'Girls5Eva' Season 3 Is the B3st Y3t

By Chris Revelle | TV | March 15, 2024 |

By Chris Revelle | TV | March 15, 2024 |

It’s often said that we live in the darkest timeline, or at least that we live in the dumbest. We live with a backward economy that places more burden on those least able to pay, we live with a media ecosystem that’s slowly having the life drained out of it by corporatization, and virtually every other week, JK Rowling’s heart grows harder and more insane. Perhaps it’s both: the darkest and the dumbest timeline. It would certainly explain the rise of contemporary comedies like The Bear, which cut their humor with so much drama that they become dramedies. There’s nothing wrong with that; culture shifts in response to the world. As our world grows dumber and darker, perhaps we harden up to keep from being vulnerable. Perhaps pure silliness feels too childish and leaves us feeling too open to attack. Perhaps we struggle to see the value of a belly laugh when we’re surrounded by encroaching ennui, like it might be unbecoming to laugh. I cannot thank Girls5Eva enough for coming to our rescue with a straight shot of wackiness and fun to break up the drudgery.

Finally, after a nearly two-year break that saw this wonderful show canceled by Peacock and then rescued by Netflix, Girls5Eva’s triumphant return is here. It’s season 3, baby, and damn if it’s not the best yet. The tale of mid-life reinvention for this early-aughts pop group continues as they head out on the road for a rollicking tour across (some of) the country on their way to a dream gig at Radio City Music Hall. The name of their tour? Why, Returnity of course! Girls5Eva and Girls5Eva are at their best when they’re pushing against obstacles on their way to reclaim their pop stardom, so smooshing together “return” and “eternity” is a spot-on choice for the group always making a comeback. And you know what else? Wordplay is fun! That’s right, there’s no deeper take here. Wordplay is awesome and no matter how many times they mentioned joke titles like Returnity or Yesternights or “Marriott Divorced Dads Suitelettes,” I cackled. This pure concentrated silliness broke through my writerly tendencies to intellectualize what I’m watching and gave me the witchiest of cackles.

As ever eva, Girls5Eva carries the twin marks of a Tina Fey/Robert Carlock-style comedy: a joke-a-second structure and a deeply zany view of celebrity culture. The constant tat-tat-tat of jokes that can threaten to bowl the viewer over might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it can feel exhilarating to give yourself over to it and ride the wave. As for the show’s celeb-reality, it’s as joyously absurd as ever. We get, among other delights, a spectacular riff on the babygirl Harry Styles archetype that sees a British pop star croon songs about being a sensitive boy in a sweater, the cringey early-aughts sugar baby pop anthem “Sweet’N Low Daddy”, and a spoof of the Jewel/Joan Osbourne sound that is sadly not on Spotify, but really must be heard. This show is just a shot of pure joy.

The characters all find themselves at their own crossroads. Dawn (Sara Bareilles) is pregnant, desperately missing her family, and working on standing up for herself more often. In one episode, she faces off against a southern State Senator (John Early) who barges into Dawn’s pregnancy as an advocate for “fetal citizens” and puts Mike Pence to shame by calling his wife “mother” in Old English. Gloria (Paula Pell) and Summer (Busy Phillipps) are both figuring out who they are and what they want in the wake of big break-ups. Gloria embarks on a quest to bed all 178 types of women (using a spreadsheet that you simply must pause the show to read) and Summer has a crisis of identity that sends her glomming onto a turquois jewelry-wearing biker played by Paul Dinello. Wickie (the transcendent Renée Elise Goldsberry) grapples with, in her words, “being born upper-middle class in suburban Maryland.” I’m not saying Wickie and I are kindred spirits, but when they visited my actual hometown of Clarksville, MD, I might’ve squealed. It must be said that while the whole cast seems more at home in their roles and funnier than ever, Goldsberry hits homerun after homerun after homerun this season and if she isn’t clutching an Emmy for this work, I will revolt. Goldsberry has enormous clout as a Broadway actor and the way she no-holds-barred commits to every part of Wickie, especially her singing, cements her alongside Jenna Maroney in my personal Mount Rushmore of fictional fame monster icons.

If I had to quibble, because this review can’t just be a straight tongue-bath, I would say that there seems to be slightly less music this season. The original songs we get are awesome, but I wanted more! Taken with the smaller supporting cast and the shorter season (we get but six precious episodes), you can feel some new limits hemming in the production. It’s to the show’s credit, however, that it never feels less funny, buoyant, or fun.

Being folded into the Netflix factory complex has drawbacks like these, but Girls5Eva rolls with it so well you might not notice. I wondered if the show was pressed to plug Netflix content when Streamberry, the Netflix alter ego from Black Mirror, showed up and Dawn became transfixed with the new season of The Crown, but the show handles this so well. Like in 30 Rock’s time, the product placement is taken in stride and transformed into knowing jokes. While Wickie is in a boardroom trying to sell a tour documentary to Streamberry, the platform is bought and sold several times, with new executives swapped in. It’s this kind of goofiness backed with an intelligent gaze that’s aware of how much the world sucks right now that feels like an impossible balance.

At just six episodes in length, you can dash through the whole season without realizing you’re doing it. Being this brief, I understand the urge to savor the show, but I was completely unable to stop. At the end of each episode, I felt lifted by how much I laughed and couldn’t bring myself to stop the next episode from loading. This season of Girls5Eva is its best and strongest, and my only real complaint is: WHEN DO WE GET MORE?!