New show ‘Girls5eva’ has everything except sparkle
The premise of “Girls5eva” is so good and its cast so impressive you can’t help but wish the show itself were better.
Or at least more consistent. There are some laugh-out-loud moments here, at least a couple in every episode. But given all the elements involved — the cast includes Sara Bareilles, Busy Philipps, Renee Elise Goldsberry and Paula Pell — there should be more. Too often it seems like an idea searching for a show. At least it’s a good idea.
Created by Meredith Scardino with Tina Fey as one of the executive producers, the show is about the members of Girls5eva, a one-hit girl group from the ‘90s that gets an out-of-the-blue shot at a little more fame when a rapper samples their song. They’ve drifted apart, but when Jimmy Fallon brings them together for a one-time reunion on “The Tonight Show” — corporate synergy at its finest; the show streams on Peacock — they decide to give the group one more shot.
It’s an intriguing concept. There’s a reason “whatever happened to” stories
are popular. There’s a real opportunity here to delve into what it’s like to be on the other side of that — and to get one more chance to get it right.
There’s some of that going on. Just not enough. Too often the writers go for the easy or obvious laugh. That doesn’t mean it’s not funny. But sometimes that’s all it is.
Here’s what the show gets perfectly right — and where it goes wrong
Dawn (Bareilles) is married with a young son. She runs a restaurant owned by her wheeler-dealer brother (Dean Winters). Summer (Philipps) is the selfdescribed “hot one.” She’s now an influencer, married to a former boy-band star (Andrew Rannells) who lives in a different city and is now a weatherman she only sees one weekend a month. Summer is not the brains of the operation. She’s also the most stock character.
Wickie (Goldsberry) is also an influencer, her diva persona still intact. Her hunger for more fame led to the group breaking up. Gloria (Pell) has changed the most — she’s a dentist.
Girl groups and boy bands are perfect fodder for a comedy, particularly when looking back on them and bringing them into the present. They’re as cooked up as a science experiment, and over time the volatile ingredients often combust. “Girls5eva” explores some of that, the artificiality of the groupings but also the relationships that form through necessity.
What the show gets just right is the ridiculousness of manufactured fame, of trying too hard to create a moment. “They were a thing for a second back around ‘99-2000,” a producer says of Girls5eva when rapper Lil Stinker (Jeremiah Craft) is looking for a sample. A lot of bands were. And all of them were convinced by the people around them that they were the Next Big Thing.
The vast majority were not.
What does that do to someone who, for about five minutes, doesn’t hear the word “no” from anyone, and then sees it all disappear? “Girls5eva” gets at that a little bit, though, with the exception of Wickie, they don’t seem overly burdened by having had to check back into real life.
‘Girls5eva’ isn’t a perfect show. But like its characters, it’s trying
And yet here they are, trying to make another go of it. Fame is tough to kick.
The songs are hilarious, bubble gum pop with lyrics that are wildly inappropriate to a contemporary audience and, frankly, to any audience, ever. And yet they seem completely realistic in the context of the show — and in the history of pop music. It’s a bit much to believe that this is only now dawning on adult women (with the exception of Summer,
for whom not much dawns), but kind of funny to see it happen.
Dawn is the most interesting character; Bareilles believably combines her recognition that this was a fleeting moment in time — bemused is her default setting and it’s charming — with a real desire to create something of their own this time. Philipps is funny, particularly when she and Rannells host a Bible study that misses the mark considerably. But the role is the thinnest of the four.
Goldsberry believably plays someone
it
is
who can’t leave the spotlight, even if now she has to chase it. Pell’s Gloria was always the outsider and remains so. It’s a valuable perspective.
Oh, and the name, Girls5eva? It’s because they’re going to last longer than forever. Get it? In context, that’s perfect. “Girls5eva,” on the other hand, is not. But like the band members, it’s trying.