We Are Lady Parts

It’s a credit to the whole team that WALP can cover so much ground in three hours without feeling overstuffed. The show hits all the right notes—it’s potent, touching, and laugh-out-loud funny—and, like a good gig, leaves you wanting more.

We Are Lady Parts has been self-assured since its premiere. Nothing makes that more apparent than how Season 2 examines fissures in the band without sacrificing the show’s remarkable warmth.

We Are Lady Parts in no way suffers from second-album syndrome. The new episodes are as funny, catchy, and endearing as the first batch. Whether they would be this good without the gap, or if Manzoor wound up needing this extra time, she has found ways to deepen the characters and their relationships without messing with what worked in mid-pandemic days.

Manzoor created a unique voice for the show when it premiered in 2021, and it’s a delight to see that it’s just as loud and proud in Season 2, without any hint of the usual sophomore slump.

The second season continues We Are Lady Parts’ deft and nuanced storytelling but doesn’t rehash past issues.

The season as a whole has some weirder, wilder passages than its more setup-heavy predecessor. .... The lack of a clear answer may account for the way We Are Lady Parts itself moves between ebullient semi-fantasy and hard truths within the space of 25-minute episodes. It’s fascinating to watch a show that seems to actually (at least occasionally) mistrust its own feel-great ambitions. Or maybe, like the band, Manzoor is finding a new way into the pop-punk form.

Series two doesn’t up the ante, but it does takes the show’s tried and tested comedy components and uses them to once again build towards an emotionally satisfying pay-off.

We Are Lady Parts series two is a confident return for Manzoor’s punk pioneers, packed with real substance, swells of emotion, and a irrepressible musical heart.

On another show, conversations about community or representation might come across as self-important or heavy-handed. Here, it’s just the organic output of characters who are curious enough to ask, bold enough to act, humble enough to listen and witty enough to make it fun for the rest of us watching as they figure it out.

The challenges of making it are superficially familiar from other music stories: What is selling out? How do you distinguish growth from compromise? Can you make it big without abandoning any of your mates? But the execution and the details are captivatingly specific. What works about “We Are Lady Parts” is what works about great punk. You can still fashion something new out of the same old three chords. You just need a distinctive voice.