The first I Love LA trailer has a surprising amount of Eric Adams-esque wisdom to dispense. “Luck is just preparation meets opportunity. Hustle until your idols become your rivals,” Rachel Sennott hypes herself up in the mirror. Later, a friend (True Whitaker) proclaims, “Haters are fans on a bad day.” These 21st century truisms serve as a fitting backdrop for the shallow, petty world Sennott appears to be creating in her new HBO comedy series, which premieres November 2.
Up to now, we’ve only had a vague logline for the project: “An ambitious friend group navigates life and love in LA.” The I Love LA trailer fills in some of the blanks. Sennott plays Maia, whose job seems to be in the realm of PR or marketing, though her boss (played by Leighton Meester) isn’t exactly supportive of Maia’s desire to move up the ladder. Her life is upended by the return of Tallulah (Odessa A’zion), the former bestie who abandoned Maia for a more glamorous life of fame. Their renewed codependent relationship becomes a trial for their loved ones, including Maia’s boyfriend Dylan (Josh Hutcherson). “Those kinds of people have this, like, endless ambition. They want success, and money, and like, a nice house, and all these things,” he complains.
Beyond being materialistic, Sennott hoped to capture this young friend group at a specific moment in time: “When you get to the end of your 20s, you have to pick if you’re going to keep the life you have or if you’re going to blow it all up and start fresh,” she explained in a recent profile for The New York Times. She initially pitched two other ideas to HBO (one was about a young woman who talks to A.T.M.s, per the NYT), but HBO EVP Amy Gravitt encouraged her to write a pilot that would eventually become I Love LA. Sennott originally found an audience online, but she hasn’t posted as much on social media as she pivoted to true film and television stardom. The show became a way for her to return to the humor that made her a hit on Twitter: “When the show got picked up, I was like, Oh my God, I found the place to channel all this,” she told the NYT. “Hopefully people will relate to the new chapter of who I am, which, by the way, it’s like, same exact bitch. Like, it’s not that different.”
