“Can [straight] men and [straight] women ever just be friends?”
Three and a half decades ago, Nora Ephron asked that question in “When Harry Met Sally…” and while that film remains one of the greatest romcoms in history, I would argue that, well, it kind of flubbed that answer. For those who (gasp!) haven’t watched, Harry, played by Billy Crystal, and Sally, played by Meg Ryan, argue about the question for decades through the movie — and in the end, for them, “the sex part,” as Harry tells Sally early on, does indeed, “get in the way.”
But now, all these decades later, Apple TV+ “Platonic” finally hones in on that question and comes up with a satisfying response to Ephron’s call. The answer is yes — men and women can just be friends! And not just that, but this premise can make for addictive and charming television.
The show premiered in the fall of 2023 to nowhere near enough fanfare; the second season started streaming last month. It follows two best friends, Will Zysman (Seth Rogen), a divorced gifted brewmaster, and Sylvia Greeves (Rose Byrne), a married mother of three. It was created by a married couple: Nicholas Stoller (who is Jewish, and also recently played himself in Rogen’s excellent Emmy-nominated “The Studio”) and Francesca Deblanco, who came up with the premise of the show based on her own longtime friendships.
When we first meet the two main characters, they are no longer friends. We learn they became inseparable in college — Will was even Sylvia’s best man in her wedding with her handsome husband Charlie (Luke MacFarlane) — but after Will married Audrey, who didn’t get along with Sylvia, the friendship soured.
In the first episode of the show, Sylvia, a former lawyer turned stay-at-home mom, discovers that Audrey and Will’s relationship ended in divorce and Charlie encourages her to reach out.
Men and women in their 40s can’t be friends, she tells him. “All our friends are couple friends,” she says, “and you talk to the men, and I talk to the women.” Charlie can’t argue with the accuracy of that statement, and as a married mother of that age group, I unfortunately struggle to as well, even if experts agree that friendship is essential for a meaningful and joyful life.
But in spite of herself, Sylvia decides to try. On their second meeting as they try to rekindle their friendship, she pulls up a picture of young college-aged Will, which is actually a picture of young Seth, wearing a chai necklace and a shirt that says Karlsberg Beer in Hebrew.
“My beautiful chai, this was the best thing that ever happened to me,” he laments. “Honestly, now that I think about it, my entire life went downhill after the moment my chai necklace was thrown away.”
The culprit of that shanda was, of course, Sylvia, who believed men should not wear gold chains.
“Tell that to Mel Gibson,” Will urges her, and adds: “Literally, you have to tell him, because he will not talk to Jewish people.”
I will say, joke is on Sylvia because while she ends up with a closet made up of 90% items from Loft (we love Loft!), Will seems to be the most well-dressed man on TV, maybe ever. Rivaled only perhaps by real-life Jeff Goldblum, the character’s style evolution echoes that of Rogen himself, who was involved in the wardrobe choices. Forget about the nebbish Jewish men of TV, Will is a true style icon.
And unlike in the Nora Ephron romances, where protagonists (usually played by Billy Crystal) can feel coded as Jewish but rarely are openly so, Will is genuinely quite Jewish. Aside from the chai necklace, in that same episode he accuses Aubrey’s new Scandinavian beau of being a Nazi and talks about how un-Jewish he feels when Sylvia bleaches his hair blonde.
“Platonic” is made richer by a cast of delightful side characters, from Katie (Carla Gallo), Sylvia’s no-bullshit mom friend, to Omar (Vinny Thomas), Will’s former brewery colleague, who is hilarious. Jewish comedian Guy Branum plays Charlie’s colleague, Stewart, and is also one of the highlights of the show, stealing every scene.
“Platonic” makes the point that we can be friends in different walks of lives — that we can sustain friendship with our friends who don’t have children, who walk different paths than us. It feels like it should be obvious, but I know for many of us it’s hard to remember, or sometimes believe. This is a show about how friendship makes our lives so much richer.
Season two of this show is a riotous, wonderful — and always so very purely platonic — adventure that’s impossible to stop watching.
“Platonic” is currently streaming on Apple TV+.
