BBC drama Everything I Know About Love, based on the award-winning memoir by author Dolly Alderton, is a fan favourite full of 2010s nostalgia,
The 2022 series has received high praise from rom-com lovers and bookworms alike for its relatable female ensemble cast about romance and London life. Described by the BBC as “A messy, raucous stumble into bad dates and heartaches – and surviving your twenties”, this seven-episode series is jam-packed for the ultimate weekend binge-watch.
Each episode follows the lives of Maggie, played by Emma Appleton, and Birdy, played by Bel Powley, alongside their friends Nell and Amara, who all live in a London house-share together. We watch the foursome navigate their twenties as they kickstart their careers and find their first real romances in the Olympic summer of 2012.
When Maggie meets archetype, cringe-worthy musician Street, their friendships and lives go on an unexpected journey. As the young women find themselves entangled in new romances, their friendships begin to take a back seat.
All of their lives are intertwined until they’re not, and protagonist Maggie struggles with the reality of what being an adult requires of her. Each episode is seasoned with hilariously relatable moments as audiences learn “it’s reassurance that, actually, no one knows anything about love,” an iPaper critic summarised.
Along with the laughs comes a lot of tears as you watch a young woman learn what it means to be loved and how, in fact, her best friends are the true loves of her life. One adoring viewer wrote: “It will fill the voids in your life left by Derry Girls, Sex and the City, Girls, and every other girl gang show you’ve ever loved.”
While the show follows in the footsteps of these much-loved rom-coms there is a quintessential Britishness to it with a nostalgic London backdrop that makes it stand out. A rave review from Time said: “I can’t believe I still have the capacity to be charmed by a show about young women seeking love and success in a big, glamorous city, but here we are.
They added that “the escapist pleasures of 20-something life a mere decade ago make for an ideal vacation from the grim realities of 2022.” Other TV critics seem to feel the same way, with one saying that “Everything I Know About Love is a diamond in the rough.”
Another happy watcher explained that they felt the show was “brilliant” because “like the book, it doesn’t pretend to be about anything other than figuring out your twenties as a young woman.”
Not all critics had rave reviews for the show however, with one reviewer for the Financial Times writing: “The drama and humour are spread thin. Bloated 45-minute episodes are weighed down by Maggie’s oscillations between self-pity and self-importance.”
While another claimed that the series “veers from being light and watchable to being lazy and quite clichéd, filled with superficial” and that the episodes feature numerous “stereotypes”.
Alderton’s show is yet to announce a second season but definitely leaves room for the story to be expanded, especially given the antics and heartbreak that are detailed in her later twenties throughout the memoir.
