A quick review of the Insecure finale — and the first season as a whole — coming up just as soon as I have a week left on my trial subscription to Tidal…
I had seen the first six episodes before I wrote my initial review of the show, so there wasn’t a whole lot to these last two installments to change my overall feelings that the show functioned better as a character study than as a straightforward comedy, but that the two main characters were so well-drawn, and Issa Rae’s authorial voice so clear, that I was happy to watch it all.
“Broken as F**k” continued that season-long trend, not only deepening our understanding of Issa and Molly amid their respective life crises, but underlining just how important their friendship is, relative to the men who come and go in their lives. It’s a disappointment for Issa that Lawrence isn’t home when she returns to the apartment — having opted for emotionally uncomplicated sex with his bank teller friend — but the more crucial reconciliation has already happened, when she turns her role play exercise in the car into a way to apologize to Molly for the things she said about her at the charity event.
When the show returns next season, maybe Issa and Lawrence can reconcile, or maybe she’ll start try to apologize to Daniel for what she said to him at the charity event, but this season made clear that Issa’s problems run much deeper than her inability to choose a man, but rather to her inability to choose what she wants out of her life in general. Even in the wake of a big success with the fundraiser and a big attaboy from her boss at We Got Y’All, she doesn’t seem happy there, but is also at a loss for what would make her happy. Similarly, Molly’s self-destructive tendencies most obviously play out in her own romantic struggles, but there are a lot of things about herself that she needs to examine before she can move forward.
It’s an interesting, and appropriate, place for the show to end: the two friends together — on the couch where Issa and Lawrence’s relationship had so many ups and downs, and which these days mainly serves as a hangout for their neighbor (one of TV’s best one-joke characters at the moment) and his fellow Bloods — Issa crying as Molly tries to comfort her, both of them with a lot to figure out, but at least having each other to lean on again.
A very promising first season of a show I look forward to more from in the future.
What did everybody else think?