I logged in to HBOMax to watch In the Heights and… this might be hard for people to hear and in my defense, I love Lin Manuel Miranda but I got like halfway through it when I remembered why I don’t like musicals. So, I stopped watching it and scrolled and Starstruck caught my eye. I was not prepared.
It was co-written by and stars Rose Matafeo, a comedian and actor from New Zealand. She is fucking brilliant. The male lead is the handsome Nikesh Patel, who I recognized from Mindy Kaling’s remake of Four Weddings and a Funeral (a series I also loved). So, we have a romantic comedy series written and directed by women with a hot male lead of South Asian decent? YES. Also, I love romcoms. It’s my favorite genre.
The premise is adorable and straight out of a contemporary romance novel. A woman meets a handsome man at a bar on New Years Eve, they sleep together and the next morning she finds out that he is a super famous actor.
Rose Matafeo plays Jessie, a woman working three regular jobs, just living her life. She isn’t sad or lonely, she isn’t pining away, she isn’t a damsel. She feels like me, or more specifically, she feels like who I want to be. I love her.
I absolutely adore Nikesh Patel. He plays Tom Kapoor, the actor. Tom is adorably awkward and endearing. He is an actor but he is also a regular human being with thoughts and feelings, living the sometimes isolating life of being famous.
This is the height of the perfect fantasy. You’re just living your life when BAM a handsome movie star falls in love with you and makes excuses just to see you. But also, he is just a totally normal, sweet dude who just happens to be a famous actor.
Side note: the amount of seeking consent that happens in this series is so fucking great.
My absolutely favorite scene [[*SPOILERS*]] is the scene in which Tom unknowingly eats weed brownies because he is nervous and someone just left some brownies on the counter in Jessie’s apartment (there was a party). Then he has a weed induced panic attack and all he wanted to do was win Jessie’s heart but instead he is melodramatically miserable in a completely adorable pathetic way and I feel so vindicated/validated because my experience with overdosing on edibles was so similar. Except I was alone and left panicked voicemails with my loved ones. It was not a fun time.
Anyway!
This show is so sweet, endearing, heartwarming and hilarious. It is a perfect escape. My only complaint is that there isn’t enough. It’s only 6 episodes and they are less than half an hour long. Not an exaggeration – I watched this series 3 times in 3 days and I’m probably going to watch it again in the next day or so. The good news is that there are more episodes coming! Hooray! I really just want everyone to watch it (IT’S SOOOO GOOOOOOOOOD!!!!) so they will keep making more and keep giving all the actors work because I love them all.
All gifs are made by me – all media is property of original owners – BBC or HBOMax or whoever
Dawning 