Things have been heavy out there for women as of late, not only with our recent recs, but also with the news this past week that maybe The Handmaid’s Tale isn’t actually fiction. To help, we’re serving up some lighter fare this week that will hopefully help all of you you kick back, laugh, and disassociate from reality for at least 30-40 minutes.
Now let’s get to it.
I Love That For You
Current 🍅 Rating: 75%
What It’s About: Loosely based on Vanessa Bayer’s own life, this goofy comedy follows childhood leukemia survivor Joanna Gold (Vanessa Bayer), as she chases her lifelong dream of becoming a home shopping channel host.
Why You Should Watch: If you’re a fan of SNL, showbiz workplace comedies, and/or Molly Shannon.
Similar to other recent great showbiz comedies (Hacks in particular comes to mind), I Love That For You is built to deliver zany laughs riffing on each character’s insecurities, while really being about everyone’s flawed humanity under the surface. Bayer plays a cancer survivor who has a tendency to use her disease for manipulation, and Shannon plays an aging shopping network host who is struggling to move on from her recent divorce. This show is a perfect vehicle for both of them. Vanessa Bayer gets to show off her unique talents as an earnest, self-conscious, awkward goofball, delivering lines like “I’m hashtag-living, I’m hashtag-I’m-loving-it, boo-doom-poom-poom. Yeah, let’s all go down to the Mickey D’s and get some cheesebuggaz.” Then Molly Shannon gets to do the same with her well-developed brand of the loud, over the top, confident-in-her-own-skin-but-also-crawling-in-it character she’s been doing since Mary Katherine Gallagher on SNL (see below). Bayer and Shannon are buoyed by a supporting cast that includes a stereotypical hard-ass media executive/boss, the other catty SVN hosts, and an obligatory love interest (would this be a workplace comedy without it?). While there are only two episodes out, I Love That For You seems like it will be a great safe harbor from all the prestige dramas, ripped from the headlines true crime series, and general dystopian hellscape we call life in 2022.
Who’s In It, and Where You Probably Know Them From:
Vanessa Bayer - Probably Saturday Night Live, or from one of the small parts she’s played in a million different comedies over the years like Trainwreck, Crashing, Portlandia, Drunk History, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, The Mindy Project, and Modern Family.
Molly Shannon - Saturday Night Live, Superstar, or another past rec: The Other Two.
Jenifer Lewis - Black-ish
Who Made It, and What Else Have They Done:
Other than being written and created by Vanessa Bayer (see above), this show has a couple other big names in comedy attached. First, there’s Michael Showalter, who directs some episodes and is on board as a producer - you might recognize him from comedies like Wet Hot American Summer, or depending on how old you are, The State, or his past work as a director on The Big Sick, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Search Party, or The Dropout. Then there’s Jessi Klein, who has been a writer/producer on Saturday Night Live, Kroll Show, Transparent, Inside Amy Schumer, and Big Mouth (where she also plays Jessie, a pubescent version of herself).
Where You Can Watch: ShowtimeNow