98% on Rotten Tomatoes definitely deserves your attention!
Debuting in 2021 on Peacock in the States, Girls5Eva was the new show by Tina Fey and Robert Carlock, the creative duo behind both 30 Rock and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. The new show was a massive critical success and consistently very, very funny, but it never seemed to find its right audience on Peacock, who ultimately decided to cancel the show when its second season ended.
However, in a bit of a shock takeover, Netflix decided to buy the rights to the show and plough ahead with a third season, which will be coming to the streaming service very soon, and the first two seasons are available to watch right now!
The plot revolves around four women who were part of a girl group named (yep) Girls5eva, which was briefly popular around the year 2000 before fading into one-hit-wonder status. Two decades later, their song is sampled in a hit hip-hop song, and the four women – who have barely said a word to each other in the intervening years – decide to reunite and try to chase down musical fame one last time.
The central foursome are (actual singer!) Sara Bareilles as Dawn, the self-proclaimed “chill one”, Busy Phillips (Dawson’s Creek, Freaks and Geeks) as Summer, the self-proclaimed “hot one”, Paula Pell (Sisters, Big Mouth) as Gloria, the self-proclaimed “always working one”, and Renée Elise Goldsberry (Waves, The Good Wife) as Wickie, the self-proclaimed “fierce one”.
Season One of the show scored a massive 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, while Season Two barely dipped at all, to just 95% on the critics aggregate site.
IndieWire – “Girls5Eva always feels too short because you’re laughing at everything packed into the episodes. If you grew up following the teen music scene during the new millennium you’ll find everything you loved (and a bunch of stuff you missed) in the series. It’s a loving tribute to the music we loved – and the themes we’ve hopefully moved away from.”
The Hollywood Reporter – “The 40-somethings of Girls5eva might never reach the spotlight again, but their journeys toward it are already delightful and deliriously witty.”
Vulture – “Once all that premise establishment is taken care of, Girls5Eva is able to do what it does best: crank out joke after joke about the sometimes degrading and always ridiculous exercise of attempting to work in show business.”
Decider – “With four fantastic leads and some sharp writing, Girls5eva should give Fey-Carlock fans the fix they’ve been looking for since Kimmy Schmidt ended.”
The full first two seasons of Girls5Eva are available on Netflix right now in Ireland and the UK, with Season 3 due to arrive soon.
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