If you’d told me back in 2014 that I’d be watching Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne in an ongoing Nicholas Stoller project a decade later, I’d be pleasantly surprised. (I’d also ask, “Is Zac Efron there?” One of my most enduring takes is that Efron deserved a Best Supporting Actor nod for Neighbors.) Season one of Platonic was a perfectly breezy summer watch that coasted on the chemistry of its two leads, this time playing a dynamic reminiscent of their first team-up but minus the romantic connection. It didn’t necessarily call for a follow-up, especially after that one-year-later finale epilogue that illustrated the small and major ways Will and Sylvia have grown together over time. But I’m always happy to see these people on my screen.
But the first two episodes of season two might be even better than season one — or maybe I just forgot how much I enjoy the experience of hanging out with these characters. We pick up shortly after where season one left off: Sylvia is still happily married to Charlie and attempting a pivot to event planning, while Will is engaged to Jenna, the CEO of the restaurant chain Johnny 66. He’s even living with her in San Diego and commuting to Los Angeles every day, working on the conglomerate’s planned gastropub franchise: “Jay 6.”
So now Will has his own stable relationship and stable career, and his lifestyle is just as tame as Sylvia’s … right? Well, sort of. We do see moments of genuine warmth and humor between Will and Jenna, and he has certainly grown as a person since exclusively dating younger, cooler women in the wake of his divorce. But we see quickly that those old impulses are still there, no matter how often he coos the pet name “Penguini” to his fiancée. While planning his engagement party early in the premiere, Will makes a hilarious confession to Sylvia: “I have a crush on somebody.” Her immediate advice is to lock those feelings up and pretend they’re not there, and he mostly agrees.
But the feelings resurface at the lavish engagement party itself, which Will seems desperate to escape. News that his buddies Reggie and Andy accidentally spiked a random Champagne flute with LSD (it was meant for Omar) provides a good excuse: Sylvia and Will are forced to make up some old Jewish tradition to get everyone to pour out their glasses, then embark on a desperate search for more Veuve Clicquot. After a smoothly executed heist at the local BevMo, Will detours to a sandwich shop, putting off a return to his own engagement party. It turns out he still really wants Sylvia to meet his crush, a cashier there with a Deadpool tattoo who raves about the goat butter being “local AF.”
Sylvia shakes Will out of his fantasies pretty efficiently by leading him to an inevitable conclusion: He really doesn’t know this Hannah very well, even if she seems more “his speed.” He’s still self-sabotaging because he’s fixated on looking cool and young, evident from the fact that he still dresses like that.
A hard brake ruins all the Champagne, but the pair do make it back to the party eventually, having conquered Will’s crush and his fear of appearing cringe. His reluctant participation in his future father-in-law’s toast-slash-rap proves that well enough. That’s not the end of the drama, though, based on Jenna’s dry remark about their disappearance that afternoon.
“The Dinner Parties,” the second of the two episodes released today, maintains the momentum. The plot here is a natural follow-up to the end of “The Engagement Party”: Sylvia really wants to befriend Jenna so that she can remain friends with Will. It’s a realistic concern, given how difficult it can be to maintain an open and honest friendship with someone whose partner you don’t love. But Sylvia has also experienced this very situation with Will before, back when he first got married and they grew apart. She has real reason to think they could lose what they rediscovered not long ago.
Of course, Will is set on making sure Sylvia and Jenna never interact, intent on avoiding conflict at all costs. He’s clearly unnerved by his friend’s sudden appearance in his home, flipping through rental options with his fiancée and doing her best to fight Jenna’s subtle coldness with brute-strength friendliness. He only agrees to a couple’s dinner when Sylvia reminds him that Jenna will get even more suspicious if they avoid each other.
The dinner is as awkward and funny as you’d expect. At Will’s insistence, Sylvia tries not to be a “Will historian” lest she make Jenna feel more insecure. But it’s hard not to make Jenna insecure. She’s also just a hard person to vibe with in general, between her casual condescension (apparently it’s “helpful” for Will to have a goal) and implausible stories (she learned to walk at 5 months old and ice skated at 1 year old). Her fight with Will, which gets ugly pretty fast, actually reminded me of Michael Scott and Jan Levinson’s emotionally violent “Dinner Party” interactions a few times.
At this stage, based on the way Jenna is portrayed, I’m a bit doubtful this wedding is really going to happen. But there’s actually something pretty interesting going on here with the Will-Sylvia-Jenna triangle, and it’s more complex than Will sending cries for help after falling out of love. Jenna feeling intimidated by Sylvia makes sense, considering how much of the real Will she sees when they’re around each other, and Sylvia feeling desperate to connect with Jenna also makes sense. But Will’s issue is more specific and yet just as relatable: Spending time with his fiancée and his best friend makes him aware of how much more he has in common with the latter than the former. Around Jenna, he can comfortably be the guy who uses pet nicknames like “Penguini” and doesn’t say “fuck” all the time, but when Sylvia is there, he can’t stop seeing every interaction through her eyes, and it all suddenly feels like a charade. Everyone experiences this, to some extent, when different social circles mix and you’re not sure which version of yourself to perform.
Sylvia and Jenna’s dinner the next day seems to go a long way in repairing the tension between them — but based on that perfect final interaction, there might be nothing Sylvia can do to truly earn Jenna’s respect. In the restroom, Jenna admits that she once felt anxious about being “the new kid on the block” compared to Will’s decades-long friendship with Sylvia, but that she now understands Sylvia isn’t so intimidating after all. Then she offsets that welcome dose of vulnerability with a cutting final remark that leaves Sylvia perplexed: “You’re nothing.” I’ve never really watched Platonic for the plot, but I have to say, I can’t wait to see what happens next.
Inside Jokes
• But for real, Zac Efron would work great on this show. Let’s make that happen in season three.
• “You just code-switched like a motherfudger.”
• “Is it racist?” “No, it’s not racist.” “Is it homophobic?” “No.” “Is it Islamophobic?” “Yeah, it’s Islamophobic. He wants me to participate in his Islamophobic fucking toast at my own engagement party.”
• Apparently, Jenna’s uncle Pete “ate a man in Korea,” and he tasted like lasagna. Speaking of which, of course he’s the one who took the acid, and of course he comes running through naked in the closing seconds.
• The coyote running joke is pretty fun and setting-specific, and Byrne’s delivery of “Get the fuck outta here” before returning to her pleasant host good-byes is a highlight.
• “You’re bringing those to the door?”
• Jenna’s brilliant life hack to remember stuff: “Write things down.”
• Much of season one revolved around Charlie’s jealousy and discomfort with people referring to Will as his “wife’s boyfriend,” so it’s nice to see him as a grounded force in these episodes. There’s a decent number of good Charlie moments here, including the Timothée Chalamet beat, but my favorite might be his wordlessly handing Sylvia her glass of wine from the table after an especially uncomfortable interaction.
• “A legend is Hercules. A legend is Moana.” It’s hard not to side with Will during this argument, but he kind of shoots himself in the foot by incorrectly referring to Moana as a Pixar movie. Matt Remick would never.
• Sylvia’s diplomatic reaction to Barbie, which her daughter made her see eight times: “People loved it. People love that movie.”
Related
Now that Will is engaged and in a good place in his career, he’s treating his friendship with Jenna as a threat to his stability.
