Whether beaten down by the stress of the newsroom or spoiled by the truly great television of decades past, I rarely laugh out loud at TV shows any more. It is rarer still that I cry and I laugh at the same show. But this past week, I did both. Lena Dunham, the woman behind what I would call a generation-defining classic, got me good. “Too Much,” Dunham’s new Netflix series, doesn’t feel so much like “Girls” for the next generation, but instead like a series all too necessary for this specific moment.
I rarely laugh out loud at TV shows any more. It is rarer still that I cry and I laugh at the same show.
“Too Much” follows Jess, played by the amazing Megan Stalter, as she moves to London from New York City after a devastating breakup. In London she falls in complicated love with the disarming Indie rocker Felix. Unsurprisingly, Dunham packs a lot of great writing and emotional depth into this 10-episode arc. “Too Much” is a study in duality; both funny and sad, cute and serious, surreal and grounded. While fans of “Girls” will likely spot some references and some familiar faces — the similarities between Stalter and Dunham feel most obvious, and most important.
Driven by a trendy nostalgia for the so-called simplicity of the early-2000s, “Girls” has experienced a recent renaissance. Short clips of the show perpetually circulate on TikTok and the “Girls Rewatch” podcast, famous now for its introductory question, “Girl, what ‘girl’ are you?”, regularly goes viral. Dunham even recently joined the podcast while on her “Too Much” press tour.
But Dunham’s stardom is complicated, and it has been ever since “Girls” debuted in 2012. The success of the show coincided with the proliferation of not just social media, but of instantaneous social media commentary. As Dunham said on the “Girls Rewatch” podcast, “I was always partially tuned into what people were saying. […] It was impossible to ignore — and I knew that people would tell me what it meant to them, but I also knew that there were people that were angry.”
Dunham’s body and willingness to appear nude on “Girls” made people angry, certainly, and she became the subject of years of often unfair and unflattering cultural commentary. Since then, we have seen the rise and the fall of yet another iteration of the body positivity movement. Skinny, ever the patriarchal beauty standard, is always at a societal premium. But for a moment, it seemed like there was an earnest attempt at body inclusion. There was an acknowledgement that skinny was not a moral imperative nor a corollary to health.
But the meteoric rise of weight loss drugs like Ozempic and the shrinking of many formerly plus-size Hollywood stars has rapidly shifted the landscape once again. On social media, certainly, thin is back. Fashion designed with just skinny bodies in mind, like low-rise denim, is back in vogue.
Lena Dunham, though, has never altered her stance or herself. She has become bolder since her days on “Girls.” She takes up more space. She cares less about what anyone thinks or says about her. And whether or not you like her art, you have to admire that attitude in an industry where she has become an increasingly rare outlier. I certainly do.
Lena Dunham, though, has never altered her stance or herself. She has become bolder since her days on “Girls.”
Jess, like Dunham, does not fit standard beauty molds. And, crucially, she is not written just to be liked. She is quirky, negative, histrionic and obsessive. Centering her in a buzzy Netflix project like this feels, if not radical, refreshing. It’s very different from, for example, last year’s much talked about hit “Nobody Wants This,” starring Kristen Bell and Adam Brody.
But Dunham has a warning for anyone who wants to treat Stalter with the same vitriol she experienced, “If anybody has anything to say about any of my actors — I keep my mouth shut on most things these days, but try a b—. I’m not playing around here. It’s the only time that I’m going to be taking my hoops out, ready to fight.”
Ultimately I don’t think “Too Much” is going to dethrone “Girls” as Dunham’s most culturally impactful series. That isn’t the point, though. Women today don’t need “Girls,” they need “Too Much.” Leave it to Dunham to recognize that need, and deliver.