I started watching Platonic on Apple TV+ last night and ended up blazing through the first three eps in one sitting. It’s not the sort of thing I’d normally watch, or at least not at first glance. It feels like a asort of romantic comedy but with the romance angle ruled out from the get go.
Actually, no, it’s a buddy movie; that’s what it is. A buddy movie but stretched out over a whole tv series. Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne play a couple of friends without benefits who drifted apart after Rogen’s developmentally arrested indie brewmaster married a successful social climbing influencer who Byrne’s one upon a time lady-lawyer-turned-thoroughly-compromised-suburban-mum called out as a disaster.
Their friendship didn’t survive the honesty. Platonic seems to genuinely be about them getting back together as friends and only as friends. Whether a man and woman can be friends is a Harry-Met-Sally situation so commonly exploited by screenwriters that the screenwriters of Platonic continually refer to it. But they do seem to be genuinely committed to doing a whole thing about friendship, not romance.
In that way, it feels utterly refreshing, and that’s how I found myself hitting the next-ep button at the end of each chapter. It’s a really lovely, well-observed and very funny show about two mates. (In fact, Byrne is allowed to play her character as a displaced Australian, so I wonder whether the concept of mateship will ever be explicitly spelled out).
Anyway, I had meant to recommend a watch of the Rogue Heroes series on SBS, and I still will, but I was so surprised by how much I enjoyed Platonic that I felt I really should give it a shout-out.
I've been bombarded with trailers for this while I emote my way through the final episodes of Ted Lasso, and I wasn't 100% sure about it, but will now definitely give it a go!
I'm sorry but if you are on Apple TV how can you ignore the Silo shaped pit drawing you in?
This is in my Up Next, for when I've finished Ted Lasso and Slow Horses (which I highly recommend).
I've been bombarded with trailers for this while I emote my way through the final episodes of Ted Lasso, and I wasn't 100% sure about it, but will now definitely give it a go!