Hulu's Dollface Questions The Dated Concept Of 'Mr. Right'

Any time you’re comfortable in a relationship, you don’t really think about what’s going to happen as soon as it ends. You don’t think about the events you’re missing out on while watching reality TV with your boyfriend, or the people you’re neglecting as you fantasize about your girlfriend moving in, or the world you’re leaving beyond as you concentrate on the new one you’re building.


However all of these things are happening, at least a little. You just don’t realize it up until your romantic relationship is over.


That’s where Hulu’s latest half-hour comedy Dollface starts, with Jules getting dumped by Jeremy, her boyfriend of five years, over huevos rancheros.


Played by Kat Dennings, who also executive produced the series alongside Margot Robbie and show creator Jordan Weiss, Jules must rapidly come to terms with just how much of her own life she had put on hold while completely living Jeremy’s. “When you’re really in love and obsessed with somebody, you sort of aspire to take on all of the things about them,” Dennings told MTV News while in a visit to the show’s Los Angeles set. “You desire to celebrate that person, and so they don’t habitually wish to celebrate you back.”


And so, newly single Jules turns to the people who do celebrate her — or, at least, the people who would have celebrated her, had she paid any attention to them for the past half-decade — her college best companions Madison (Brenda Song) and Stella (Shay Mitchell). However with all of the time that’s passed, it’s not as easy as just showing up anymore.


Madison, in particular, isn’t also forgiving of Jules’s tendency to only act like a friend whenever it’s convenient for her. “She’s really hurt,” Song mentioned. “It’s been five years since she’s heard from her at all, and she’s categorize kind of given up on her.” Meanwhile, Jules will do anything — anything! Going out as soon as she wants to live in bed, preaching the gospel of brunch, even crashed a celeb's party deep in Hollywood — to get some semblance of close human contact back in her life, so, with the guidance of her mystical Cat Lady (or, the “physical manifestation of Jules’s worst fear,” Dennings described), adding a touch of magical realism to the show, she puts aside her cozy, reclusive customs and jumps back inside the some days complex, yet routinely favorable world of female friendships. And while coaxing her way back inside Madison and Stella’s good graces, Jules’s associate Izzy (Esther Povitsky) eases her way into their fold, completing the core quartet and solidifying the pleasantly complementary order of female leads.


“They’re not all of the same sort of girls,” Mitchell mentioned of her completely chill, free-spirited Stella, the fast-talking, Type A Madison, the eager, nervous Izzy, and the finding-herself Jules. “This isn’t Gossip Girl, we’re not all on the Upper East Side. We all have different financial backgrounds, we all have different things that we find funny and personalities and styles.” And their contradictions are what makes them strong; what one lacks, another supplies, and so they can rely on each other without feeling competitive, steering away from those cliché female relationships TV was once dominated by, and into a more modern, realistic approach to friendship.


What works for the characters also works for the actors. Song is the planner, organizing categorize activities for the quartet; Dennings is the “mom,” gathering everything they need; Povitsky deals with the minutiae, making sure even the most obscure needs will be met; and Mitchell is along for the ride. “It does seem unexpected, however then at the same time, as soon as we’re all with each other, it feels so perfect,” Povitsky mentioned. Much of their bonding centered around food: categorize Boba orders, picking up morning coffee, coordinating their lunchtime Postmates. And then there was some practical bonding — Dennings and Song began carpooling to work any time whenever they realized they lived five minutes apart — and simply being curious about one another’s lives and having the willingness to share.


It was a dream come true for the show’s 26-year-old creator, a fan of all four leads long before they were cast. “How long into knowing Shay should I tell her that my companions and I used to leave high school throughout study hall to go to someone’s home and watch Pretty Little Liars?” Weiss wondered early in the process. And she still can’t believe her luck. “I feel like I have two foursomes in my life that I have such affection for, and one is Jules, Madison, Stella, and Izzy, however the other is Kat, Brenda, Shay, and Esther.”


Speaking to MTV News on the phone, Weiss mentioned that Dollface is her way of contributing to her preference genre, romantic comedies. Only as an alternative opposed to desperately seeking Mr. Right, “maybe the largest love story of my life is between me and my best friend,” she mentioned, looking to her mom for example. Whenever her close family member friend’s hubby passed away, Weiss watched the way her mom supported and stood by her, planning trips with each other and having sleepovers. “I call her my Aunt Barbara although she’s not really my aunt, and I want that,” she mentioned. “I hope to know that if something happens to me any time I’m 60, that I have a best friend still that I’ve been companions with for my entire life.”


Dollface may not be what you want immediately after a breakup, any time it feels like the cat-lady life is inching closer and closer, yet it is the reality check you need: Something to fill the quiet; an excuse to snuggle up to your best companions with the comfort food(s) of your choice, nudging you to let out the laughs you can’t seem to find on your own. Because, yes, breakups are sad, however your greatest love story would be right by your side.