The first episode of new Rachel Sennott series I Love LA is now streaming on HBO Max, but it had divided opinion before we ever saw a single scene.
Dubbed Untitled Rachel Sennott Project for months on end during various 2025 HBO adverts, our imagination was left to run wild over what was waiting for us. So, when I Love LA was revealed to be a "West Coast version of Girls" (US Weekly's words, not mine) both Sennott and her work were immediately pigeonholed into the genre of sitcom knockoffs.
Now that I've watched I Love LA episode 1 – which is streaming on HBO Max in the US and Australia, and Sky and Now TV in the UK – I can see the vision. Unfortunately for a consumer culture that demands everything ASAP, we're not going to get satisfaction immediately... but that in itself is the perfect test.
I Love LA on HBO Max is in it for the long haul, so don't be too quick to judge
Truthfully, I Love LA episode 1 is a grating watch, but solely because of the characters we're introduced to. Maia (Sennott) is an infuriating balance of the 2025 Western Gen Z girl, obnoxious yet humble, airheaded yet thoughtful, self-aware yet ignorant. She's a walking contradiction armed with an iPhone and an accessory boyfriend, and is incredibly difficult to like.
This is made all the more painful by the friends she surrounds herself with, including struggling influencer Tallulah (Odessa A'zion). For people who say a great deal, there's a sore lack of communication, each character is trying to outdo the other against life criteria that doesn't really exist. As we hear in the trailer above, "they say everyone in LA is fake, but everyone has been so nice".
It's not only the perfect contradiction (Sennott seems to have nailed the modern-day LA dichotomy), but it's one that needs to unfold after time. Maia and her minions need to go on a journey, and that means changing and developing their characters over time. One half-hour premiere isn't even going to touch the surface.
Look back over Sennott's career, including Shiva Baby and Bottoms, and you'll see the payoff of having stakes in her artistry comes over time. It wouldn't make for very good TV if all eight episodes, now airing on a weekly basis, stayed at the same monotonous level as the LA drawl.
If the "weeks ahead" trailer above is anything to go by, my theory is right. Now the groundwork is laid for just how annoying our characters are, there's ample room to grow and develop – and this will undoubtedly start in episode 2.
Think testing work situations, friendships at breaking point and boyfriends who don't feel seen. Even the opening scene (Maia's birthday sex through an earthquake) is a fantastic example of fresh perspectives that can be built on.
Maia's inner circle is naturally a car crash waiting to happen, and I for one cannot wait to see it unfold at the perfect time (that's a thinly veiled code for – stop being haters and trust the process).
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