Lena Dunham’s much-anticipated return to TV arrived in the form of Too Much, a Netflix comedy-drama that reimagines her real-life breakup with musician-producer Jack Antonoff as a self-lacerating romantic odyssey. Largely staying behind the camera due to health problems, Dunham channeled her emotional chaos into a fictional avatar: Jessica (played with twitchy, unfiltered energy by Megan Stalter), a neurotic Brooklynite reeling from heartbreak.
When Jessica’s long-term boyfriend leaves her and promptly gets engaged to a social media influencer, she flees to London under the guise of career reinvention. Really, she’s chasing an English countryside fantasy where she plays Elizabeth Bennet, pining for a Mr. Darcy to sweep her off her feet. Instead, she finds Felix (Will Sharpe), a brooding indie musician with black nail polish, estranged family ties, and a relapsing drug addiction who is closer in spirit to Emily Brontë’s Heathcliff than Jane Austen’s Darcy.
