We Watched it for you: Platonic

 

Platonic is a new series streaming on Apple TV and it looks to answer two age old questions: 1. Can women and men be friends without any sexual feelings between the two people and 2.  Do you think that Seth Rogen is funny.  I tend to fall into yes for the former and no for the latter and this show proves me correct on both ends.

Platonic brings Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne back together for the 3rd time.  The first two were Neighbors and Neighbors 2: Electric Boogaloo( JK). In each of those movies, they played a married couple terriorized by living next to college age students and all the drunken, high wakiness that ensues from that.  Again, those movies are fine.  Rogen and Byrne clearly have great chemistry together but it really comes down to if you find Rogen funny.  Because if you dont, this show and those movies are gonna be kinda a rough watch.

This show finds Byrne(Sylvia) and Rogen(Will) estranged from their long term friendship.  Rogen married someone that Byrne did not approve of and she told him and he got offeneded and they have not spoken in years.  Since then, Byrne has become a lawyer, gotten married, and has 3 kids.  Rogen has gotten divorced and has become a master brewer and is partnered with a brewery with another friend and an investor played completetly over the top by Andrew Lopez. 

Byrne and Rogen are brought back together as she looks to reconnect with him after hearing about the divorce and after some drinking, they attempt to fall back into their old patterns as friends but the lingering hurt from the, " I do not approve of your spouse" conversations rears its ugly head... for like 1 episode.  After that, they fall back into being friends.  Even though she has a husband and kids, she is out drinking and doing drugs with Rogen like she didn't have a husband and kids.  Rogen is essentially playing a version of EVERY CHARACTER he has ever played:  A man child whose actions and decisions are to be questioned continually.  And that can be funny at times but he and this character are 40 years old at this point.  Wisdom that comes with age are not on display here as decision after decision is just ridiculous to get us to the next ridiculous spot. At a point, you don't feel sorry for his character, you become angry at why this man cannot get his shit together.

And in that, the most important question of if men and women can be friends is lost in the sauce.  There is a subplot of Byrne's husband getting jealous and why Rogen doesn't tell Byrne that he's seeing someone but at no point is there any sexual tension or chmistry between the two.  They are just platonic friends.

Again, if you like Seth Rogen's stuff, you will like this show.  I am kinda whatever about his stuff so the show is whatever for me- even tho I love Rose Byrne.  I say it average but that is just me!  Episodes now streaming on Apple TV

The Producer