Apple TV+ debuts its new comedy about a billionaire who finds out she owns a charity foundation. Loot tries to denounce the faults of the rich above ground, but the bet is not necessarily successful. Critical.
Molly lives a dream life alongside her husband of twenty years, John. He even bought her a huge boat for her birthday. Yes, because Molly and John are two American billionaires, enjoying a life of lust they feel deserved. Until the day she discovers that he is cheating on her with a woman much younger than her.
After a juicy divorce, Molly becomes the third richest woman in the United States, with her fortune of 87 billion dollars. She even realizes that she has a charitable foundation, which works with Californian associations. Desperate for her heartache, she then decides to invest herself in this unknown universe, while hoping to discover herself.
Welcome in loot, the new comedy produced by Apple TV+. On paper, the series seems to hold all the ingredients to be an excellent satire of the start-up nation and billionaires far removed from real life (hello Elon Musk). Except that on screen, this first season leaves a somewhat bland taste and struggles to really find its place.
What could save humor?
loot suffers from the same strengths and weaknesses as MythicQuest, another platform comedy on the video game world: an excellent cast, but forced interactions and sequences that clearly lack originality. The series lacks too much naturalness to really captivate and the jokes regularly fall flat. For a comedy created by Alan Yang (Master of None) and Matt Hubard (30Rock), it’s still a little annoying.
And if the series could be a tasty satire of the business world where money flows freely, loot on the contrary, remains on the surface of the themes addressed. The ten episodes of this first season only rarely manage to generate sufficient energy and above all to get out of political correctness. Everything seems forced, exaggerated, while remaining in an unfortunately very conventional setting, which would have deserved more madness to stand out from other current productions.
As long as Maya Rudolph is here, everything is fine
In a context where dozens of series and comedies are released every day on the various SVOD platforms, we must admit that it is difficult to devote even five hours of our time to watching loot. Especially since the secondary characters are uninteresting, the plots predictable and the clichés of the genre are overused: friends who improvise as coaches in datingthe geek to the manga t-shirts that no one understands, the romances that we see coming from miles away…
We end up being surprisingly carried away by the familiar flow of loot. Nothing sticks out, that’s for sure, don’t expect caustic humor. But Maya Rudolph’s performance, always formidable, largely makes up for it all. The actress of The Good Place and Saturday Night Live always illuminates the productions in which it appears, allowing us to stay, episode after episode. By her side, even the excellent actress of LaidMichaela Jaé Rodriguez unfortunately pales in comparison.
loot clearly won’t leave a lasting positive impression on you, but it’s still good entertainment for an evening or a weekend under the storms, or to escape the ambient heat wave.
The verdict
We liked
- Maya Rudolph, always bright
- Ideal to pass the time, if you are bored
We liked less
- Michaela Jaé Rodriguez does not show the extent of her talent
- The jokes fall flat
- Too conventional a set
On paper, loot had everything of a tasty satirical comedy. Worn by the awesome Maya Rudolph (The Good Place, Saturday Night Live), the series available on Apple TV+ tackles the daily life of a billionaire, who discovers overnight that she owns a charity. A comedy unfortunately too wise, which struggles to find its marks and to fully captivate. This first season of ten episodes can still help you pass the time, but we warn you: loot is as easily seen as it is easily forgotten.
