Everything I Know About Love is a fresh entry to the category of female friendship. But if you're here, you know that already. Heck, you've probably read the source material. Either way, we're all here because the fact of the matter is we're hooked. Who wouldn't be? It's a modern day reimagining of the early 2010s, a period that's yet to be focused on in any meaningful way in tv and film – until now that is. Plus, it perfectly encapsulates the hunger for experiences that dictates much of your early twenties. Throw in some memorable one-liners, a dodgy Camden sharehouse, four charismatic leads and one impeccable soundtrack (Cat Power and Kylie Minogue, anyone?) and you've landed on the recipe for a twenty-something classic. So much so, by now you've probably watched yourself sick. No matter, we've curated this list of 11 things to watch once you're finished with Everything I Know About Love. Until next time.
1. Animals (2018)
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The film adaptation of Emma Jane Unsworth's second novel is something of a forerunner to Everything I Know About Love. I say this not because of its similarities to the series, but because Dolly Alderton – the author of the show's memoir – often cites it as one of her favourite books. Then yes, there's the fact that its fronted by Alia Shawkat and Holliday Grainger, whose characters are torn between growing up and keeping the party going. It's messy, indulgent, but we love it nonetheless.
2. Sex and the City (1998)
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Just chiming in here to recommend this under-the-radar series about four best friends trying to navigate sex and love in New York City. You may have heard of it? Girl, you know exactly why this has made the list and if you don't the education starts now. Pip pip.
3. Insecure (2016)
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It's all about charming foursomes and Issa, Molly, Kelli and Tiffany deliver. Insecure is compassionate yet doesn't spare us the heartache and complications of real life. Just like Everything I Know About Love, you enter this series expecting it to follow Issa's messy love life, and yet the real love story is standing there gossiping right in front of you.
4. It's A Sin (2021)
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First things first, prepare to have your heart ripped out and shoved down your throat. It's A Sin will ruin you. But first it will bring you joy. The series draws a carefree, tender and, more often than not, devastating portrait of London's queer scene in the early 80s, one roaring with promiscuity just as the AIDS epidemic grips the city. Its focus lay on a tight-knit group of college graduates with Years and Years musician Olly Alexander at its helm.
5. Shiva Baby (2020)
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You want uncomfortable? You want awkward? No one captures the shitshow of being in your early twenties like Shiva Baby. Over the course of a Jewish funeral, Danielle must content with her overbearing parents, her ex girlfriend and the added displeasure of her sugar daddy's presence – along with his girl boss wife and their newborn. If you don't think you can handle the secondhand embarrassment, know that it's all worth it to watch Rachel Sennott perform.
6. Girls (2012)
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Girls walked so Maggie, Birdy, Nell and Amara could run. Sure, the London-based housemates are less insufferable but if you're looking for the blueprint of chaotic women making mistakes and not owning them, then it lay within this masterpiece by Lena Dunham.
7. Obvious Child (2014)
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It's A24. There's Jenny Slate. Jake Lacy plays the nice guy, again. Gaby Hoffmann is the feminist voice of reason we all yearn for and who isn't addicted to Paul Simon's iconic track of the same name? Obvious Child may not have all the furnishings of being a straggler in your twenties but its ordinariness is why it's so compelling. That, and the way it depicts abortion without any pro-life undertones.
8. Golden Girls (1985)
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Want to know what Maggie, Birdy, Nell and Amara will be doing in 5o years time? Golden Girls is your portal into the future. Except in this iteration everyone is objectively funnier and pop pills for their health rather than for recreation.
9. 20th Century Women (2016)
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It baffles me that this film hasn't received more recognition. It stars Greta Gerwig for christ's sake. And while Frances Ha or anyone of the films she directed could easily make this list, it's the intergenerational depiction of womanhood that sings here. It also touches on an important question many mothers have considered: How to raise a boy that respects women?
10. I May Destroy You (2020)
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You can't talk about London share houses and flatmates without bringing Michaela Coel's masterpiece into the conversation. Her lens dances between Arabella, Kwame and Terry, focusing on each of their experiences with sexual assault and consent, while framing it in a nuanced way that does justice to all its complexities.
11. Tiny Furniture (2010)
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It's the same faces from Girls but in a less-done format. Aura a directionless film school graduate returns home to live with her parents and start assembling a life for herself. She takes on a job at a local restaurant, has bad sex in a metal pipe and competes for her mother's attention with her younger sibling. It's both mundane and absurd – your twenties in a nutshell.
For more on screen recommendations, take these TV shows like Conversations with Friends and the film and series to watch one you're done with Euphoria.
Image: belpowley
