Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Sweet Life: Los Angeles’ On HBO Max, A Reality Series About A Group Of Successful Twentysomethings In South L.A.

Sweet Life: Los Angeles, which counts Issa Rae among its executive producers, follows seven twentysomethings, supposedly all part of the same friend group, as they try to be successful in Los Angeles. Some of the group, who all live in South L.A., are already successful, or are firmly ensconced in their careers. Others are on their way up, relatively sure of where they are going in their careers. It’s their lives that they’re mostly unsure about, not unlike most people at “quarterlife.”

SWEET LIFE: LOS ANGELES: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Scenes from the first season of Sweet Life: Los Angeles. “South L.A. breeds excellence, and we are the proof,” says one of the cast in a voice over.

The Gist: The first people we meet are buddies Amanda Scott, a PR rep, and Tylynn Burns, an event planner. Tylynn and her boyfriend Jaylenn meet Amanda and her boyfriend Rob on the beach, where the men walk the dogs and the women go to a session of “trap yoga,” where it seems there’s an emphasis on shaking your butt whenever possible.

Then we see Cheryl Des Vignes on a hillside picnic date with her longtime boyfriend, Jerrold Smith II. Cheryl is a fashion designer and artist, and the two of them have been dating for eight years. At some point, she wants Jerrold, a former college basketball star, to move out of his parents’ house and start a life with her. But he’s been reluctant; he tells Tylynn later on that he doesn’t want to move out, have conflict with Cheryl, and ruin the good thing they have going.

Briana Jones, who has a degree in psychology but currently works a medical records job and wants to start her own skin line, is hanging out a bit with P’Jae Compton, who is looking to be a music producer. He thinks there’s something there, considering she doesn’t even mind riding in his old Honda Civic whose visor keeps falling down because he didn’t use enough duct tape. It turns out that Briana has a history with P’Jae’s new buddy Jordan Bentley, who runs his own clothing line called Hypland.

It turns out that Jordan has had quite a history, as we see when Briana talks to her Michigan friend Becky into coming to Tylynn’s “Black Is Back” party. Seems that Becky also has a history with Jordan, and she just wants a little bit of closure. And, while Tylynn isn’t too happy that Briana invited her friend without asking, it seems to be all good by the end of the night. And P’Jae, whom Briana swears is just a friend, is doing his best to change that.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Sweet Life: Los Angeles more or less has the feeling of a Bravo-style reality show like the Real Housewives series, but aged down a bit.

Our Take: The primary mistake that Sweet Life: Los Angeles makes right off the bat is introducing us to too many people at once. There are seven main cast members, and three other boyfriends/friends that will pop up from time to time. So, that’s ten people who show up in the series’ first half-hour. In trying to establish all of them, and maybe set up where the primary conflicts are and who are truly friends and who are frenemies, there isn’t enough reality-style character and conflict to make the first episode interesting.

There is some drama introduced in the first episode, but most of it is either minor — Tylynn not liking Briana inviting Becky to her party — or confusing. In the latter category, it was hard for us to keep up with just who Jordan and P’Jae both liked and/or dated, and what the sequence was. Seems like they both liked Becky and Briana at some point, but we’d have to re-examine the obligatory gym scene where the men are talking about it for us to really get a clear picture. And that kind of study isn’t what you do with a reality show like this.

What we want to see more of is how all of these cast members reflect Black excellence, a concept that’s mentioned more than once. They all seem to have either made it or are on their way to making it; even P’Jae, driving the hooptie Honda, has a goal that he’s well on the way to achieving. If the producers can balance that with the requisite reality drama — manufactured or otherwise — Sweet Life will distinguish itself from other reality shows.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: Everyone gathers for a picture at the end of the Black Is Back party. Briana insists she should go in the middle because “I’m single!”, which she says loud enough for P’Jae to hear.

Sleeper Star: We wanted to go to the dispensary that Briana and P’Jae went to, just because.

Most Pilot-y Line: None, really.

Our Call: STREAM IT. We’re hoping that Sweet Life: Los Angeles ramps things up quickly, and does a better job of rounding out what we know about the cast members. But the first episode was just too much, too fast, and it didn’t let the relationships between characters breathe at all.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.

Stream Sweet Life: Los Angeles On HBO Max