Swanberg is a poet not only of conversation, but of gestures; for all the talk in this season, it’s the physical moments, encapsulations of currents which words are inadequate to express, that truly haunt, illuminating the challenge and potential futility of communion.
Some episodes ask you to see one distinct outlook while others ask you to commiserate with diverging visions. Entries tie into one another, as lead characters pop up in supporting roles and narratives you thought were over reemerge. ... At an end, all we can do is appreciate the discoveries within these new nine episodes. So savor each one.
Easy, which debuted last year, was [one] of the best shows that almost nobody seemed to be watching. Season two, which dropped today, will likely earn the same dubious compliment. That’s too bad, because it’s just as appealing and a bit sharper overall.
Subtext gives Easy its tart edge, emboldening it with an obsessiveness that resists fashionable platitudes. Swanberg captures the frictions between men and women and yuppies and bohemians, revealing a common core of fear that the other has got it better.
For as easy as it would be to get lost in the look and feel of the new series, Swanberg has a lot to say with Easy. Some arguments may be more compelling than others, and Easy itself is distinctly understated in almost every regard (much like its setting).
The themes and situations Swanberg and co. explore are so specific and relatable they sting.
Ratajkowski’s insightful observations cut through Maron’s monologues, but there’s no clear winner, of course. There are no buttons here so much as pins in a discussion. Swanberg’s modular approach to storytelling offers one of the few true snacking options among Netflix’s binging fare, which is almost as satisfying.
There are moments in each episode when a disarming sincerity shines through, and you realize that you’re seeing that rarity of rarities: television characters who are having substantive, free-ranging conversations about something other than their own needs, and finding themselves getting closer to something like mutual understanding. This is hard to do without coming off as pompous or Polyannaish, but Easy makes it look easy.
A naturalistic comedy of modern manners set among the young, less young and undeniably middle-aged people of Chicago, it's another basket of goodies turned up on the doorstep in a fall season barely started yet already full of them.
The low-key, improvisatory nature of the work can strike some as remarkably natural and authentic, and others as fingernails-on-the-blackboard exasperating. ... [The actors are] all good, though only Ms. Mbatha-Raw really breaks through the restraints of the short format and delivers something powerful.
Intelligent modern show. Intuitive, real, potent. Highly recommended. Great cast, beautifully acted.
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