During the next episode of
Issa Rae’s brand new HBO sitcom

Insecure

(which includes however to atmosphere, so light spoilers in advance), Issa’s companion Molly (Yvonne Orji) calls Issa around discuss the woman great; she’s got finally been acknowledged to
the League
, the exclusive dating application for “high-achieving” singles. Issa explains that Molly is actually eventually witnessing men she likes — plus, failed to she state she was finished with internet dating applications? Molly shrugs their off. “we said I found myself finished with shitty-ass online dating apps,” she retorts, pointing down that the man she actually is watching does not have a college amount. “I’ve been wishing like three months to get accepted for this. Now i will ultimately date guys back at my degree.”

Insecure,

co-created by Rae and Larry Wilmore,


is HBO’s long-awaited
followup
to Issa Rae’s profitable internet series

The Misadventures of Awkward Dark Female


.

For the new tv series, Rae will be the titular “awkward” black colored lady navigating a mediocre work at a nonprofit and an unsatisfying lasting connection; Orji is actually the woman BFF Molly, a fruitful attorney nonetheless looking for suitable man. In line with the six symptoms HBO sent hit, additionally, it is one of the recommended shows about relationship and love since

Intercourse plus the City

(with no unique, over-the-top high quality that frequently permeated Carrie’s Manolo-clad gallop through nyc dating world). And even though additional show have actually addressed the digital rewiring your passionate life,

Insecure

is among the rare shows to own all-consuming culture of app-based dating baked into the narrative DNA.

Molly, in particular, demonstrates the weird psychological balancing work that accompanies
dating into the digital get older
, a parallel feeling of scarceness and lots: your supplies of eligible guys are easily depleting (she’s broken whenever she realizes her Asian co-worker is actually involved to an eligible black guy), while simultaneously, it will be stupid to stay when Mr. Perfect could be just one single click or swipe away (“You gotta bang many frogs for an effective frog,” she muses at some point. “It is a numbers online game”).

Insecure

explores what are the results when a contemporary, self-actualized profession girl knocks up against strict ideas about love and online dating (even though those firm a few ideas are her very own). Molly works, stunning, and smart — as Issa explains from inside the pilot, she will be able to allure both black and white people with equal convenience — and is sick and tired of internet dating the people thatn’t in her own category. “simply because we have standards doesn’t mean we are hard,” Molly proclaims at one point. But on the other hand, we observe her block a good relationship because her partner does not meet her slim group of requirements, while some other prospective associates tend to be warded off by the woman habit of move too fast, her failure to relax and play the capricious video games of contemporary relationship. (Although, certainly, why would she?)

The tv series

‘

s article authors are plainly well-acquainted making use of intimate landscaping the program portrays, making for a few great throwaway jokes. In one single world, we get flashbacks to Molly’s numerous dates from various online dating services, that have actually their specific characters, from OKCupid (“free, but it is like bottom-of-the-barrel dudes) to Tinder (“used is cool but it is fundamentally a fuck app”). Although show in addition captures the soul-destroying, round-robin top-notch dating in L.A., as many times we view Molly satisfy somebody brand new only to have the woman hope dashed. “the guy could be different, you will never know,” Molly says at some point, revealing Issa a photo of her most recent match, a hopeful sadness in her own vision.

The center of

Insecure

will be the union between Molly and Issa, both their own intense passion for example another in addition to complex ways in which both are jealous and crucial of one another’s lives. When Issa — ensconced in a long-term connection aided by the underachieving Lawrence (Jay Ellis) —contemplates joining Tinder herself, Molly chides this lady, “You isn’t about this app existence.” At another point, Lawrence indicates Molly is actually solitary because the woman standards are too high; subsequently, Issa shuts Lawrence down by indicating that her own may have been too reduced. While Molly continuously happens also powerful, Issa evades, prevents, and dissembles, deciding to conceal in the place of face the woman relationship directly. Unlike Samantha, Carrie, Miranda, and Charlotte, Issa and Molly feel just like real females
as opposed to archetypes
. Yet, inside their method, they capture both edges of the coin that is the modern-dating problem — the theory that no matter what you do, you are carrying it out incorrect, deciding or selling your self small for some reason. The show provides no solutions, but it does advise a powerful antidote: a pal good enough to stick with you through everything.