Skip to main content

I Love That For You review – only one actor could pull off this shopping channel satire

The precision exuberance of Vanessa Bayer hooks you into this sitcom – and its super-fun backstage bitchiness keeps you watching

Childhood cancer survivor Joanna Gold (Vanessa Bayer) is still living a forcibly sheltered life with her parents in Cleveland when she auditions for and gets her dream job as a presenter/hawker on shopping channel SVN. A new life in Pennsylvania beckons, among the stars she grew obsessed with during the treatment that isolated her as a child. Alas, on her first day her product is switched at the last moment to a rancid pillow mist whose smell catches her off guard. Her expression is enough to get her fired by magisterially ruthless (“Don’t just walk up to her as if you’re a human being on the same level!”) CEO Patricia (Jenifer Lewis). What is a girl to do but play the sympathy card and pretend her childhood cancer has come back?

On paper, this Paramount+ sitcom is a tough sell. But, overall, it works. There might not be abundant belly laughs (though there are often great throwaway lines, such as assistant Darcy begging the CEO for time off to attend Graydon Carter’s barn warming on Martha’s Vineyard), but Bayer – on whose own story Joanna’s is based – keeps our sympathy throughout. Joanna clearly has star quality gone awry, warped by her early isolation into an irrepressible awkwardness that is equally endearing and cringemaking. When asked how she’s doing by a colleague she replies: “I’m hashtag-living, I’m hashtag-I’m-loving-it, ba-dum-pum-pum, yeah! Let’s all go down to the Micky D’s and get some cheesebuuuugaaaahs!” It takes forever. It is exquisite agony, but her appeal keeps you rooting for her. Possibly only a performer of Bayer’s precision ebullience could pull it off.

Continue reading...

from The Guardian https://ift.tt/KHB2C85
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How Rico Lewis helped harden up Manchester City’s treble challenge | Jamie Jackson

Guardiola believes advent of the teenage talent sowed seeds of change that turned his side into champions again Mid-January, the Etihad Campus. Before Tottenham’s visit a discontented Pep Guardiola is addressing a Manchester City team meeting that includes Erling Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne, John Stones and Ederson. The champions are in second place, eight points behind Arsenal, each having played 18 games. Performances have dipped and so has the attitude of his players. The final match before the World Cup was a 2-1 home defeat by Brentford . Since the tournament, City have beaten Leeds and Chelsea, drawn with Everton and lost their previous outing , 2-1 at Manchester United. Seven points from 15 is not championship-defending form and, when being knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Southampton is factored in, Guardiola can see City’s campaign derailing. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/h8WjbMX
Post a Comment
Read more

Coronavirus live news: Brazil adds record 34,918 daily cases as infections surge in six US states

Beijing Covid-19 outbreak ‘extremely severe’; French police fire tear gas at healthcare protest; New Zealand cancels compassionate quarantine exceptions. Follow the latest updates Beijing travel restricted to tackle ‘extremely severe’ situation Brazil suffers record case increase Six US states see record case increases Covid-19 outbreaks in New Zealand and China highlight stark choices See all our coronavirus coverage 1.10am BST More on the rise in cases in the US now: Across the United States, 17 states saw new cases rise last week, according to a Reuters analysis. In Oklahoma, where President Donald Trump plans to hold an indoor campaign rally on Saturday, new cases rose 68%. Vice President Mike Pence on Tuesday said officials were considering other, possibly outdoor, venues for the Tulsa event. The virus spreads far more efficiently in enclosed spaces. On Tuesday, Oklahoma health officials urged anyone attending the rally to get tested for the coronavirus before arrivi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Wandsworth escape accused says it was ‘foolish’ to jail him with his ‘skill set’

Daniel Khalife, 23, says he absconded because he was ‘terrified’ of being locked up with dangerous offenders A former British soldier has told a jury he did not hand himself in after he escaped from prison because he was “finally demonstrating what a foolish idea it was” to imprison someone with his “skill set”. Daniel Khalife, 23, told the court he absconded from Wandsworth prison while on remand because he was “terrified” of being locked up with “serious sex offenders” and “terrorists” who wanted to kill him, and that he did not think his imprisonment would be in the public interest. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/vRZHkaw
Post a Comment
Read more