Paul Sarkis/Apple TV+
Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne in “Platonic”, premiered on Apple TV+.
CNN –
‘Platonic’ is one of those streaming series where anything goes, and where the prevailing notion is that once high-profile talent has agreed to star, they could get away with anything — or, in this case, handy nothing. Here’s how Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne spend their time bantering and sparring in a show that claims to be about friendships between men and women, but in reality feels more like a breezy ode to the stoner aesthetic.
Byrnes Sylvia and Rogens Will were once best friends before a falling out when she told him she hated the woman he was going to marry. When she hears they’re getting a divorce, she impulsively reaches out to him, and after initial awkwardness, they start hanging out again, which upsets both of their lives in a way.
For Sylvia, a stay-at-home mother of three children, this dynamic is initially irritating and later arouses suspicion in her husband (Luke Macfarlane), a successful lawyer who doesn’t actually get jealous until people start calling Will his “boyfriend.” designate woman. Friend.”
As for Will, he has work problems with the buddies he runs a brewery with and begins to live out his newfound singleness by dating a 25-year-old woman, leading him to worry about whether he could become some kind of middle old-fashioned cliché.
If you (of course) count Rogen and Byrne among the producers, “Platonic” really doesn’t have much more to offer. Conversations within the show are long-lasting as the two drink and do drugs during the day and ask each other’s advice while constantly assuring everyone that no, she’s married and nothing awkward is happening.
The carefree pace is fun at times, if not as consistently funny as “Shrinking,” another Apple TV+ show that tackles the same kind of midlife-crisis-related issues with a clearer sense of purpose.
In contrast, “Platonic” doesn’t really delve deeply into the notion of man-woman relationships and how they are perceived as we age, or how Sylvia and Will have achieved the level of intimacy they once enjoyed and fairly enjoyed rediscover quickly.
With that in mind, the show’s joys are limited to general mood rather than belly laughs, but also to smaller moments, like the music from “Working Girl” that plays when Sylvia returns to work. Essentially, the audience is left as a spectator as Rogen and Byrne discuss everything and everyone in a refreshingly natural way, but also without any urgency.
Byrne has become a valuable collaborator for Apple as her other series, Physical, returns for a third and final season in August. Rogen left his own streaming brands primarily as a producer, including Amazon’s hit superhero satire The Boys.
Yet “Platonic” operates in such a minor key that it’s hard to resist the feel of yet another vanity project designed to feed streaming’s hungry altar. The end result is, perhaps appropriately, a show that’s easy to like but almost impossible to love.
Platonic launches May 25 on Apple TV+. (Disclosure: Lowry’s wife works for an Apple entity.)