Loot

Overall, while Loot takes its time building momentum, spending a bit more attention on its lead's solo journey than absolutely necessary, once Molly is in the mix with her new teammates and the premise is really on its way, this show evokes all the feels. Maya Rudolph is at her best, shining just as bright as the rest of this rockstar cast.

Loot isn't as successful as that Emmy-winning hit [Ted Lasso], but it's still a very enjoyable show that's handsomely produced, with a posh soundtrack and luxurious visuals. Rodriguez is excellent as the uptight foundation president, and there's just enough lampooning of the politically correct philanthropy world to give the jokes some bite.

Even without that deeper layer of introspection, Loot is a hoot. Just watching Funches, Faxon, and Booster bounce their wonderfully disparate comedic energy off one another is worth the price of admission.

Is it a bit preachy? Kind of. Does it hedge its bets? Often. But by the end of the series it has done enough to make you care about its characters.

Mostly, though, this is Maya Rudolph’s showcase, and to the surprise of nobody who has watched and admired Rudolph’s career, she’s a masterful comedic actor who can also carry off the more contemplative and serious material. Like Molly herself, “Loot” has real potential to be something special.

Despite centering on Molly’s burgeoning love life and reconnecting with her family, the characterization still feels fragmented. It’s a good thing Sofia, Nicholas, and the others surround her, but even their backstories aren’t fleshed out enough. Luckily, the cast holds its own and makes Loot an easy watch, with the season finale perfectly setting up what could potentially be a far more uncompromising future of the show.

Most of the laughs come later in the [premiere] episode. Subsequent episodes prove funnier still.

"Loot" occasionally tries to make big points about big money, but they feel less than half-hearted. The real strength of the show is the workplace relationships, most notably the surprising bond that forms between Nicholas and Howard, who are at opposite ends of the personality spectrum. “Loot” also provides us with an opportunity to watch Rudolph have fun, always a good thing in my book.

"Loot" sounds like a one-note joke on paper -- ha ha, an Apple TV+ comedy loosely inspired by the Bezos' family drama -- that doesn't gain much depth during the first episode. Stick with it, though, and this showcase for Maya Rudolph as a billionaire minted through divorce becomes a sweet if fairly conventional romantic comedy with a few welcome surprises.

There’s a lot to enjoy about Loot, starting with its timely narrative and solid showcase for some of Maya Rudolph’s myriad skills. At the same time, it’s very much a show you’ll keep watching more for its potential than its immediately execution.

The first season of “Loot” is most often a pleasantly frictionless workplace comedy. But the moments in which it’s not — whether by pushing Molly to become more self-aware or into situations where her money’s genuinely useless — are the show’s most compelling by a long shot. ... One of “Parks and Rec”’s greatest strengths was establishing a believable core group of characters that made going to work with them a treat rather than a chore, and the same holds true for “Loot.”

It’s tough, because there’s so much about this show that I like, but I can’t shake the feeling that I wanted to see something more ambitious and boundary-breaking (and funny!) from a creative team of this caliber. Though there’s still time for Loot to find its footing and take a harder look at its main character, so far it goes down as a missed opportunity.

Loot mixes workplace comedy (solid) with the occasional rom-com subplot (less so). [4 - 24 Jul 2022, p.5]

Loot is a very watchable, and funny-enough show. But we just want a Maya Rudolph series to really make its star a tour de force.

The framing of the show fundamentally limits how far Molly gets pushed out of her comfort zone. Even as Loot starts to more seriously consider the tension between her self-perception and billionaire status, some key steps get missed along the way in her growth. The resulting ideas feel too surface level.

Trying to wedge the elevated, stagey banter of a network single-cam into a show that borrows heavily from a shiny Apple TV+ in-house aesthetic only invites more dissonance than it’s worth. The result is a show as stuck between worlds as Molly is.

In its first season, Loot doesn’t quite get there. But with the reset promised by its finale, maybe the show will have a chance down the line.

Loot is afraid to let Molly be anything but well intentioned, afraid to make the point that no amount of philanthropy can solve systemic problems caused by capitalism, and afraid to offend anyone. It adds up to a “Rich people can be good, actually — please don’t eat them” framing that makes this season feel fundamentally frictionless. The finale’s last 15 or so minutes should have been where Loot started.

That first half-hour is action packed. ... And then “Loot,” for the most part, goes off a cliff, the pleasures of the first episode feeling more and more like the setup for a joke that never arrives. Satire takes a holiday, replaced by tired workplace comedy, unconvincing romantic comedy and a level of sentimentality that’s beyond even what the show’s creators, Alan Yang and Matt Hubbard, could have gotten away with when they worked on “Parks and Recreation.”

Not every show about the ultra-wealthy needs to be as biting as Succession, but Loot too often comes off as entirely toothless.