Issa Rae: "Insecure"

"Insecure" -- Season Four -- continues to tip a hat to Lena Dunham's "Girls."

(I think sometimes young writers dislike being compared to Lena Dunham. But, look, Dunham made waves. The influence is real. I'll go to my grave insisting this. Also, Issa Rae is now passing on her own baton; when Samantha Irby pitched a show to HBO, or some other service, she called it "INSECURE, but with fat people.")

Both "Girls" and "Insecure" get narrative juice from the idea of "the breakup." Adam and Hannah split up; Hannah struggles with, and eventually profits from, her post-breakup grief. In "Insecure," we imagine Lawrence is out of the picture, but he isn't; he seems to be flirting with his ex, Issa, a fair amount this season.

"Insecure"'s big problem is that Lawrence is nowhere near as compelling as Dunham's "Adam." It feels as if no one has taken time to imagine a three-dimensional character to antagonize/tantalize Issa. Jay Ellis has charm, and he is strikingly beautiful, and that's the limit of his contribution, if you ask me.

Both "Girls" and "Insecure" make a story of one person's attempt to find a creative voice. In "Girls," Hannah has some bad office positions, a weird teaching stint, a disastrous run at the Iowa Workshop, and, finally, a small amount of success as an essayist. "Insecure" has detached Issa from her work at "We Got Y'all"--hooray!--and now, it seems, we're watching Issa find her footing as a booster for one section of Los Angeles.

"Girls" wandered in the weeds, in its middle seasons, before reasserting itself in a strong sixth year. I feel this way about "Insecure" right now. I'd like to have more of a sense of an "endgame."

But I'm happy to see the awkward footage of sex (another influence from "Girls"), the careful documentation of thoughtlessness and its impact (all over this current season), and the occasional visual pun ("DO I LOOK LIKE A MAGICIAN TO YOU???").....

If I can't have "Girls," I'm happy to have "Insecure."

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