In 2022, actor Stephanie Hsu made a big splash as Joy/Jobu Tupaki in the hit indie action-comedy Everything Everywhere All at Once, earning herself a Best Supporting Actress nomination at the Academy Awards. Of course, three of her co-stars were also nominated, including Jamie Lee Curtis in the very same category, so mathematically, at least one of them was going home empty-handed, and Hsu drew the short straw. Now, at last, Stephanie Hsu has landed a great comedic lead of her own. Hsu is to die for in the new high-concept romcom Laid, giving us one of the year’s most fun and memorable comedic characters.
Ruby Yao (Hsu) is a professional party planner with a habit of blowing through people’s lives like a storm, indifferent to the mess left in her wake. She’s a romantic, but not in a healthy way, relentlessly pursuing a cinematic version of love that may not actually exist at the expense of a lot of peoples’ feelings. She jumps into bed impulsively and breaks things off just as abruptly, never looking back. That is, until she learns that her sex partners are all dying in seemingly unrelated freak accidents in the exact order she has had sex with them. Now, she and her true crime-obsessed bestie AJ (Zosia Mamet) must solve this uncanny mystery before it kills the rest of her exes.
The premise, based on an Australian series of the same name, is a terrific foundation for a TV comedy. It’s part sitcom and part procedural, as a set of wacky and delightful characters tackle one big mystery via a string of individual, otherwise unrelated encounters, all with mortal stakes. Between Ruby’s serious exes and one-night stands, there’s room for exciting guest stars to pop in (Simu Liu, Alexandra Shipp, and WWE Superstar Big E, for example) for an episode or just a scene. Each ex offers more insight into our lead while each goofy, improbable death increases the tension as the trail of victims creeps closer to Ruby’s present. It’s like High Fidelity meets Final Destination, two flavors you’d never guess taste great together.
Ruby grew up on Nora Ephron movies and sees herself as a Meg Ryan character, a charming mess whose many flaws will be adorable to the right person. What Ruby learns as she looks back through her “sex timeline” is that she is actually a nightmare with a lot to answer for, and her window to make amends to the people she’s wronged is closing rapidly. It’s a story about self-reflection and growth that thankfully never gets too saccharine or serious. Hsu is locked in such that Ruby feels like the exact same character however goofy or dramatic a given scene might be. Laid as a whole functions in much the same way. Even at its most sincere, the next dick joke or Wile E. Coyote accident is never too far away.
Stephanie Hsu and Zosia Mamet are an excellent fire-and-ice comedy duo. Where Ruby is impulsive and self-absorbed, Mamet’s AJ is responsible, methodical, and totally obsessed with the more interesting lives of others. Their rapport is snappy yet natural, instantly recognizable as the way everyone thinks they sound like when they riff with their best friend. Like the dynamic between Rebecca and Paula on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Ruby and AJ’s love for each other is both beautiful and potentially stifling to both of them. Either way, it’s great fun to watch.
There’s no shortage of consistently funny performances, from Tommy Martinez as Ruby’s improbable new love interest who sees past all of her flaws and shares her love of showtunes, to Ryan Pinkston as Ruby’s high-strung, scene-stealing coworker, to comedian John Early as himself. But the stars of the show are Stephanie Hsu and the snappy writing of Nahnatchka Khan and Sally Bradford McKenna, who weave killer jokes into dialogue so casual that half of the gags will catch you completely off guard. Don’t be surprised if you have to pause and rewind because you laughed over the tail end of a scene.
Lately, there’s been a rash of streaming TV comedies that feel as if they’ve been squashed or stretched to fit into the mold of a weekend binge watch. By contrast, Laid’s eight-episode first season is paced out wonderfully. The mystery of Ruby’s lovers’ deaths unfolds at a steady, comfortable pace, and the runway for a second season is laid out (oops) subtly enough that you could miss it if you’re not looking carefully. This may seem like faint praise, but it really is refreshing to watch a season of streaming television that’s so good at being a season of television. It’s a satisfying volume with distinct chapters and promises to continue in an interesting way. It may not sound like rocket science, but it’s surprisingly easy to mess up. Laid nails the fundamentals of modern TV comedy while offering a novel concept and a killer lead performance, and I’m dying for more.