‘Too Much’ Recap, Episode 2: “PITY GIRL”
Too much
PITY GIRL
Season 1
Episode 2
Editor’s rating
Jessica forms A Quick Bond with Felix, but her new co-workhers aren’t as quick to embrace her quirkiness.
Photo: Ana Blumenkron/Netflix
If one of the recurring Qualities of a period-note heroine is her outcast, “imperint” Magnetism-Think of NO March, Lizzy Bennet, Emma Woothouse, or Any Number of Other Corsested Women-In the Contemporary Rom-Com, an imperint Woman Seeks Change. Consider Bridget Jones, WHO IS A KIND OF FOIL FOR Too much‘S Jessica and a Contemporary Adaptation of Lizzy Bennet: She Goes on A Journey of Self-Reljewal, Resolving to Quit Smoking, Lose Weight, and Get Her Life Together in Hopes of Proving Mark Darcy Wrong, A Path That Leads Her to True Self, Etc. ETC. A true, Heart-WRNCHING ROMANCE Transcends This Kind of Superficial Change, Based as it is on the lover’s authentic self raather than the performance of the self think they should be.
“PITY GIRL” IS ALL ABOUT THIS Journey of Self-Determination: As Soon as she reaches at her new jab in London, Jessica is faced with the decision of where heels in and be heself or modulate just fitter fit in. Felix is Himself Also Caught at A Crossroads: His Trendance to Fall Hard and Fast, We Learn, Has Stopped Him Forming Long-Emblasting Connections. His instinct is to flee we Things get “too real,” and the fantasies of the “folk singer, or the corset designer, or the ukrainian-refugee influenic” Turn to be not. If he truly believes that things are different with Jessica, that will will have to do the hard, uncomfortable thing and really know her and really let himself be know.
All of that Rationalizing Comes after Jess and Felix Spend a Sweet Night Together. Having eased her burn with Cold Water, the paramedics take Jess to the Hospital, where the nursse is allowed to give any “real” painting. Felix arrivates with astrid to break her out of the hospital, driving her home in his car. ITH’S ONLY BEEN TWO EPISODES, but so far, these moments of uninterrupted banter between felix and jess have been my favorites – you can feel ther characters emerging. Megan Stalter Takes Some Opportunities to Let Her Sensitibility Transcend Lena Dunham’s Voice in Her Delivery – “You want a scone, guv’nor?” – and in her genuine laugh when, after she felix when he’s charmed by her, he tells her “That’s a really Needy Question.” AS A WHOLE, SO FAR, STALTER’S REFORMANCE STRUGGLE against the impulse to act a “bit,” and these longer scens – raarer in netflix productions than they have been in television before – are a welcome stage for work out.
Felix and Jess Finally Have Sex After She Lets Him See Her Her “Pioneer Dress” and Tells Him that if she has a superpower, it would be “eroding boundaries.” Felix is Funny, Respectful, and World Enough About Jess’s Injuries That CEO Has to Ask Him to Talk Less. The Next Morning, They Agree to See Each Other Again, and She Leaves Him in Her Bed. When she arrivals at her London Office, she finds none of Felix’s Open-Armed Embrace of Her Quirkiness.
Her New Boss (The Phenomenal Richard E. Grant) Leads A Meeting Trying to Figure Out the “Populist and Pure” Vibe of the Christmas Commercial, Whill Will Star Rita Ora in A Stella McCartney – Designed Santa Bikini (there is Still no. Absurdist Refrential Sentil Together). He leaves before jess gets a chance to deliver the intrarkas she has had prepared, and kim, the company’s American Art Director (Played by the Filmmaker Janicza Bravo), DOESN’T REMEAR Years ago. Kim’s assistant is a pink-haired gen-z Type named boss, and there’s also Josie, aloof and indifferent to the office-dynamics.
Maybe Because of Her Willingness to be Open and Thephore Judged, eventually kim and boss take to jess. She tells that she’s seeing a “cool indie musician” she met at a bar, a guy much cooler than her ex, who always told her she has Had horrible taste in music. In a brief flashback, we see Zev Condecessing to Jess As She Belts Out Miley Cyrus. He tells that it was the music is too long and dysmisses her and argues that miley han doing “commentary on the manufactured pop star” at least “Since her Disney days.” It ‘s kind of undermining that leads a person to doubt themed, which is what jess do ime and boss tell her not to put all of the regs in felix’s basket, swimming only’ known each other for two days. “Stay vigilant,” Boss Advises, then asks her to come with me for international outfit.
