From the mind of mumblecore auteur, Joe Swanberg, comes Netflix’s latest original series, Easy. The eight episodes feel more like eight short films that you would watch and enjoy at your local indie theater (i.e. LA’s Cinefamily) with a couple of your white friends. Easy explores relationships, sex, and that horrible thing we all have to go through: growing up (a.k.a. becoming a mature adult whose actions have consequences. Ew.)
Easy has a couple of things going for it. First, it has a killer cast that includes big names like Orlando Bloom alongside underrated comedy darlings like Kate Micucci of The Big Bang Theory and Aya Cash, who plays Gretchen Cutler on FXX’s You’re The Worst. Second, there is an undeniable ease and flow to the episodes. This can be attributed to a collaborative process in which Swanberg gave the actors rough outlines before filming and then let them improvise each episode’s dialogue. Finally, one it’s more interesting strengths: there’s an entire episode in Spanish. Yep, you read right.
Swanberg did something with those statistics that say Latinos are the biggest minority group living in the States and went out on a limb to rep our bicultural experience. Well, not so much went out on a limb as made an economically savvy move. The episode “Controlada” centers around a young couple played by Looking’s Raul Castillo and Mexican showbiz royalty Aislinn Derbez (daughter of Eugenio Derbez) as they try to conceive. Everything seems to be going OK, until Martin (her ex played by Mauricio Ochmann) pops in for a visit from Mexico.
It’s not the strongest episode of the series, but you know, still worth watching.
Easy is currently streaming on Netflix.