Stream It Or Skip It?

Despite the amazing chemistry between Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne, which goes back to their days playing a couple in Nicholas Stoller’s Neighbors films, we never vibed with Platonic during its first season. The main problem we had is that we never bought into the idea that the immature Will and the too-mature-for-comfort Sylvia were such close friends so long into their adulthoods. We still have that feeling as Season 2 begins, but at least we’re now seeing more evidence that the two are approaching some sort of happy medium with each other.

PLATONIC SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Will (Seth Rogen) and Sylvia (Rose Byrne) are staring at a silver minivan at a Honda dealership. “When you’re a woman, driving a minivan is like wearing a scarlet letter, except that you’re marked as invisible, asexual and not a professional person,” she says.

The Gist: Will, being the more purposely immature half of this best friend pair, tells Sylvia she should try out the yellow sports car that’s on display. For some reason or another, when she asks the salesperson for a test drive, she uses a Melania-esque accent.

While they’re in the car, Will gets a call from his fiancée Jenna (Rachel Rosenbloom). They call each other “Penguini” and Will uses substitute curse words like “fudge.” While Sylvia is happy for him — she’s even been hired to plan their engagement party — she doesn’t recognize this part of Will. Then she busts his chops about not saying to Jenna that she said hi.

In San Diego for the party, Jenna wants Sylvia to ask Will to participate in her father’s speech while comparing her job as the CEO of a supermarket conglomerate to Sylvia’s job as the CEO of her own party planning firm, which Sylvia chafes at. Then Will tells her he has a crush on someone else, which Sylvia chalks up to cold feet; she’s not even sure why he’s telling her about it.

At the party, the friends leave in search of a certain kind of Champagne after Will’s friends Reggie (Andrew Lopez), Omar (Vinny Thomas) and Andy (Tre Hale) mention that they lost track of an LSD tab that was in one of the Champagne glasses. Will and Sylvia makes up a “pour one out” toast so no one ends up drinking any. During that adventurous trip to BevMo, though, they take a side trip so Will can go to an artisan sandwich shop and visit his crush.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? We’re not sure why, but it feels like Platonic created by Francesca Delbanco and Nicholas Stoller, is in the same universe as The Studio, the other Apple TV+ series Rogen stars in and produces (and which also features an extended cameo from Stoller). Will and Matt, Rogen’s characters in those shows, could be twins.

Our Take: Perhaps our uneasy feeling about the Will-Sylvia friendship was off in Season 1. There was evidence that when she was younger, Sylvia had the same devil-may-care nature that Will still has, but it got buried deep down by marriage, children and other adulting activities. Will brings it out of her, which might be why their friendship lasted for so long. Still, seeing the two of them spending time together, sometimes to the detriment of their family and romantic relationships, seems as baffling to us as it does the people around them.

But with Will feeling the pangs of regret associated with committing to marry Jenna, he’s experiencing some of the adult angst that has been Sylvia’s way of life for a couple of decades. We’re also not sure if Jenna completely trusts that this relationship is fully platonic; at the very least, she thinks that Will spending as much or more time with Sylvia as he does with her is questionable. All of these factors will put a new strain on their relationship, maybe similar to what happened when they became estranged from each other when Sylvia told Will not to marry the woman who became his ex-wife.

What we hope to see is that tension continue through the second season, and then see Will and Sylvia’s friendship weather the storm. Seeing them go through difficulty and come through the other side still in each other’s lives will make this friendship much easier to believe in.

Sex and Skin: None in the first episode.

Parting Shot: Will and Sylvia find out that the LSD tab was consumed after all, and WIll has to chase down Jenna’s naked uncle as a result.

Sleeper Star: Luke Macfarlane is Sylvia’s husband Charlie, who doesn’t seem to be at all fazed by her friendship with Will. Perhaps it’s because Will takes on all the emotional baggage that Sylvia would normally dump on Charlie, so he’s all for them hanging out.

Most Pilot-y Line: “Jenna’s got 8 aunts. It’s like a colony,” Will says to Sylvia.

Our Call: STREAM IT. While we’re still not fully on board with the relationship at the center of Platonic, we can see where it might be going in the second season, and it’s a direction that makes a whole lot more sense for Will and Sylvia as their lives shift and change.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.