“Too Much” Is Just Right: Lena Dunham’s Netflix Series Finds Power in Being a Lot

There are moments in Too Much, the new Netflix series created by Lena Dunham, where you don’t know whether to laugh, cry, or hide behind your sleeve from secondhand embarrassment. That feeling—of being overwhelmed by yourself, by someone else, by the rawness of connection—is at the heart of a show that turns emotional overdrive into its own kind of love language.

Comedian Megan Stalter stars as Jessica, a thirty-something New Yorker whose life is spiraling in unexpected ways. Fresh from a gutting breakup, she flees to London—Brontë-style—for a job and what she hopes will be some curated solitude. But then she meets Felix (Will Sharpe), a charming and mysterious British musician who, while not quite the perfect romantic hero of Jessica’s daydreams, is impossible to ignore. Despite the messiness, their chemistry is magnetic—if a little off-script.

“I was really excited to write a woman who was in her 30s, but still in progress,” says Dunham. “Her life didn’t look necessarily how she thought it would, and yet it was still really full of love and connection and complexity.”

That’s what Too Much captures so well: the in-between space so many women navigate in their thirties. It’s that period of reckoning—grieving who you thought you’d become, wondering if you’ve missed the boat, still craving something deeper even if you can’t quite name it. Jessica’s rambling vulnerability, her being labeled “too much”—all of it feels uncomfortably familiar to anyone who’s ever been accused of caring too loudly.

“Have I ever!” Dunham laughs when asked if she’s had those cringe-worthy, why-did-I-say-that moments. “I say things five times a day where I go: Why did that just happen? Why did I just do that? I could have not done that and had the same result—if not a better one.”

That kind of emotional honesty powers the series. It doesn’t mock romantic comedy tropes so much as gently reframe them. The meet-cute is there, but it’s filtered through modern awkwardness, cultural miscommunication, and the chaos of two people still making peace with themselves.

Sharpe, known for The White Lotus and Giri/Haji, brings quiet texture to Felix—a man whose charm masks a deep sense of dislocation. “What I loved about the scripts was how it’s not shy at all about how complicated it can be when you meet someone,” he says. “As you’re falling in love with them, it kind of unearths all your previous baggage… and you start to question everything, including yourself.”

It’s a romantic comedy—but not quite the breezy kind à la Bridget Jones, which the series affectionately nods to. The London of Too Much is still cinematic, but also damp, disorienting, and filled with social cues a foreigner might miss. Jokes about British sarcasm and American expressiveness land with charm, but beneath them lies something deeper: the idea that intimacy often needs translation—even when you’re technically speaking the same language.

The title Too Much carries multiple meanings. “I love the idea that you can feel like you’re too much for someone,” says Stalter. “But then with the right person, you’re also too much—but in a good way.”

That resonance isn’t accidental. Dunham—whose earlier works like Girls and Tiny Furniture explored female identity and discomfort—leans into that tension with more gentleness and maturity this time. “I think the personal is universal,” she says. “If there’s a character you can’t stop writing or thinking about, then other people will connect to that too.”

Both Jessica and Felix are flawed—but not tragically so. They’re just people, stumbling toward growth, trying to connect despite everything in modern life that makes us feel unlovable. The series explores how past wounds and familiar patterns keep people stuck, while also offering hope in the courage it takes to truly let someone see you—warts and all.

As Sharpe puts it, that’s the heart of the story: “Both of these characters learn to be accepting of each other, but also of themselves.”

In the end, Too Much doesn’t ask you to tone it down. It asks: What if the parts of you that feel overwhelming to others are the very things that make you worth loving?

Too Much premieres on Netflix on July 10.