Los Angeles often gets a bad reputation, much like Generation Z. Enter Rachel Sennott with her HBO comedy, I Love LA, aiming to shake things up—metaphorically, like an earthquake.

In this new series, the star of Shiva Baby isn’t looking to revolutionize comedy; rather, she’s focused on making audiences laugh, sharing a tale about a friend group that might resemble your own, and perhaps even triggering a bit of an existential crisis along the way. Surprisingly, this blend works exceptionally well.

The series centers around 27-year-old Maia (played by Sennott), a talent manager living in Los Angeles with her boyfriend, portrayed by Josh Hutcherson, and her best friends, played by Jordan Firstman and True Whitaker. The plot thickens when an old friend from her past, played by Odessa A’Zion, reappears, throwing Maia’s life into a whirlwind. While it doesn’t attempt to reinvent the narrative wheel, the show excels in delivering a smart, humorous, and relatable story about the trials and joys of being in your twenties.

As someone who has lived in Los Angeles for a few years, I approached the show with hopeful anticipation, perhaps unfairly influenced by my admiration for Sennott’s previous work. When a new project set in your city surfaces, there’s always a lingering skepticism about its execution. However, I Love LA manages to avoid the pitfalls that could have plagued it on other platforms.

The charm of I Love LA lies in its blend of out-of-touch yet oddly relatable humor. Its jokes, tailored for Angelenos, transcend clichés about traffic on the 405 or the exorbitant parking fees at the Grove. While the humor resonates deeply with locals, its appeal isn’t limited to them. Anyone who’s ever dealt with frenemies, felt adrift in their mid-twenties, or developed a fondness for matcha and smartphones will find themselves laughing at the show’s hilariously exaggerated scenarios and plotlines.

In this show, Sennott nails finding the funny in the awkward, horrific, and slightly traumatizing experiences of being in the liminal space that is your twenties. The pressure to succeed in your career, your love life, maintain and keep up with your friendships, workout, eat healthy, and stay up to date on everything happening in the world — which is a shitshow, by the way — is encapsulated by the comedian in eight short episodes. Oh, and do it with the world watching you through the small box in your hand. If Girls is a generation-defining comedy for millennials, Sennott may have just made the equivalent for Gen Z in I Love LA. It’s only slightly ironic given that the actress is a millennial, although on the cusp between the two classifications.

Traditionally, I watch a show waiting to find the standout performance, hoping to see a single player emerge from the pack as the clear one to watch. I came into I Love LA thinking it would be A’Zion, hoping it would be Firstman, but secretly questioning if it would be Whitaker. In the end, there is no true winner in the ensemble as each gets their fair share of breakout lines, scenes, and episodes that leave the audience wanting more of their character.

Firstman, who plays a desperate stylist, does come out swinging in Episode 1, as does Whitaker, who plays the daughter of a famous film director, not far from her own real-life experience as the child of Forest Whitaker. Both actors appear and bring down the house in the brief moment they first appear on screen with Sennott, setting an impossibly high bar for A’Zion, who graces the screen with her presence later in the episode.

When A’Zion — who also grew up in Hollywood as the daughter of Pamela Adlon — does finally appears, running out to surprise Sennott’s character on her birthday, she sets it straight that the high bar set by her costars is easily going to be met. In truth, each actor brings a little something spectacular to their character, making the most of every morsel they’re given, whether it’s a deadpan look to camera or a full-on improvised line at the expense of their character or another. It makes a show that could be fun with the wrong cast feel so damn good with the right cast.

Rachel Sennott may not know it but she has struck absolute gold with this group. This ensemble takes excellent writing and hilarious premises to new heights and makes me even more excited to see where the story goes in a second season. It’s a friend group I might not exactly want to be a part of, but certainly one I enjoy watching and think you will too.

I Love LA premieres on HBO and HBO Max on Sunday, November 2 at 10:30 p.m. ET. New episodes drop weekly on Sundays.

If you’re new to HBO Max, you can sign up for as low as $10.99/month with ads, but an ad-free subscription will cost $18.49/month.

If you want to stream even more and save a few bucks a month while you’re at it, we recommend subscribing to one of the discounted Disney+ Bundles with Hulu and HBO Max. With ads, the bundle costs $19.99/month and without ads, $32.99/month.