Desiree Akhavan and Rowan Riley’s six-part Channel 4/Hulu co-production drops Leila, a thirty-something New Yorker, into a Hackney houseshare after she ends both her decade-long romance with business partner Sadie and their joint tech venture. Declaring herself bisexual, Leila fumbles through dating men for the first time while her ex circles with lawyerly precision, determined to claw back equity and emotional ground. Each half-hour chapter is written, directed and performed by Akhavan with a bruising, self-lacerating wit that refuses the tidy arc of coming-out catharsis.
The show’s London is a grey-lit scrum of warehouse parties, overpriced pubs and sexual opportunism where queerness is no guarantee of tenderness. Leila’s Irish flatmate Gabe, a failed novelist turned part-time teacher, treats her experiments like research for his own stalled bildungsroman, while her old lesbian crew brand her traitor and cautionary tale. Conversations pivot from rim-job etiquette to intellectual-property law without missing a beat, and no one is granted moral high ground.
Critics split: Rot Tomatoes tallied 90% fresh, with Autostraddle praising its “overflowing compassion” and The Guardian dismissing it as “neither funny nor dramatic”. TIME later ranked it among the best streaming-era rom-coms, cementing its afterlife as the series that asked what happens when identity politics meet actual politics and everyone ends up with receipts.
Production Details
Channel 4 / 1 Season / 6 Episodes / 2018
Created by: Desiree Akhavan, Rowan Riley
Showrunner(s): Naomi de Pear, Fiona McDermott
Writer(s): Desiree Akhavan, Cecilia Frugiuele, Rowan Riley
Producer(s): Miss Hazel Jade
Cinematography: Dan Stafford Clark
Music: Davo McConville
Main Cast
Desiree Akhavan as Leila
Maxine Peake as Sadie
Brian Gleeson as Gabe
Saskia Chana as Deniz
Naomi Ackie as Ruby
Eva Birthistle as Laura
Michèlle Guillot as Francisca
Niamh Algar as Tania
Cassie Clare as Hye Me
Caoilfhionn Dunne as Esther
Hannah Almond as Beth
Darren Hart as Will
