Ruby Yao (Stephanie Hsu), the protagonist of the Peacock comedy “Laid,” is variously described as “egocentric,” “a nightmare,” “the worst individual I’ve ever met” and belonging “in jail.” Hsu’s efficiency and Ruby’s characterization as an entire are certainly intensely off-putting, in methods each intentional and never. However Ruby’s karmic comeuppance on this sequence, tailored by sitcom veterans Nahnatchka Khan (“Recent off the Boat”) and Sally Bradford McKenna (“The Goldbergs”) from an Australian present of the identical title, doesn’t have an effect on her straight. As a substitute, everybody she’s ever slept with begins to die — usually in outlandish methods, at all times within the order she had intercourse with them.
This morbid premise evokes the late, nice “Lovesick.” However not like that British sequence, through which the hero’s STI leads him to revisit previous relationships, the heightened stakes of “Laid” current a tonal hurdle the eight-episode season proves unable to surmount. “Laid” is breezily informal about Ruby’s (literal) physique rely with out totally embracing the horror or bleak, slapstick comedy of its implications. In instructing Ruby a lesson about her narcissism, “Laid” finally ends up solely reinforcing it by speaking that no precise life, or much more than a dozen lives within the combination, issues as a lot as Ruby’s inside one. The issues with “Laid,” very similar to these in Ruby’s personal affairs, largely stem from Ruby herself.
“Laid” marks a sequence lead debut for Hsu, an Academy Award nominee for her breakout function in “All the things In all places All at As soon as.” Hsu had no drawback enjoying an out-and-out villain for lengthy stretches of that movie, however her Ruby is extra of an oblivious blabbermouth vulnerable to stunning bouts of callousness, like failing to recollect the names of individuals she’s inadvertently condemned to die. She’s neither foul sufficient for her sheer monstrosity to be the joke, just like the Dubek siblings in “The Different Two,” nor candy sufficient for her inevitable redemption to really feel even barely earned. As a substitute, she’s simply annoying. In a redundant illustration of her total obnoxiousness, Ruby is a superfan of musicals on the whole and “The Best Showman” specifically.
If Ruby fails to compel within the second, “Laid” additionally struggles in its efforts to explicate the roots of her romantic dysfunction. That is principally finished not by means of natural interactions, however by means of Ruby’s therapist (Elizabeth Bowen) explaining her issues — from abandonment points to fixating on a form of love that solely exists in fashionable tradition — to her face. As skilled apply and compelling tv, the tactic is equally poor.
“Laid” perks up a bit when Ruby companions with Richie (Michael Angarano), an ex with an apparent incentive to determine what’s happening. Richie’s low opinion of Ruby makes him a professional sparring companion and sorely wanted foil; he’s higher suited to the half than both AJ (Zosia Mamet), Ruby’s roommate and greatest buddy, or Isaac (Tommy Martinez), her newest event-planning consumer and potential love curiosity. (Anganaro even gamely shoulders some clunky product placement for Toyota. I assume “Laid” is attempting to be tongue-in-cheek in regards to the plug, however like the remainder of its makes an attempt at darkish humor, the sarcasm doesn’t translate.) Sadly, Richie is late to the occasion, depriving “Laid” of its personal sharpest instrument and indicating a broader situation with pacing. Ruby’s co-worker Brad (Ryan Pinkston) seems to play a pivotal function within the plot, but it surely’s not clear she even has a co-worker till a number of episodes in.
There are moments when a snider, sillier model of “Laid” peeks by means of; a scene the place John Early performs himself is, per normal for the comic, elegant. The season nonetheless ends on a cliffhanger, leaving its central thriller in addition to its personal identification unresolved. Ultimately, “Laid” lacks a perspective on Ruby’s affliction. Is it a metaphor for the way she treats her exes, or simply an opportunity to make comedy from the sheer agglomeration of tragedy? Whichever metric one makes use of, “Laid” in the end falls brief.
All eight episodes of “Laid” are actually streaming on Peacock.
