Entertainment

'Loosely Exactly Nicole' Needs More Adventures

As soon as I heard that Nicole Byer was getting her own television show, I jumped for joy. I’ve been watching her (and loving her, obviously) on Girl Code and in her other projects for so long that I was just so glad she could show off her talents solo. Loosely Exactly Nicole is her magnum opus, a show in which she plays a version of herself who lives in Los Angeles, is broke as a joke, wants to be an actress, and is really just trying to figure it out alongside her friends (aren’t we all?). The first season has been must-see television in my house, so I'm hoping that Loosely Exactly Nicole Season 2 will happen and let us keep following her on these adventures.

However, MTV is holding out on us right now. The network hasn't renewed Loosely Exactly Nicole for another season yet — but hey, it hasn't cancelled the series either. Hopefully, the powers that be will realize how important this show is and bring it back. The series' Nicole is a damn mess. She's into dating a married guy if it gives her a chance to go to fancy hotels and expensive restaurants. She brings her babysitting charge on auditions and pretends that he is her son. She sells her roommate’s car without him knowing. She just generally doesn't have it all together, which is the best part of Loosely Exactly Nicole.

There are plenty of shows on television today that show the raunchy, outlandish shenanigans of millennials, but I would argue that most of them focus on groups of men. Broad City has cornered the market on bringing a female point of view to those tales, but there is definitely room for more.

Recently, there has been a small push of films and television shows like Mike & Dave Need Wedding Dates and Fleabag, respectively, that show women behaving as badly as men supposedly do, but, there aren’t that many. Equality for men and women means equality in all regards — if you want to watch a male character act like a mess, you better damn well be able to watch a female character, too.

It’s also not lost on me that, as a black plus-sized woman, Byer brings other perspectives not often found on television. The fact that, according to the Washington Post, MTV gave Byer all of the creative control that she wants over the show, is also a huge step in the direction of progress.

And while Nicole’s antics are specific to her life, they also tend to be universal. Everyone has a friend who is scheming to get paid; who is dating the wrong guy; who is chasing every audition in town. Comedy is a great unifier, and everyone can identify with and laugh at Nicole’s crazy behavior. Hopefully, we can continue to do that with a second season of Loosely Exactly Nicole.

Images: MTV; Giphy (3)