TV Thursday: Resident Advisors

Today Resident Advisors, a comedy set in a college dorm, premiered on Hulu.  All 10 episodes are now available if you have Hulu Plus.  Only the first two episodes are available for free.  The show is produced by Elizabeth Banks (The Hunger Games, Pitch Perfect) and one of the writers and creators is Taylor Jenkins Reid, who I've reviewed multiple times.

It stars Ryan Hansen (Bad Judge) and Jamie Chung (Big Hero 6, Once Upon a Time), both of whom I've enjoyed in other shows.  They've got terrific comedic timing, and it is nice to see an Asian woman as a show lead.

I didn't really enjoy the pilot, Movin In Day.  It had some funny jokes (teen guys do wear too much body spray), and a rather nice dorm policy (they respect how students identify their gender).  But none of the characters struck me as people I'd enjoy spending multiple episodes with.  One of the guy's schtick is sexual harassment and the female RA just abandons a dog instead of taking it to a pound.

I'll probably try the second episode, since they're only twenty or so minutes long, but I'm definitely not sold yet.  I've embedded the pilot below if you want to give it a try.

Review: After I Do

By Taylor Jenkins Reid
Available now from Washington Square Press (Simon & Schuster)
Review copy
Read my review of Forever, Interrupted

In AFTER I DO, the love has gone out of Lauren and Ryan's marriage.  They decide that Ryan will move out for a year, leaving Lauren with the house and the dog.  They'll meet in six months to trade the dog, and then meet in another six months to decide what to do next.  No other contact.

It's a strange solution, but as everyone in the book points out, it is telling that neither Lauren nor Ryan wants a divorce.  The year apart is to give them room to breathe, room to rediscover what they want from life, whether they still want each other.  It is a bit of a strange premise, but Taylor Jenkins Reid makes it work.  Lauren's ups and downs through the year are compelling.

There is the loneliness, coming home to no one but the dog.  There's the difficulty of confessing her troubles to her family, just as her mother and brother are having new success in their own relationships.  There's meeting new people.  There's meeting new men, and deciding whether to date (as they both agreed to be non-exclusive during the year).

The difficulties in the marriage seemed real.  AFTER I DO is in Lauren's POV, but it doesn't let her off the hook.  She's just as responsible as her husband for their failures in communication and microaggressions toward each other.  She isn't a saint in the year off, either.  But it's still easy to root for her to heal from their nasty final fight, and to find out who she is on her own.  (They married young.)

AFTER I DO is less wrenching that Jenkins' debut novel FOREVER, INTERRUPTED.  But it is an equally compelling look at a young woman who suddenly finds herself alone.  The ending is a touch contrived, but heartfelt.  This is definitely a wonderful, emotional read to pick up during the summer doldrums.

Review: Forever, Interrupted

By Taylor Jenkins Reid
Available now from Washington Square Press (Simon & Schuster)
Review copy

I do not like tearjerkers.  I have no desire to cry when I'm reading.  I don't need books to be relentlessly cheery, but I'm just not looking to be depressed.  But something drew me to FOREVER, INTERRUPTED despite the obviously sad premise, about a woman recovering after her recent husband's death.  I think it was the hint of mystery, that her mother-in-law doesn't know she exists.

FOREVER, INTERRUPTED moves back in forth in time.  There's the present timeline, about Elsie and her mother-in-law Susan.  Then there's the past timeline, which shows Elsie and Ben's whirlwind romance.  The past timeline didn't work as well for me.  It just goes so perfectly.  It adds a bit more pathos to the present, as it allows the reader to know Ben, but nothing that couldn't be folded into the story elsewhere.  It just didn't feel real.  Elsie and Ben argue approximately once, a fight toward the end of their relationship that appears to last for less than an hour.  We know they'll end up together, but the stakes don't have to be that low.

That brings us to the present timeline.  Now, obviously things happened quickly in the past.  Elsie and Ben know each other for about six months total and are married for nine days.  Still, that enough time to mention your significant other to your not-estranged mother.  I did enjoy seeing the path of how that oddity came to be unfold.  I also liked the questions Taylor Jenkins Reid brought up about marriage and grief.  Is Elsie's pain less real, less valid since she knew Ben such a short time?  Is she less a widow because she was only married nine days?  Since she's so young and the relationship was so short, when should people expect her to start dating again?  As the also widowed Susan points out, she's lucky as an older woman that people are more likely to understand if she chooses to spend the rest of her life alone.

Susan and Elsie's relationship contains the rocky reality that's missing from Ben and Elsie's.  They really batter and bruise each other at first, but for totally understandable reasons.  But they manage to reach out and overcome that terrible first impression.  It was nice to see their familial relationship blossom.  I also liked Elsie's relationship with her best friend Anna, who she leans on during her initial time of grief.  It was interesting to see Elsie be aware that she was taking advantage, but not being able to stop herself.

FOREVER, INTERRUPTED was weepier than I like.  At the same time, it was an intriguing character-driven story grounded in deep emotion.  I wish the past parts weren't so sugary sweet; they still could've provided contrast with a bit of bitter.  But I think Reid has made a nice debut and I'll look forward to her next novel.