One of the perks of working in Malaysia is the number of public holidays that we get. This month, we have four – Labour Day (May 1), Hari Raya Aidilfitri/Eid Al-Fitr (May 13-14), and Wesak Day (May 26), so I am wrapping up a four day weekend and, despite not being able to leave the house, it has been great!
I caught up on some work, started some new reading, slept a lot, saved the world twice (once single-handedly and once with other people), and, relevant to this post, binged Girls5eva. It’s a comedy about a 90s girl group (think Spice Girls) who were a one-hit-wonder and decide that, twenty years later, they’re going to try to make a comeback. The comedy style is very reminiscent of The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, seeing as it’s more or less the same creative team working on both series.
I don’t remember how I first heard about it, but as soon as I heard Renée Elise Goldsberry was involved, I was sold. I mean, the woman has mad skills. Seriously, this rap is GOLD! (No pun or rhyme intended.) Do yourself a favour and look up the lyrics. Absolute genius. I literally stopped in the middle of writing this post to listen to it a couple more times. And she seems like a lovely person to boot.
But the real revelation of Givls5eva, as far as I’m concerned, is Sara Bareilles. I generally find her music style a bit too melancholic for my tastes, “Brave” being an exception, so what I didn’t expect was her comedic talent. It’s delightful! Admittedly she’s playing the kind of character I generally identify with – capable but unexceptional, down-to-earth yet neurotic – but her commitment to the comedy, especially the cringe-y bits, was a thoroughly pleasant surprise.
There’s a song in the show called “I’m Afraid”; the audio doesn’t do justice to the scene when the lyrics go completely off the rails and Bareilles commits fully to belting out these ridiculous, insane lines with all the passion and vocal prowess she puts into soulful ballads. That was the moment that I became a Sara Bareilles fan.
The cast seems to have genuine chemistry together even outside the show (see, for example, the “both!” running joke and related anecdote). This clip where Busy Philipps and Goldsberry say “riding a bike” and then squeal and high-five each other like teenagers while Bareilles drops an f-bomb and Paula Pell just enjoys the mayhem makes me smile every time I watch it. And in times like these (cref. India, Myanmar, Palestine), we could use a little feel-good light entertainment.