On Location peels back the curtain on some of your favorite films, television shows, and more.
If Lena Dunham’s first TV hit, Girls, was her millennial-generation answer to Sex and the City, then her latest is a touching salute to all things British. Too Much is a 10-episode riff on the great Richard Curtis romcom model, from Four Weddings and a Funeral to Bridget Jones, complete with nods to the Jane Austen period dramas that gave him his template.
Also taking cues from the success of Emily in Paris, the show plunges heartbroken New Yorker Jess (character comedian Megan Stalter, recently seen in Hacks) into the heart of hipster London and the arms of tall, handsome and complicated indie singer Felix (Will Sharpe of The White Lotus Season two, Giri/Haji and more). Making merry with the clash between romcom London and the grubbier, grittier (but still pretty glamorous) real thing, it’s London-based expat Dunham having fun with friends in her new home.
While there’s still some of the angst and self-searching of Girls, Too Much is classic odd-couple romcom. The two leads are excellent, boldly resisting the threat of a glittering cast that includes Jennifer Saunders, Richard E Grant, Andrew Scott of Fleabag, Stephen Fry, French star Adèle Exarchopoulos, and a ridiculous number of other familiar faces.
Just as important is the backdrop, which takes us all over London and beyond to stately Home Counties, down dark alleys and across landscaped lawns, as if searching for the essence of England, real and imagined. Here, not including the shot of Tower Bridge that opens the show, is our guide to the highlights.
Where is Jess’s flat in Too Much?
When Jess arrives in London, she finds her Airbnb is not quite as expected. She’s booked herself into the “Hoxton Grove Estate” with an idea of the country-house lawns of her English romcom dreams, but finds herself instead in the heart of the city. Although Too Much does use a number of real-life London locations, Hoxton Grove doesn’t in fact exist; the production used St Peter’s Estate, a 1960s red-brick complex, for the exteriors and filmed the interior on a soundstage.