In the premiere episode of the whip-smart and cheerfully dark half-hour comedy series “Laid,” we’re treated to a scene that might sound simple and almost inessential, but there’s something brilliant and daring in the execution.
Stephanie Hsu’s Ruby has learned that Brandon, a man she briefly dated in college, has died. Even though Ruby hadn’t seen Brandon in 15 years, she decides to attend the memorial services, and finds herself in a car with Brandon’s parents (Miriam Smith and Michael Q. Adams), his girlfriend (Melanie Chan), who resents Ruby because Brandon apparently never got over her, and a giant dog.
Ruby requests some tunes. Dad turns on the radio, and we hear Paul Simon’s “Graceland.” Ruby begins to sing along — softly at first, but then really getting into it, as if she’s in an episode of "Carpool Karaoke." The silent but disparate reactions from everyone else in the car, dog included, are fantastic, right up until the moment when Ruby sings, “And she said, losing love is like a window in your heart” as mom fumbles for her tissues from her purse. It’s a ridiculous scene, and it’s hilarious and it’s also kind of sweet — and it goes on for a full 90 seconds. That’s comedic risk-taking right there, and it pays off.
Adapting the 2011 Australian series of the same name, co-showrunners and executive producers Nahnatchka Khan and Sally Bradford McKenna have teamed up with a great cast led by Hsu (“Everything Everywhere All at Once”) and Zosia Mamet to create one of the most creative and consistently funny new series of the year.
Sporting a kind of glossy, generic rom-com look (filming took place in Vancouver), the Peacock series opens with a prologue that foreshadows the morbid humor ahead, before we flash back three months earlier, to Hsu’s Ruby on a third date with an amiable guy named Jason that ends with subpar sex, in part because the guy didn’t spring for ad-free Spotify, which means ads for “Elsbeth” kept interrupting the mood.
The next morning, Ruby reports to her roommate and best friend AJ (Zosia Mamet) that it’s not going to work out with Jason.
“No!” exclaims AJ. “We were so excited for Third Date Jason.”
“Now ‘Bad Sex Spotify Ads Jason,’ I’m afraid,” comes the reply.
Hsu and Mamet have a rat-a-tat-tat rapport that reflects their BFF status—even as AJ’s slacker-gamer boyfriend Zack (a hilarious Andre Hyland) weighs in with unfiltered observations, e.g., telling Ruby, “Is it possible that you still think being alone is the fault of thousands of guys and a fair share of girls, and you’re not at all to blame? I mean, possible, yeah. Likely, no.”
If news of the death of College Fling Brandon isn’t unsettling enough, more of Ruby’s exes start kicking their respective buckets in rapid and alarming fashion, as when a baseball player gets struck in the temple with a foul ball while in the on-deck circle on live TV, with Ruby and AJ watching in horror. WHAT. IS. HAPPENING.
This is the bloody thread fueling “Laid.” (Get it? Double meaning? “Laid,” as in getting laid, and “Laid,” as in “Laid to rest.) Ruby’s exes keep dying, and she teams up with true-crime buff AJ and puts together quite the murder board — titled “RUBY’S SEX TIMELINE” — to investigate this madness and to try to prevent more exes from dying. Complicating matters: Ruby, who works as an event planner, falls hard for the hunky and sensitive Isaac (Tommy Martinez) as she helps him stage a 40th anniversary party for his parents and Isaac seems to have feelings for Ruby, but he’s dating a “marine biologist who’s also a gamer and does tons of charity work.” Plus, if Ruby did sleep with Isaac and they broke up, does that mean he would die?
The pop culture references in “Laid” are fast and furious and often deep cuts, whether it’s AJ reassuring Ruby there’s still time for her to meet someone because after all, “Holland Taylor didn’t meet Sarah Paulson until she was 66,” or Ruby wondering why a certain ex assumed she was single: “He could have asked me when I texted him after ‘Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids’ TV’ came out. He had a small part in all that. Nothing happened, he was fine.”
From “Graceland” singalongs to asides about a recent and disturbing reality series to ex-boyfriends dropping like flies, “Laid” might be an acquired taste and could be accused of being less than tasteful, but it’s funny as hell and even kind of sweet in its own warped way.