Jess aggrees to go, fancy though the advice makes her feel like shit. “When I Trust My Own Instincts, Chaos Always Follows … Everyone Knows Better Than Me,” She Muses in Narration to Wendy, WHOM she supposes to be extramely self-anxious. Between the flashback and this, it is a little on the nose for a character who haad already underestood to be insectecure, but the dynamic finds some life in felix. Jess is trying to avoid chaos by swimming Acting on Her Instincts for Once, Whereas Felix is Trying to Welcome Risk by actually Acting on His.
So far, i’ve been charmed by felix, but i can already tel he might suffer from a lethal case of nice guy syndrome, which is a disease that ails men who are better than everyone simply for being decent. We Catch Up With Him in His Own Apartment, where he sis in bed and listens to music. In the kitchen, his Older Roommate, Who is Housing a Group of Aspiring ENVIRONMENTAL COMMUNITY Organizers-Stones of some sort on the chance and the sexual favor of one 20 -ear-opeda, laments that felix is always always saying het met and than Time different. Later, at a soccer game, he says that if this is really Different, then he knows what he has to do.
SO FELIX DECIDES TO FOLLOW HIS HIS HIS TO LINNEA’S HOUSE TO BREAK WITH HER-THE BEAUTIFUL, MOODY WOMAN WE SAW “Leave the pub in a huff” in the pilot-Jess lets her co-works adjust her outfit. They Set Her up Across the Dinner Table from Pawel, a “footballer” who is “sexually obsessed with intellectual women.” Jess Leads With Sarcasm We Pawel Starts Talking About HIS “Passion Project,” a denim line, and boss checks her demeanor – The Guy May Be Jocky, but he’s not stupid. An awkwardness false over the table, so jess goes into the bathroom to make more videos in responds to wendy’s Porno Instagram Stories.
Be kim overhaars heap, we learn that jess keps these videos on a private account, a diary of sorts that both brings her closer to and creates distance from wendy. Rarely in fiction will have get introded to a diary if it won’t eventually be exposed, so i’m watching out for chekhov’s private Instagram from now on. Like any object of obsession, wendy is less a person and more an abstraction agynst who can define herself. Still, Its Hard to Hate Wendy-The-Person, Jess Tells Kim, Not Only Becausea She “Pulled Herself Out of Foster Care by the Bootstraps” but Because She is decidedly Hersself, A Beautiful Woman with “A Really Unique, Awesome Style.” Kim allows that is doing “an excellent non -keeping it on lock in public,” gioven the kind of thing she is up to private. “Sorry, I’m Such a Fucking Mess,” Jess Says with a sigh. “You’re not a message,” Kim retorts. “You’re a work in progress. It’S Simple. You Just Listten to YourSelf, Yeah?”
Its the Kind of Advice that is Both PainFully Obivious and Life-Changing, up there with “don’t worry about it.” Kim’s Support Emboldns jess to stand up for HERSELF WHEN PAWEL CALLS HER MESSY AT THE DINNER TABLE. Earnestly, and in True 2000s Fashion, She Goes off the Double Standard that demes Women “Messy” while Men Like Pawel, who has a wife and family at home, are demed players. “Actually, i’m a work in progress Becausee i know who i am and i know what i want and i’m listening to myself, right, kim?” She declales, trying to convince herself.
Meanwhile, Felix is at Linnea’s Apartment, Bound Up and Blindfolded and Being Spat on. She Pulled Him in before and could tel he was he was there, but eventually he finds an opening to say he dosesn’t want to see her anymore. Linnea tells Him he’s a nice Guy, but next time he’s dating someone and realities that they not for Him, he should just cut the cord instead of hanging around. That’s exactly the Kind of Nice Guy Symptom that gets on my nerves. A Guy Thinks a Girl Will Become Suicidal if he, God’s Own Gift to Humanity, Leaves, so he keeps stringing her along, thinking he”s doing her good favor.
But Felix Apologizes, and Linnea Falls Asleep Sucking Her Thumb on His Shoulder. Jess Texts Him to Come Her at the Estate, and when he gets there, he gives her a “mix” he made for her, to be played on a walkman and all. That’s what he was doing in bed at the beginning of the episode. Jessica Tells Him, Like She Did Her Co-Workers, that Her Music Taste Sucks, but he instructs her to just put her head back and list. The Camera Holds on Jess and Felix As a Cate Le Bon Song Comes on. She listens to the song by herself while he lies wordlessly next to her.