s 'All’s Fair.' Writer Justine Bateman spilled that showrunners feel pressure to make scripts good for second-screen phone scrolling—because who needs depth when you can double-tap?