Over the course of its seven seasons, Tina Fey’s 30 Rock gathered and maintained a very particular comic style, and now a show in its wake, Meredith Scardino’s Girls5eva, uncannily echoes it. Scardino wrote for Fey on Fey’s second show, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, and Fey is an Executive Producer on Girls5eva. It’s Scardino’s show, but it’s Fey’s unmistakeable style, which is fine, because it’s a vibe we all need a little of: fast, funny, and deeply silly.
There are more tropes too, including a kind of third-wave feminism reclamation of such stereotypes as the bimbo, the fat chick and the b*** h. They’re proudly represented here, the creators being comfortable in their own skin as, well, women, and they fit neatly into the show’s simple set-up: a girl group whose moment has long passed gets a chance at another one.
All the acting, all the gags, all the situations, everything is over the top, gleefully so. Of the four main characters, the standout is Wicky Roy, played by Renée Elise Goldsberry, who was the original Broadway Angelica in Hamilton. She plays a diva’s diva, divinely. Luckily we get a lot of her as her three co-horts don’t sparkle as brightly. No matter. This show is one thing and one thing only, escapism, and it works as such.