After chaining a series of proposals that remained in a “yes but no more” like ‘The prize of your life’ or ‘Silo’, including a season 3 of ‘Ted Lasso’ that is a bit adrift, it seemed that Apple TV + was not having a special sense when it came to launching its new series. However, the streak seems to end with ‘Platonic’, his fun and unmissable new comedy.
A ten-episode series starring Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen in what is a whole meeting of ‘Damn neighbors’ (Neighbours) since it also has its director Nicholas Stollerwho co-creates this series with Francesca Delbanco (‘Friends from the university’).
The premise is as simple as it is effective: Sylvia and Will are two friends who, after years without knowing anything about each other, meet again when the latter gets divorced. This will ignite a lost spark of that great friendship and the desire to recover that colleaguecomplicity and chemistry.
Colleagues at forty
It is quite appreciated that lately this type of comedy in which relationships are affected after certain ages has proliferated. There we have that happy place that is HBO Max’s ‘Somebody Somewhere’ or without going any further in ‘Unfiltered Therapy’ tThe topic of adult friendship was also touched on. Although in both series they leaned a little towards something more bitter or dramatic comedy, here they go directly to the almost sitcom tone.
Which is the greatest asset of ‘Platonic’, looking at his audience and saying that, indeed, it’s a buddy comedy and they’re going to embrace the whole subgenre what the characters allow. And they are very permissive and “playful” despite the fact that both have followed different lines of life (with their professional and romantic successes and failures).
This without forgetting that component of people in the midst of a mid-life crisis that surrounds their characters. Perhaps it is most evident in Rogen’s Will for precisely the paths that life has taken him; but also in a Sylvia, who sees that her role at home has changed drastically in all this time.
Avoiding the rom-com
By the way, one of the great successes of ‘Platónico’ is the avoid going off on romantic grounds and thus fall into clichés, building itself purely from the solid base of the good chemistry that its protagonists give off. Although some note of sexual tension is recognized, there are no ambiguous gestures or situations that point in another direction than friendship.
Both Byrne and Rogen are very amused. However, I have the feeling that the duet is somewhat unbalanced beyond the intention of the script because of a Rogen doing, well, Seth Rogen. He’s in his comfort zone and I admit that if as an actor and comedian I’m not a big fan of his style, it’s a bit uphill.
Beyond that, the grace of ‘Platonic’ is not only in its remarkably executed and posed gags and jokes but also in how authentic it feels, without forcing things. That is, ultimately, the great key by which this comedy succeeds in a field in which it is easy to slip and “betray” its essence. All a joy.
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