A witty show. Great premise, and great acting all-around, not a weak link in the cast. Very addictive despite every character seeming like a massive stereotype. 1 dimensional characters in seasons 1 and 2 eventually improved to 2D in later seasons. My biggest frustration with it was the lookism. I could see giving it anywhere from 5 stars to 8, hard to pick within that range.
Seasons 1 and 2 many characters were 1 dimensional. It didn't significantly detract from the show, but it was very noticeable. I actually got a kick out of how the lesbian roommate seemed to spend 100% of her time in the apartment sitting around waiting for Liza to come home and take an emotional dump on her, so that the writers could convey Liza's inner thoughts. I kind of missed laughing at that as they slowly made Maggie 1.1 dimensional, then finally multidimensional and interesting in season 3 or 4. It replaced my drinking game fun (drink every time the roommate is at home waiting to be talked to) with more interesting stories.
The lookism was pretty awful though. They frequently used physical attractiveness as a lazy writer's way of communicating whether a minor character was worthy of a pretty main characters' time. Eventually in season 3 or so they'd make some attractive people creepy too, but too often less attractive people were portrayed as creepy, and only pretty people were portrayed as non-creepy. They did it to women too, but Seasons 1 and 2 were especially full of random man-bashing of unattractive men... bashing that had no impact on the plot whatsoever, and seemed to be there only to remind less attractive men that they have no right to approach or talk to pretty women. One scene stuck out like a sore thumb: a nerdy guy trying awkwardly to hit on Liza in a bar, clearly trying to feign confidence after years of striking out with the ladies. Had no impact on plot. Had they established Liza as kind to nerds before her age lie, then mean to them after, to show her becoming shallow and vane as a part of trying to become younger it could have made sense, but without that, she came off as shallow, vane, and mean for no reason, completely contrary to their usual portrayal of her as having a heart of gold. In some scenes I felt sympathy for women and their struggles, but this was one of several that seemed to merely be there as yet another way to bash men and throw a bone to a self-pitying pretty-girl demographic... the "boo-hoo, I'm so pretty that I'm tired of random men in bars trying to chat me up" crowd.
The lookism seemed to improve in seasons 4 through 6, by far the peak of the show as they focused more on developing characters and their stories, but that may have been because they essentially chopped unattractive people out of the show completely. I can live with a show only having pretty people in it, just not equating unattractiveness with creepiness.
In Season 7 the random man-bashing returned, and the season was rather poor for at least the first few episodes. I know it was the pandemic season, but I got the distinct impression that everyone thought season 6 would be the final season, and the writing was all leading to a series conclusion then, when suddenly last minute they signed for S7 and had to quickly implode Liza's love life in order to extend the story. Felt very unnatural. The ending of S7 was also rather unsatisfying, with secondary characters' stories being unnecessarily and way too suddenly tied with a nice bow, but Liza's nice bow all too suddenly tying and then unravelling and left open-ended.
Some characters went in opposite directions for me: Lauren started out annoying me, but then she grew on me and I couldn't get enough of her. Would much rather see a spinoff of her character than Kelsey's. Josh, on the other hand, started out only mildly annoying, but got more annoying with every episode. The Jason Priestly wannabe's constant slow motion, cross-eyed baby-talk from 2 inches from another character's face made me want to throw a shoe at the tv... I kept hoping they'd kill off his character. Except for 1 scene noted above, Liza is adorable and impossible to not fall in love with, and was a constant throughout the series. Also loved the Dianna character from start to finish, and was disappointed that the pandemic made that an early finish. Although nice to see a person of color in the show, the Zane character was constantly annoying and over the top extreme, and I was happy to see him go.
Seasons 1 and 2 many characters were 1 dimensional. It didn't significantly detract from the show, but it was very noticeable. I actually got a kick out of how the lesbian roommate seemed to spend 100% of her time in the apartment sitting around waiting for Liza to come home and take an emotional dump on her, so that the writers could convey Liza's inner thoughts. I kind of missed laughing at that as they slowly made Maggie 1.1 dimensional, then finally multidimensional and interesting in season 3 or 4. It replaced my drinking game fun (drink every time the roommate is at home waiting to be talked to) with more interesting stories.
The lookism was pretty awful though. They frequently used physical attractiveness as a lazy writer's way of communicating whether a minor character was worthy of a pretty main characters' time. Eventually in season 3 or so they'd make some attractive people creepy too, but too often less attractive people were portrayed as creepy, and only pretty people were portrayed as non-creepy. They did it to women too, but Seasons 1 and 2 were especially full of random man-bashing of unattractive men... bashing that had no impact on the plot whatsoever, and seemed to be there only to remind less attractive men that they have no right to approach or talk to pretty women. One scene stuck out like a sore thumb: a nerdy guy trying awkwardly to hit on Liza in a bar, clearly trying to feign confidence after years of striking out with the ladies. Had no impact on plot. Had they established Liza as kind to nerds before her age lie, then mean to them after, to show her becoming shallow and vane as a part of trying to become younger it could have made sense, but without that, she came off as shallow, vane, and mean for no reason, completely contrary to their usual portrayal of her as having a heart of gold. In some scenes I felt sympathy for women and their struggles, but this was one of several that seemed to merely be there as yet another way to bash men and throw a bone to a self-pitying pretty-girl demographic... the "boo-hoo, I'm so pretty that I'm tired of random men in bars trying to chat me up" crowd.
The lookism seemed to improve in seasons 4 through 6, by far the peak of the show as they focused more on developing characters and their stories, but that may have been because they essentially chopped unattractive people out of the show completely. I can live with a show only having pretty people in it, just not equating unattractiveness with creepiness.
In Season 7 the random man-bashing returned, and the season was rather poor for at least the first few episodes. I know it was the pandemic season, but I got the distinct impression that everyone thought season 6 would be the final season, and the writing was all leading to a series conclusion then, when suddenly last minute they signed for S7 and had to quickly implode Liza's love life in order to extend the story. Felt very unnatural. The ending of S7 was also rather unsatisfying, with secondary characters' stories being unnecessarily and way too suddenly tied with a nice bow, but Liza's nice bow all too suddenly tying and then unravelling and left open-ended.
Some characters went in opposite directions for me: Lauren started out annoying me, but then she grew on me and I couldn't get enough of her. Would much rather see a spinoff of her character than Kelsey's. Josh, on the other hand, started out only mildly annoying, but got more annoying with every episode. The Jason Priestly wannabe's constant slow motion, cross-eyed baby-talk from 2 inches from another character's face made me want to throw a shoe at the tv... I kept hoping they'd kill off his character. Except for 1 scene noted above, Liza is adorable and impossible to not fall in love with, and was a constant throughout the series. Also loved the Dianna character from start to finish, and was disappointed that the pandemic made that an early finish. Although nice to see a person of color in the show, the Zane character was constantly annoying and over the top extreme, and I was happy to see him go.