Spoiler alert! The following story contains major details about the ending of “The Idea of Glue,” the 10th episode of Netflix series “Too Much” (now streaming).
There are few things more heart-wrenching than a well-placed Taylor Swift needle drop.
In the season finale of Netflix’s “Too Much” (now streaming), creator Lena Dunham masterfully deploys “Bigger Than the Whole Sky,” a bonus track off Swift’s Grammy-winning best album “Midnights.” The elegiac ballad, released in 2022, comes at a moment of release for Jessica (Megan Stalter), who had just broken up with her boyfriend, Felix (Will Sharpe), when her dog unexpectedly died.
While crying on the couch, she receives a text asking to meet up with Wendy (Emily Ratajkowski), who started dating her ex-boyfriend Zev (Michael Zegen) before Jessica moved to London. After despising and envying his seemingly perfect new partner from afar, their coffee date is a chance for Jessica to reconcile with the fact that Wendy was never the bad guy after all.
And in a tear-jerking sequence set to Swift’s song, Jessica walks backward into her old New York apartment – saying goodbye to Zev, before she leaves him behind and strolls forward onto the sidewalk.
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“Bigger Than the Whole Sky” is achingly apropos for Jessica as she closes that chapter of her life, with its bittersweet lyrics about grief and the pain of moving on. (“I’ve got a lot to live without / I’m never gonna meet / What could’ve been, would’ve been / What should’ve been you.”) Swift is a longtime friend of Dunham, although it’s the first time that the “Girls” writer has included her music in one of her projects.
“I’m always listening to her when I write – I mean, like 99.9% of America, I’m just always listening to her,” Dunham says. “Originally, that was actually a different song and it was something that had been used in another film fairly recently. She watched the sequence and so did her brother, Austin, who is amazing and does all of her music placement. So she said, ‘Actually, I think I know what should be here.'”
Dunham thought she’d have to re-edit the sequence to fit Swift’s song, but to her surprise, “we did not have to move a frame,” Dunham continues. “That song just said everything that had to be said about their relationship, about her relationship to her dog – I mean, it’s one of my absolute favorite moments in the show, and one of my absolute favorite moments I’ve ever had the chance to film. It’s my first time actually getting to use a T.S. song in my work, and besides the amazing music that my husband put together for the show, it’s everything I could’ve dreamed of. I couldn’t feel luckier that she let us use it.”
In classic rom-com fashion, Jessica and Felix eventually make up and get married at episode’s end. For viewers who have had longterm relationships, Dunham hopes they appreciate the complexities of both characters, who wrestle with personal demons but still find their ways back to each other.
“I’ve had a couple of twentysomethings watch (the show) and they’re really sweet about it, like, ‘It’s funny!'” Dunham says. “But there’s something when I talk to people who are in their 30s; they just get it in a different way. It’s about that moment where you go from living your life for the crazy story to being like, ‘I don’t want to be a person who moves through the world alone. How can I find that connection?’ So it’s interesting to see how my friends who have gotten to that point are able to understand the love story in a different way.”
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The series is loosely inspired by the real-life love story between Dunham, 39, and Luis Felber, 39, a British musician whom she married in 2021. (Somewhat notably, “Bigger Than the Whole Sky” was co-produced by Jack Antonoff, whom Dunham dated for five years.)
Felber co-created “Too Much” with his wife and was instrumental in helping bring Felix to life on screen.
“I love writing men, but at the end of the day, I haven’t had a chance to be one in this lifetime,” Dunham says. “Patriarchy hurts everyone; men, too. So what does it look like for a guy who is tender and complicated and has made mistakes to try and put some of that behind him? Between my husband and Will, who himself is such an amazing writer and director, I felt like Felix was the most fully embodied man I’ve ever gotten the chance to create.”
Additionally, “Lu is a native Londoner, so he was also there to make sure we were showing a version of London that was different than the kinds we’ve seen in other romantic comedies,” Dunham says. “We were seeing some spaces that weren’t just Notting Hill; whether it’s about Jessica living in East London, or Felix making music in Camberwell, or going to the outskirts of the M25 to see his parents. There was a truth and authenticity, and I hope Londoners will recognize there was a lot of love put into it.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Taylor Swift gave Lena Dunham her song for emotional ‘Too Much’ finale
The post Lena Dunham says Taylor Swift is responsible for one of her favorite ‘Too Much’ moments appeared first on USA TODAY.
