Two things come out of Starstruck’s fundamentally just-off-center rom-com structure. There are heartwarming romantic set pieces, too, but Starstruck is just as interested in how the pair works their way into and out of those experiences as it is in indulging the moment itself. Yes, there are big argument scenes as Jessie and Tom try to figure each other out, but they occur around the edges - much of the attention is on either the buildup or the aftermath. The series is a romantic comedy but with the narrative focus just slightly off-center from where it’s usually fixed. And it’s all the more appealing because it’s a bit surprising that this very awkward day is even part of the story, much less the crucial first act.Įvery element of Starstruck works from this general idea. It’s a lovely sequence that carries a thrill of emotional realism, full of fumbling missteps and attempts at grand gestures that misfire wildly. So they circle each other’s feelings and avoid each other’s eyes, and in its own way, this is also exquisitely romantic. Tom isn’t quite sure what to say to her, and she isn’t sure what she wants from him. ![]() The uncomfortable, semi-surreal gulf between her life and Tom’s has not gone away. She’s spent all her money on the plane ticket home. How is this going to work? She can’t bring herself to go back to her apartment now that she’s done this big, dramatic farewell. She and Tom are overjoyed! They’re in love! This is going to be great! Then the bus keeps driving, and Jessie begins to spin out a little. Season two begins right there in that moment when Jessie decides to stay. But the typical move in this kind of story would be to jump ahead, to skip to the part where the leads have moved in together and are madly in love, but then problems arise - you get the idea. It’s exactly what Starstruck is so good at, this translation of enormous, giddy romantic tropes into everyday settings and circumstances. Season one ends with the bus pulling up to the stop where Jessie should transfer for the airport … and then she doesn’t. Jessie and Tom’s relationship has been fun but casual no one has made any real declarations. ![]() She does not have a flourishing career in London, she has no family, and it doesn’t make sense to stay in this expensive city where she has few serious ties. Jessie and Tom are on the way to the airport, where Jessie is planning to board a plane and move back to New Zealand. One of my favorite of the series’ unusual and yet completely straightforward choices is the very first scene in season two, which hits HBO Max on Thursday and begins at the exact moment season one left off. Jessie and her boyfriend, Tom (Nikesh Patel), are roughly the same height, a yawn-worthy observation and yet almost shockingly radical within rom-com land. (She is not, for instance, perfect in every way except for one hang-up that has led to her being single forever.) The series adopts a much-loved romantic premise - regular person falls in love with movie star - but rather than the Notting Hill model, where their lives are turned upside down by fame, Starstruck frames this as a quotidian annoyance. The series is created and co-written by its star, New Zealand comedian Rose Matafeo, who is distinctive and charming and down-to-earth but not in the way romantic comedy often conceives of those terms. “Seemingly” because they’re often blindingly obvious once you look at them, and yet they fly in the face of many accepted norms in contemporary romantic comedies. Starstruck is a series full of fantastic, seemingly counterintuitive choices.
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