Season two of Least Favorite Love Songs picks up right where season one left off, with Molly still struggling to understand her sexuality (and anyone’s for that matter) and under the gun on a news article she’s writing for a local publication, only enough time has passed that she needs to re-up with her drug dealer.
While the four or five episode season (there is a bonus, improv episode) has its fair share of inconsistencies, which I’d attribute to each episode being a single scene in the story, there is one area that is consistently good; the writing.
Writing comedy is hard, but even if you can write comedy well it’s rare to find real ideas present in the writing, and even more rare to feel like the writing has perspective. Written by Helen Krieger (and others), who also plays Molly, the themes contained in the story feel deeply personal and represent struggles that I believe a lot of people can identify with. Beyond that the subject matter, while not quite taboo is one that is not always openly discussed.
At its core LFLS is a story about the struggles of love and sexuality and how they compete with the expectations placed on them through cultural norms. Molly states early on about her strong Catholic upbringing, and in turn feeling guilty about any and everything she feels. Her complicated relationship with pseudo-boyfriend Eddie exemplifies this inner turmoil as Molly can’t seem to divorce herself from the concept of her and Eddie being in a traditional relationship, while Eddie consistently shows why she should never ever want such a thing.
I find the Molly character to be quite fascinating, definitely one of the more interesting characters on the web today. How are we to come to terms with our inner desires when our parents, our churches, our culture has labeled them wrong? Even more difficult, how do we reconcile those desires when they conflict with the very things we believed we wanted but which our experiences have jaded us towards the possibility? For Molly her answer to the dilemma is to get high and fantasize about such things. While some might criticize the character for this, I find her inability to find the answer far more believable then trying to tack on some sort of unfounded wisdom to the plot line.
I rarely analyze characters to such depths in this column but it’s a testament to certain decisions made in the creation of the show that made everything possible. The character of Molly often communicates her inner monologues to the audience through voice over. Generally considered poor storytelling technique in film I’ve found voice overs to be amazingly beneficial in short form content like web series.
The other super beneficial decision that was made was to put the scripts to a writer’s room. With the stories already planned out scripts were put to a group of four additional writers for punching up. The result is a show that is consistently funny. You might be a funny writer, but are you as funny as five or six people combined!? I can’t recommend group writing enough.
Season two of Least Favorite Love Songs is one of those rare comedies with something to say. It’s a bit on the short side, but definitely worth a look. While I’d recommend starting from the top, if you want just a taste check out episode 2.2, which is just sheer brilliance all the way though.
You can find Least Favorite Love Songs on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/user/hkrieger504ever?feature=watch
