Too Much
イカれてる⁈
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A heartbroken New Yorker moves to London and falls for an indie musician; Dunham after Girls, gentler and stranger.
Jessica Salmon, a commercial producer in New York in her thirties, has never got over Zev, who left her for Wendy, an influencer, and has now proposed to her. After Jessica drunkenly breaks into their apartment to confront them, her boss and former brother-in-law, Jameson, finds her a job at an advertising agency in London. She moves into a council flat in Hackney with her dog, Astrid. In a pub she meets Felix, an indie musician, who walks her home and turns down her kiss because he has a girlfriend. That night she sets her nightgown alight while recording an angry video about Wendy, and Felix comes back.
They fall into bed and then into love, fast. Felix is sober; Jessica hides from him that she still drinks and takes drugs. At a dinner at the home of her new boss, Jonno, Jonno recognises Felix as his daughter's old boarding-school boyfriend, accuses him of abandoning her, and they come to blows. Meeting Polly, whom Felix dated for ten years, Jessica remembers the end with Zev: his mounting criticism of her, a pregnancy after a one-night stand, an abortion. She tells Felix she loves him; he cannot say it back. On a shoot in the country she nearly sleeps with a director, then goes home and asks Felix to move in. After a visit to his impoverished, neglectful parents, Felix breaks down and tells her that the nanny who raised him sexually abused him.
At a school friend's wedding Felix breaks three years of sobriety, lies about it and fails to stand up for Jessica among his friends. While she rescues a chaotic shoot with Rita Ora, he gets drunk, sleeps with an older friend, Fiona, and confesses. She ends it. Then Astrid falls ill; Felix rushes her to the vet, and she dies before Jessica arrives. Jameson offers to help her restart her career in America. Instead Jessica meets Wendy, learns that Zev has treated her badly too, and makes peace with her. She runs across London to an environmental protest where Felix has glued himself to the pavement, and they admit that they both wreck what they most want. She is arrested in the middle of her speech, and he proposes on the spot. The series ends with their wedding in London, among the friends who stayed.
Starring
Megan Stalteras Jessica Salmon
A New York commercial producer who moves to London to get over her ex and falls hard for a musician she meets in a pub.
Jessica Salmon’s story
Jessica comes to London still living inside her break-up with Zev, recording furious videos about the woman he left her for. At a pub in Hackney she meets Felix; that night she sets her nightgown alight, he comes back, and she falls hard. Because he is sober, she hides her drinking and drug-taking. She tells him first that she loves him, and after nearly sleeping with a director, asks him to move in. When he breaks his sobriety at a wedding and will not stand up for her, she leaves early; when he sleeps with Fiona, she ends it. Her dog, Astrid, dies. Instead of going home to America, she makes peace with Wendy, runs across London to the protest where Felix is glued to the pavement, is arrested mid-speech and marries him.
Will Sharpeas Felix Remen
A sober London indie musician, charming and evasive, carrying a childhood he has never talked about.
Felix Remen’s story
Felix, three years sober, has a girlfriend when he walks Jessica home from the pub. He turns down her kiss, comes back that night, and they fall in love. He trades blows with her boss, Jonno, who recognises him as his daughter's boarding-school boyfriend, and cannot say he loves her. After a visit to his broke, neglectful parents he breaks down and tells her that the nanny who raised him sexually abused him. At a wedding he drinks, lies about it and fails to stand up for her. When she comes home elated from a hard shoot, he goes out, sleeps with an old friend, Fiona, and confesses. He rushes her dog, Astrid, to the vet, where she dies. Glued to the pavement at an environmental protest, he hears Jessica out, proposes on the spot and marries her.
Michael Zegenas Zev
Jessica's ex, who left her for an influencer and still fills most of her thoughts.
Emily Ratajkowskias Wendy Jones
The influencer Zev chose over Jessica, target of her secret videos, who in the end becomes an unexpected ally.
Richard E. Grantas Jonno Ratigan
Jessica's boss at the London agency, who recognises Felix as his daughter's old boyfriend.
Why it matters
Too Much is a romantic comedy about two people who are, by their own admission, bad at being loved. Jessica's anxiety, her drinking and her secret videos about her ex's new partner are played for laughs and also for what they are, a way of hurting herself in public. Felix's charm sits on top of hard-won sobriety and a childhood in which the nanny who raised him abused him, a harm he names only once, breaking down in Jessica's flat. An abortion appears in Jessica's past as a fact of her life, not a lesson. Lena Dunham made the series with her husband, the musician Luis Felber, and the question it keeps asking is whether two people who wreck whatever they want most can choose each other anyway. It answers with a wedding. Robert Lloyd of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the ending could not be more conventional, and imagined that was the idea.