Survival of the Thickest

Just on all fronts; production, acting, writing, etc. This show made me feel things in the absolute best way.

Funny and light and still hitting those deep spots that make you real emotional.

A story about empowerment, hope, relationships, dreaming big and striving for diversity.

I have been a big fan of Michelle Buteau for a minute and in this series she reaches all time highs with her charismatic and powerful character Mavis.

Not only does she play the part so well, she also co-wrote it which makes so much sense since she makes the whole series feel like the most realistic dream-montage.

It better be getting a second season!

I had absolutely no expectations for Michelle Buteau's semi-biographical TV comedy debut but it feels genuinely refreshing and has a real charm to it. It frequently does and shows things you rarely see and has a warmth around the premise that I really took to. You rarely see plutonic opposite-gender friends on TV for one and there was a lot of granular observations about being-aimless-in-your-late-thirties that rang some truths despite all the myriad cultural differences. Nice to see some crossover with the drag scene in there as well. Now I don't think it's perfect by any means and there's a lot here that is clunky but the layering is good and I'm up for more.

I avoided this for a couple days, because I haven't been a fan of Michelle Bateaux's standup or supporting roles (Always Be My Maybe). I knew I was gonna watch this eventually, but I never thought I'd binge it in an afternoon! I rated this an 8 up until the literal last minute of the show, which made me cry, then change the rating to a 10.

This is the perfect vehicle for her! I love everything about it: the direction, comedy, acting, pacing, editing, drama, co-stars, story... I cannot even imagine this not getting renewed, because I *need* to know what happens to this character and her group of friends!

The only thing that bothered me were the voice cut-ins that were edited in to cover up something they wanted to change in the original joke or script. It was always done when her back was turned, so it was plausible that she said it, but the change in "air" around the sound was obvious and distracting. Other than that, no complaints!

I love love lighthearted female lead shows. This show was outstanding and eight episodes wasn't enough.

I don't think I've ever seen Michelle Buteau in anything but now I love her. She plays this role well. I'm like is this how she is in real life because she nailed it.

The writing is so well done! I love that it's not a lot of heavy drama and plenty of funny moments.

I love that her best-friend was a straight gentle, loving and supportive black guy because we don't see that kind friendship enough on tv.

I liked how towards the end we got to see her interacting with her roommate more because I thought it was weird how she moved in and had her friends over often but we rarely saw the roomate.

By next week I'll probably be watching it again because I miss it already!

I'm so on the fence, I enjoyed the show which is really all you can ask for from a Netflix show these days but this one was just so over the top trying to include every thing and everyone. At one point it just felt forced. The cast overall was great even though none of them were actually good actors, least of all the main actress (which I think is one of the prettiest women ever and look wise as amazing for the part) but I mean... Sometimes I actually didn't know she was being ironic or sincere because her acting was so bad. Her energy made up for it though. Story wise it was good, the humor and the jokes often good but too flat at times.