![](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/184470113eb1053ed8c836000a8c75094b-odessa-a-zion-rachel-sennott-0.rsquare.w400.jpg\")
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I Love LA<\/a><\/p>\n I Love NY<\/p>\n \n Season 1<\/p>\n Episode 8\n <\/p>\n \n Editor\u2019s Rating<\/p>\n 3 stars<\/p>\n ***\n <\/p>\n \n Photo: Kenny Laubbacher\/HBO\n <\/p>\n I can\u2019t stop watching I Love LA like it\u2019s a horror movie. Watching Maia barrel towards her goals with blinders on \u2014 not to mention Tallulah breezing through life as an influencer who can afford to disdain a $100,000 deal \u2014 makes for a nauseating trip at the best of times. And in the worst of times, as we see in \u201cI Love NY\u201d? Well, let\u2019s just call Maia Tracy Jordan, because this shit\u2019s Hard to Watch<\/a> (Based on the Novel Stone Cold Bummer by Manipulate).<\/p>\n The season finale immediately throws a curveball by decamping to New York, the city where Maia met Tallulah and Alani\u2026 and, unfortunately for her and us all, her sleazy former boss, Ben. Flush with the victory of landing Tallulah a spot at the Form\u00e9 dinner, but also fresh off getting fired and going on \u201ca break\u201d from Dylan, Maia is feeling, shall we say, un petit peu insane. \u201cShe\u2019s just in boss mode,\u201d Tallulah says unconvincingly, as Maia stomps off to find more cigarettes to chain smoke. Alani, echoing my thoughts exactly, just sighs, \u201cGirl, she\u2019s not good.\u201d<\/p>\n Alani and I are correct. Despite Maia\u2019s best attempts to paint this New York week as both an exciting career opportunity and some kind of relationship Rumspringa, she\u2019s clearly melting down. If Tallulah doesn\u2019t nail her appearance at this dinner, she\u2019s fucked. If she doesn\u2019t take Ben up on his offer of employment, she\u2019s broke. And if she doesn\u2019t figure out if she wants to stay with Dylan \u2014 and if so, how to stay with Dylan \u2014 she\u2019s in for a world of hurt. Basically, everything in her world is on the edge of imploding. But hey, at least Ben\u2019s left his credit card at the bar (as an obvious excuse to swing by Maia\u2019s hotel the next day to get it back, but that\u2019s a tomorrow problem). Obviously, Maia chooses to deal with her demons by drowning them in shots.<\/p>\n Back in Los Angeles, Dylan\u2019s dealing with his relationship anxiety by cleaning out their pantry while listening to music so loudly that he doesn\u2019t hear Charlie walk in to check in on him, at Maia\u2019s request. Dylan insists he\u2019s doing fine, but let\u2019s be real: unleashing the full musty might of your most disorganized cabinet just to have something to do isn\u2019t exactly subtle. Since Charlie\u2019s also bored and lonely, he decides to stay and help, whether that be by wearing a Maia-esque wig to roleplay deep talks (Charlie\u2019s idea) or settling in for a marathon of Ken Burns\u2019 Vietnam War docuseries (Dylan\u2019s, bless him). Jordan Firstman<\/a> and Josh Hutcherson have a comfortable chemistry that makes these scenes work, even if it\u2019s painfully clear that Charlie and Dylan are only really hanging out because they don\u2019t have anyone else at the ready.<\/p>\n The most important things we learn here are that Charlie really misses his erstwhile ex Andrew, while Dylan\u2019s torn about how much longer he should keep walking on eggshells around Maia\u2019s emotional \u201clandmines.\u201d Dylan doesn\u2019t hesitate to tell Charlie he should just reach out to Andrew; Charlie, though, doesn\u2019t quite know what to tell Dylan in return. The truth is that no matter how much he and Maia care about each other, their lives have diverged enough that Dylan can\u2019t even imagine being on the same road with her anymore \u2014 and if there\u2019s one thing he knows for sure, it\u2019s that he\u2019s sick of being stuck in the passenger seat for the ride.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, Maia has once again forgotten that her boyfriend might not just be waiting at home like a nervous puppy for her to return, so the idea that he might be drifting out of her grasp never really occurs to her. Instead, she gets busy being \u201ca pig in the city\u201d (\u00e0 la Babe, if Babe were a Charli XCX music video). We don\u2019t get to see the night that ensues post-shots, but the morning after is enough of a mess to paint a picture of what went down.