‘Loot’ Season 1 Apple TV Plus Review

Loot Review

Loot debuted its first three episodes on Apple TV Plus on June 24. We at Movie News Net have seen all episodes from season 1, and we’d like to discuss them now.

 

Loot is a new series starring Maya Rudolph as mega-billionaire Molly Novak, who separates from her husband after finding out about an infidelity. After hitting rock bottom, Molly gets a call from her own charity foundation and decides to start working with them and embark on a journey of self-discovery along with her loyal assistant Nicholas (Joel Kim Booster).

 

The plot of the series is definitely not something we haven’t seen before. The best way I can think of to describe the series is that Loot is an early-2010s cable network comedy, released in 2022. That applies to the humor, which at times is slightly forced, but also to larger themes of representation, which are not even brought up by the script (and I’m so glad they weren’t, since this way they didn’t feel forced at all). However, I am not a fan of this series. The comedic tone is definitely not for me, as it feels childish at times, and over-the-top most of the time.

 

Loot

 

I don’t think this is necessarily the actors’ fault because I felt like every single member of the cast was exaggerating every scene they were in. Therefore, I have to turn to the directors and the writers, who probably put together exactly the show they were intending to do, but it just wasn’t for me. I can admit the tone was hard to digest for me at times, and having a comedy where I didn’t even think one joke was funny turned me off, but all of this is as subjective as it gets. And I probably wasn’t the target audience for this, though if that’s the case, I have to wonder who is.

 

The jokes are very silly at times, and so childish I would believe it if they told me this was a show for 10-year-olds. But the rest of the series is definitely not, so there is a clash there that makes for a very awkward show at times. Again, humor is as subjective as art can be, so I don’t mean to be offensive to those who enjoy the comedy here — I just think that after getting gems like The Office and How I Met Your Mother, we are now getting comedies like Loot or How I Met Your Father. On the flipside, we also have The Marvelous Ms. Maisel and Ted Lasso, so that evens it out for me.

 

 

Loot, at its core, tries to teach us lessons about privilege. Rudolph’s character, one of the richest people on the surface of the planet, is unaware of literally everything that is happening below her paygrade and does not the first thing about the problems in our world. But that can also be applied to most of us when compared to third-world countries, and much like billionaires could do more for our society, we should also lead by example and do more for those we can help. The show is also very critical of multi-billionaires, and tears them apart multiple times — however, it also comes across as tone-deaf at times, and is quick to forgive characters that are otherwise terrible people. The writers sacrifice diving into the many nuances of socioeconomic differences for the sake of having a character arc, and that felt very odd to me at times.

 

I myself cannot recommend Loot, but the trailer is linked here, so if you think the tone is for you, I’d encourage you to check it out for yourself!

 

 

Loot will debut a new episode every Friday until August 12.