Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne shine in new comedy ‘Platonic’
This Apple TV series, written by husband-and-wife duo Nicholas Stoller and Francesca Delbanco, both comedy veterans, has an age-old question at its heart:
Can an adult man and an adult woman — especially when one or both of them has a significant other — ever really be friends? Sylvia (Rose Byrne) and Will (Seth Rogen) were best friends for many years in their college years and beyond. However, their relationship fell apart when Sylvia let Will know how she really felt about his fiancée, Audrey. (Hint: She didn’t like her.)
Years later, and Sylvia is married to successful attorney Charlie (Luke Macfarlane). She’s a qualified lawyer herself, but hasn’t practiced for 13 years having decided to stay at home and raise their three children — a decision she’s not entirely comfortable with now that she’s middle-aged.
Will, meanwhile, is a skilled beermaker who runs his own brewery/hipster bar, funded mainly by Audrey’s stepbrother, the immediately dislikeable Reggie. And he’s recently divorced. From Audrey. Mostly because he still acts like he did when he and Sylvia were best friends — staying up late partying and generally not committing himself to ‘adult’ things.
When Sylvia learns that Will and Audrey are getting divorced, she
(at Charlie’s insistence — he knows Will, indeed Will was the maid of honor at their wedding) gets in touch to see if he’s doing OK. They meet for a very awkward coffee, but they keep in touch and start to rediscover what they used to like about each other. Both seem genuinely disinterested in being anything other than friends (at least in the four episodes now available). The show hinges on the unconventional chemistry between Byrne and Rogen, and — so far — that’s a definite success. The two convey the clumsiness inherent in reconnecting with old friends superbly in their initial meetings, and that clumsiness gradually gives way to the warmth and understanding only true friends can share.
There’s a lot of promise here: Rogen is as affable as ever,
Byrne plays both sides of Sylvia’s character — strait-laced, together mom and kind-hearted fun-loving klutz — convincingly, and the supporting cast play their parts well. It’ll be interesting to see where the showrunners go with the story — and how they answer the show’s big question.