The Big Picture

Season 3 of
Girls5eva
allows Sara Bareilles to sparkle with a grounded performance, making her the best part of the show.
Brilliant writing by comedy veterans provides fantastic jokes and dark industry insights in
Girls5eva
.
Despite one-note characters, this new season delivers intelligent humor and moments to re-watch.

Girls5eva almost had its curtain call after Season 2, when it was canceled by streaming service Peacock. Netflix later scooped up the show created by Meredith Scardino (Saturday Night Live) and executive produced by Tina Fey and Robert Carlock, greenlighting it for a third season. The premise follows four women who once had a successful ’90s girl group, “Girls5eva,” as they try to reignite their careers decades later. Starring Sara Bareilles (Waitress: The Musical) as Dawn, Renée Elise Goldsberry (Hamilton) as Wickie, Busy Philipps (He’s Just Not That Into You) as Summer, and writer Paula Pell as Gloria, the show is unique in its leading actresses, who aren’t the typical age for a show revolving around the music industry; however, that’s exactly what makes Girls5eva so compelling. While Season 3 doesn’t stray too far from its usual formula, there are plenty of moments that will delight fans of the show.

Girls5eva A one-hit-wonder band from the ’90s gets a second shot at fame when a young rapper samples their song.Release Date May 6, 2021 Creator Meredith Scardino

‘Girls5eva’ Season 3 Exists in a Familiar World
Girls5eva is executive produced by Fey and Carlock, the pair behind 30 Rock, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Great News, and Mr. Mayor. Although the show was created by Scardino, Fey and Carlock’s whimsical touch is clear in every scene, whether it’s through the reality-adjacent world the show’s characters exist in, or with the quirky musical interludes by Fey’s husband and long-time collaborator, Jeff Richmond. This familiarity isn’t necessarily a bad thing, especially if you’re a Fey/Carlock fan, as it lets viewers know they’re in safe hands. Similar to choosing a Mindy Kaling (The Mindy Project) comedy or a Ryan Murphy (American Horror Story) thriller, these shows possess certain throughlines that serve as a signature for their producers. It’s comforting in its recognizability, and a sure hit for those who find this mix appealing.

This familiarity, however, could become frustrating for audiences who are unable to locate where Fey and Carlock’s voices end and where Scardino’s begins. Scardino is Girls5eva’s creator and showrunner, and it would be great to know what pieces of her show her style are versus those of her fellow producers. Aside from her collaborations with Fey and Carlock, Scardino’s comedy resume boasts many other impressive feats, like writing for Saturday Night Live, At Home with Amy Sedaris, Late Night with David Letterman, and The Colbert Report. While having powerhouse producers can boost a show into the spotlight, it can also eclipse the unique voice of the creator and lump their show together with a line of others, not allowing it to stand, and shine, on its own.

Some Characters Become Grating Over Time in ‘Girls5eva’ Season 3

While it’s fun that Girls5eva exists in an absurdist version of our world, some of its main cast are one-note in a way that makes them tiring caricatures. Even three seasons in, the character of Summer doesn’t take on many of the lessons she’s learned, and she continually finds herself in situations with all-too-predictable endings. There are moments when Summer is allowed to grow, like when she allows a singer to re-do a performance she’d ruined decades before, but Summer still ends up derailing the song and repeating the same mistake. Additionally, Pell’s character of Gloria is similar in her lack of levels, as her aggressive nature doesn’t allow the audience to get to know her much deeper than her general likes and dislikes.

This is no fault to the actresses playing these roles; in fact, both Philipps and Pell completely embody the women they’re portraying, never missing a beat. Instead, this issue serves as a reminder that, with a smaller ensemble, writers need to offer each one of their main characters peaks and valleys, or else they begin to rub us the wrong way. Any TV show, especially a comedy, should never make us want to take a break from its characters but instead should offer us an escape from our real lives. The Big Bang Theory had a similar issue during its first few seasons, with audiences growing tired of a constantly Sheldon-centered world, a character who was notorious for being set in his ways. It wasn’t until later seasons of the show that storylines expanded into the lives of the rest of the cast and episodes became more enjoyable to watch. Currently, Girls5eva continues to tread a very thin line, as Dawn is the only main cast member consistently tethering the rest of the singing group to reality.

‘Girls5eva’ Season 3 Lets Sara Bareilles Take Center Stage

Season 3 brings a lot for Dawn to deal with, including her pregnancy, learning to speak up, and keeping the rest of the women on track to finish their tour. Three-time Tony nominee and Grammy-winner Bareilles tackles the role of Dawn head-on, stealing scenes not through outlandish behavior or over-the-top acting, but through her grounded performance. This isn’t to say Dawn doesn’t have her silly or comedic moments; in fact, Season 3 brings many of them for us to enjoy. But what Bareilles manages to do in these moments is play them as realistically as one can while also breaking into song on a lawn while wielding a baseball bat. It’s a true testament to her abilities as an actress, not just that she can make moments like these feel real, but that she single-handedly brings the entirety of the show back down to earth. Dawn is truly the best part of the show, and the fact that we get to hear her sing and are treated to Bareilles’s one-of-a-kind voice is a welcome bonus.

‘Girls5eva’s Writing, As Always, Is Brilliant in Season 3

If there’s one thing you can count on when Fey and Carlock’s names are attached to a project, it’s fantastic, one joke-per-second writing. Girls5eva delivers on this, as the writing staff is stacked with seasoned comedy veterans like Scardino, Matt Muray (The Good Place), Berkley Johnson (New Girl), Michael Koman (Nathan For You), and Sam Means (Parks and Recreation). Girls5eva doesn’t set out to do the typical comedy route of making fun of the women in the titular pop group but to expose the dark side of the music industry through intelligent humor and avant-garde musical numbers.

From 30 Rock’s run in the early 2000s until now, Fey and Carlock’s shows are one of the last places on television where all outlooks are poked fun at, and we can relax without worrying that we’re about to be lectured. Season 3 highlights this inventive humor in particularly fun ways, be it through Dawn’s “Baby Representative” during her sonogram, Wickie’s “EGOT” Awards that she made out of Legos and displays in her childhood bedroom, and the ladies being welcomed by a wealthy client’s “food surrogate” upon arriving at her mansion. Girls5eva’s witty writing will have you re-watching episodes to find fun moments you might’ve overlooked, and turning on the closed captions so you don’t miss a single joke.

Girls5eva REVIEWWhile Season 3 offers hilarious writing and intelligent commentary, Girls5Eva continues to lack variety for its characters and is held together by the incomparable Sara Bareilles.ProsThe show’s writing boasts creative jokes and shows darker topics through intelligent humor.Fans of Tina Fey and Robert Carlock will be happy with the familiar feel of the show. ConsSome of the main characters are so one-note they become difficult to spend long periods of time with.While familiarity can be a good thing, the Girls5Eva universe doesn’t differentiate itself much from Fey and Carlock’s other shows.

Girls5eva Season 3 is now available to stream on Netflix in the U.S.

WATCH ON NETFLIX