Platonic proves that no matter how justified our TV prejudices are, we shouldn’t be so quick to write off new projects in an industry of reboots and sequels.
Even so, you may have tuned into Pete Davidson’s Bupkis recently and found yourself confronted with raunchy humour that values bodily fluid jokes almost as much as it treasures uncomfortable sex scenes. So when a Seth Rogen-led comedy from Neighbors director Nick Stoller announced itself shortly after, you rightfully expected more of the same — a gross, masculine minefield of pitfalls (and pratfalls).
But Platonic is nothing like Bupkis, or Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne’s previous frathouse follies. Instead, it is a surprisingly tame, sophisticated contemporary comedy with something important to say about adult friendships.
Platonic is nuanced nonsense with low-stakes shenanigans that are oddly comforting and refreshingly harmless. This candy-coated fever dream of friendship joyrides and workplace temper tantrums is blissful binge-watching you can look forward to wasting a few aimless hours on.
There’s something delightful about Byrne and Rogen’s meandering as they routinely kick over electric scooters and inhabit local haunts while pondering why middle age is such a shit show. As such, the honest imperfections of Will and Sylvia’s platonic dynamic are a novelty, never crossing the line into romantic territory to stay relevant.
High-school friends experiencing vastly different growing pains, they are whisked back together by circumstance and find comradery in the fact that they don’t have to embrace the growing pains of adulthood quietly around each other. As they fumble through career changes and marital problems, the show taps into a much more thoughtful commentary on how we so easily drift apart from our high-school friendships and how difficult it can be to find space to welcome them back into our adult lives.
Adult friendships and adult coming-of-middle-age stories deserve more attention. They tap into a fundamental experience we don’t acknowledge the difficulties of often enough. We are so quick to push aside the growing pains of our thirties and forties for teenage cliches when the messiest storytelling lies with the kids at heart struggling to accept what growing up actually means.
And Platonic does more than scrape the surface of that potential with an uncomplicated look at two people caught between the adult lives they thought they were living and the high-school shenanigans they are desperate to reunite with.
Even with its deeper storytelling at work, the casual chaos of this outing is more than enough to entertain.
The side quests shared between house hunting and business ventures with cartoon CEO Johnny Rev have their quiet triumphs. I particularly love the bit with Sylvia as she tries to convince herself to buy a spooky retirement home with a well-timed slamming cabinet gag. Sylvia’s brief stint at a law firm does stumble too far into cringe comedy, but she ditches that endeavour for entertaining bouts of lying.
As for moving beyond the calm of this contemporary comedy, the urge never comes, but there are plenty of opportunities to snap back into the Rogen raunchy special. There is a crucial beat halfway through the season where the gang snorts horse tranquillizers and prepares to go to a strip club, but at the last second, the episode decides to bail and focus on Sylvia and Will’s connection in the solace of a quiet apartment.
It proves the most successful decision of the season, keeping the show focused on its wholesome mission of friendship.
Byrne and Rogen channel the loveable unhinged humour from their Neighbors’ partnership.
But they also tone down the intensity, providing more subtle punchlines and jokes grounded in sincerity. The meatier material is a nice change of pace for them artistically without having to take away from what makes this pairing so fun to watch. At the end of the day, the ease of their chemistry sells this friendship quite effortlessly.
And Rogen’s bold blonde moment will surely entice enough people to tune in — as it should!
Luke Macfarlane’s Charlie is also a commendable stand-out of this ensemble, throwing banter back at our leads with his crisp comedy chops. He may not get to embrace the chaos around him, but he executes the straight male character precisely. Despite sporadic screen time as Sylvia’s buzzkill husband, Macfarlane garners likeability with a few well-paced side stories and dynamic co-worker mess-arounds.
This series’ startling mundaneness is a change of pace Apple’s streamer is slowly and cleverly embracing, devoting time to contemporary sitcoms that will neither blow our minds nor crack the top ten lists of most viewers’ favourite TV shows list. Yet, no-frills comedies like Platonic and Shrinking are not created to be the next franchisable Ted Lasso as much as they are simply to be enjoyed.
The vibrant LA cinematography is nice to look at, the plot never crosses any severe moral lines without repenting, and this series is happy to reward its viewers for sticking around with a satisfying wrap-up. There are no gimmicks and no reason to keep watching, but the realism grounding Sylvia and Will’s problems compels us to stay a while.
In true Apple TV+ fashion, Platonic will come and go relatively unnoticed. But like most of the streamer’s indie sitcom hits, this one deserves its dedicated following.
A casual hang with no long-term commitments, this wholesome buddy comedy is worth spending some time with this summer.
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Platonic is streaming now on Apple TV+.
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