<\/p>\n Alani\u2019s morning-after takes her away from her girls, which I hate because I love her and want her more involved in the main action! But we do at least get more background on her family when she wakes up in her dad\u2019s apartment \u2014 where a woman who is very much not her mother is taking a shower. Alani\u2019s devastated by the idea of her dad (fittingly played by Forest Whitaker-contemporary Keith David) cheating on her mom, whom he met while cheating on his first wife. In her mind, her parents were soulmates who couldn\u2019t help but come together. Luckily(?), it turns out that this \u201cDenise\u201d (Whitney Rice) isn\u2019t his girlfriend, but an unhinged stalker who promptly stabs him and runs away. I Love LA could never have anticipated that this episode would air at the end of the absolute worst week to see a beloved Hollywood figure get stabbed in his home<\/a>, but it\u2019s extremely jarring nonetheless.<\/p>\n Elsewhere, Maia and Talullah wake up crusty as hell in their hotel room, where they quickly realize that they got two truly unholy souvenirs from their night out: matching, bleeding tattoos reading \u201cTHE NIGHTMARE BEFORE BUSINESS\u201d (my biggest laugh of the episode by a mile). \u201cIt\u2019s okay! I like it!\u201d Tallulah lies. \u201cIt\u2019s \u2026 random!\u201d It\u2019s also smack dab in the middle of her back, which poses a problem for her Form\u00e9 appearance \u2014 especially because Tallulah\u2019s also stolen a tiny backless dress for herself to wear instead of the classy gown Antoine already picked out. This move should surprise no one, least of all Maia. And honestly? I bet Antoine would be kinda gagged that his \u201cbag thief\u201d became a dress thief, too. Still, Maia convinces her to bring it back while she brainstorms what to do. It\u2019s not the best time for her to FaceTime Charlie in a Form\u00e9-induced panic while he\u2019s trying to convince Dylan that Maia\u2019s pining for him, but in fairness to her, this is the closest to an actual career emergency as she\u2019s had so far.<\/p>\n At this point, it bears repeating: I Love LA is about the bizarre lives of often vapid people trying to work in an often surreal and even disgusting industry. It\u2019s a satire that nevertheless takes its subjects seriously; even when it falls short of true insight, I always appreciate the attempt to thread its caricatures with some nuance. But if you\u2019re looking for a complete condemnation of its characters for making selfish choices, you\u2019re watching the wrong show. The show you are watching is one in which a woman wants everything \u2014 money, influence, a hot boyfriend, and an even hotter group of friends \u2014 and will do almost anything to get it.<\/p>\n So, no use avoiding it anymore: It\u2019s time to talk about Maia and Ben.<\/p>\n It\u2019s fair enough if you saw his note addressed to \u201cLewinsky\u201d and assumed that meant they\u2019d already hooked up, but I never thought so. Ben\u2019s particular brand of cocky smarm \u2014 so viscerally portrayed by Colin Woodell \u2014 has all the hallmarks of a man whose two favorite things are (1) power and (2) reminding people how much power he has over them. It\u2019s not that he wouldn\u2019t sleep with Maia. It\u2019s that making her feel special through some moderate-to-severe sexual harassment scratches an entirely different itch. This (married!) man gets off on knowing he could fuck his hot intern; he just also knows that he\u2019d be giving up a sort of leverage if he does. So instead, he gives Maia just enough encouragement to keep her hooked on his ever-tightening line.<\/p>\n That takes us back to Maia\u2019s hotel. Just a couple hours before the Form\u00e9 dinner, Ben shows up to \u201cpick up his credit card,\u201d which Maia assumes is code for \u201chave hot sex\u201d that, she reasons, she\u2019s technically allowed to have while she and Dylan are on their break. (Whether you believe that\u2019s true or not probably comes down to whether you agreed with Ross or Rachel<\/a>.) Ben does go in for the messy makeout, but to Maia\u2019s intense frustration, he stops short of undressing. He just takes her hand \u2014 and spits in it.