‘Laid’ Review: Peacock’s Dark Comedy Gets Tangled in Its Own Web

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The press materials for Peacock‘s “Laid” call it “a f*cked up rom-com where the answer to, ‘Why can’t I find love, is there something wrong with me?’ is a resounding ‘Yes. There is. The problem is definitely you.'”

That dramatic irony hovers over the series, which has plenty of entertaining kernels — mysterious deaths, female friendship, and something called a “blowjob overlay” — but spends a lot of time on the uncomfortable reality of a person who is the problem and refuses to do the requisite work to get better.

“Laid” comes from co-showrunners Nahnatchka Khan (“Fresh Off the Boat,” “Always Be My Maybe”) and Sally Bradford McKenna (“Will & Grace,” “The Grinder”), based on the Australian series from Marieke Hardy and Kirsty Fisher. Ruby (Stephanie Hsu) is your average beleaguered millennial woman looking for love, except for one thing: Her exes start mysteriously dying. Along with best friend and true-crime fanatic A.J. (Zosia Mamet) — from whom she’s keeping a terrible secret — Ruby must piece together a sex timeline to warn her living lovers what’s coming and maybe, just maybe, stop the deaths for good.

As we know from that handy synopsis, the problem might be Ruby herself — which doesn’t make it any more enjoyable to watch her make one mistake after another in her personal life, learn nothing, and then ask the same questions. More than half the season goes by with her groaning “I’m a monster!” after a chaotic one-night stand or being read her rights by past partners (including Josh Segarra, Michael Angarano, Alexandria Shipp, Simu Liu, and John Early as himself) before there is any kind of introspection or forward movement. It gives the eminently gifted Hsu the task of hitting the same beats, literally beating the beats, over and over, until maybe this epiphany will be the one that takes. Or the next one.

It works to an extent. As a half-hour comedy (all eight episodes will be available at once), “Laid”s directive is to lead with the laughs, like A.J.’s passion for crafting a sex timeline (she went to Staples at 8 a.m.!) with the aforementioned overlay and some of the more unserious deaths. But what the show ends up doing is withholding empathy for its protagonist, who looks increasingly sociopathic with each death that washes over her. (A.J.’s clinical analysis makes more sense, since they aren’t her exes and she’s openly waited her whole life for this kind of opportunity — and no one does “unhinged supportive bestie” like Mamet.)

But like a good murder0mystery — and “Laid” shares more DNA with those than a lot of other genres — things pick up after the halfway point, from a possible forbidden romance with Ruby’s client Isaac (Tommy Martinez) to someone who may provide a loophole, to a wedge in Ruby and A.J.’s friendship. Once Ruby exhibits actual personal growth and Hsu gets to capably play it, the stakes and story deepen around her, and the show even finds legs as an ensemble outside of the main two leads. If there is a second season — and the ending certainly requests as much — a little generosity for Ruby and her crew could go a long way. Seriously, it could save lives.