<\/p>\n \u201cTouch yourself,\u201d he says. She does. His smirk widens in a horrible way you might recognize from any given Criminal Minds serial killer, but Maia isn\u2019t turned off just yet. It takes Ben straight up telling her they\u2019re not going to have sex (\u201cnot today\u201d) for her to do a double-take. That he only presents a job offer once she\u2019s orgasmed and disheveled is all part of his plan and power trip. It\u2019s a life-changing offer ($380,000 starting salary?!), and it\u2019s completely humiliating. It\u2019s so tough to watch that I was relieved when the credits rolled and revealed the episode was both written and directed by Rachel Sennott. I missed Lorene Scafaria\u2019s touch, but for this scene in particular, it\u2019s maybe for the best that Sennott was firmly in the driver\u2019s seat.<\/p>\n \u201cImagine what I\u2019ll get you to do when you\u2019re working for me,\u201d Ben, a cartoon villain, concludes. Finally, Maia gets it. This man doesn\u2019t like or \u201csee\u201d her at all; he\u2019s only ever wanted to fuck with her head.<\/p>\n So what now? As she tells Charlie (who has parachuted into NYC with a new Tallulah outfit via Mimi Rush\u2019s private deus ex machina jet), one thing she knows for sure is that she can\u2019t work for Ben again. She also decides, at Charlie\u2019s encouragement, not to tell Tallulah the whole truth of why. I don\u2019t totally buy that Tallulah would be disappointed in her for making that choice. If anything, the main reason not to tell her would be that she might burn Ben\u2019s office to the ground. Either way, we can put a pin in that lie for now, because it\u2019s sure to boomerang back Maia\u2019s way come season two.<\/p>\n In the meantime, Tallulah\u2019s on her way to the Form\u00e9 dinner in a whole new outfit, Maia\u2019s only barely keeping herself together, and Dylan\u2019s \u2026 sleeping with Maia\u2019s nemesis, Claire?! I want to yell that we were rooting for him \u2014 we were all rooting for him!!! \u2014 but in truth, next season\u2019s going to have a hell of a hill to climb if it\u2019s gonna convince me that Dylan wouldn\u2019t be happier living a life of blissfully boring Saturdays with Claire. Then again, there might also be a part of him that perversely loves the thrill of being with someone like Maia, wild nights and \u201clandmines\u201d included. There are so many versions of L.A. they could live in<\/a>; the question now is, which one do they actually want?<\/p>\n \u2022 Tallulah hates Ben, describing her as \u201cthe littlest fish in a very big pond,\u201d and Maia clearly thinks they can do better. But as much as I do not like or trust Ben\/Antoine, they probably have a point here. Tallulah and Maia just can\u2019t keep winning by defying all the rules forever. Good luck next season, babes!<\/p>\n \u2022 The sequence of Tallulah and Maia sprinting through the subway in formalwear to The Cranberries\u2019 \u201cDreams\u201d is very fun, and also feels \u2014 not for the first or even fifth time this season \u2014 like it owes a whole lot to Broad City<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2022 Dylan cleaning out the pantry in a Celebrity Skin t-shirt feels very \u201cBen Wyatt making claymation shorts in a Letters to Cleo shirt\u201d-coded. (In that respect, could Ben Wyatt ever be with an aspiring Jen Barkley such as Maia\u2026? Discuss!)<\/p>\n \u2022 Charlie, anticipating future Jordan Firstman<\/a> Discourse<\/a>: \u201cI happen to be an expert at making people realize why they\u2019re mad \u2014 and then making them way madder.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 Alani: \u201cWait, he\u2019s wearing a wedding ring! That\u2019s a good sign.\u201d Me, out loud: \u201cAlani, please\u2026!\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 \u201cOne of our managers went on paternity leave, so he\u2019s fired.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 \u201cSorry, sorry, I\u2019m here. Mimi\u2019s jet had a female pilot.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2022 \u201cI think you ladies look beautiful. But my rat thinks you look like sluts.\u201d<\/p>\n VULTURE NEWSLETTER<\/p>\n Keep up with all the drama of your favorite shows!<\/p>\n Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice<\/p>\n