Summary
Loot hasn’t lost a step in Season 3, with Episodes 1 & 2 delivering big laughs and absurd concepts underpinned by a heartfelt tenderness.
The thing about Loot, which remains as true in Season 3 as it was in the previous two, is that it’s funny enough to not really need much of a plot. The hit rate on one-liners is absurdly high. The characters are fully bedded in. This premiere finds Molly Wells and the show itself somewhat adrift after the second season finale, in search of an overarching story to bring it more coherently together, but even though it doesn’t really find that in Episodes 1 and 2, it doesn’t feel lacking for its absence. That’s generally the hallmark of a very good comedy.
Of course, there are ongoing storylines, such as Molly’s burgeoning romantic relationship with Arthur and Nicholas’s seeming inability to consider Molly as a human being and not a hyper-sensitive billionaire science project. A lot of the show’s class-conscious humour lives here, since rich folk very much remain the target of the jokes, Molly included, but where it works as a drama is in its surprisingly tender approach to unconventional relationships, mental health, and self-awareness.
Episode 1 of this new season, “Bye-Bye Mode”, feels like a crystallisation of all the show’s themes. After boarding a private jet to escape L.A. in the Season 2 finale, Molly and Nicholas have crash-landed on a supposedly deserted tropical island. The first clue that something is amiss is that Nicholas seems very in control of the situation. Before long, the beach has begun to resemble a luxury resort, with an unserious “Uh-Oh” rescue message written in seashells. Molly is having the time of her life.
This is the point. The entire thing’s a ruse arranged by Nicholas as a kind of unconventional wellness retreat designed to shake Molly out of her latest funk. The island is really a private one Molly acquired in the divorce settlement, she being one of those people so rich that she isn’t even aware of half of the things she owns. There’s an entire staff on-hand to cater to her every whim, while Nicholas perpetuates the illusion that they’re living off the land.
Even once all this has been revealed and the rest of the Wells Foundation crew has arrived, Molly still thinks the island is the best place for her. Since they’re technically stranded, though, she’s forced to interrupt her own self-reflection to negotiate a way home, which involves having to make nice with the billionaire who owns the other side of the island, a nudist named Gerald Canning who made his fortune inventing GPS technology and now spends his days lubricating all of his furniture with coconut oil. The physical comedy here is hilarious, but the real meat of the drama is Molly coming to a better understanding of herself and her friends, and also rekindling her relationship with Arthur in a sweet coda.
That relationship forms the focal point of Loot Season 3, Episode 2, as Molly and Arthur attempt to navigate the changes to their dynamic while Nicholas tries to steer Arthur in the right direction with a comprehensive binder of Molly’s likes and dislikes. He means well, but his overtures backfire in ways both obvious and not, the funniest being an effort to make Arthur a bit trendier with the help of a gold chain that backfires so considerably it almost kills him. But it also allows Molly to take the reins of her micromanaged life, and it’s a nice moment for her (not to mention a teachable one for Nicholas).
There’s also good stuff with Sofia and her sister in “Would Hit”, reminding everyone that Molly isn’t the sole dramatic focus. The premiere achieves a nice balance here, especially in Episode 2, with Nicholas and Sofia’s involvement feeling more organic. The first episode is arguably funnier – though Arthur’s swollen neck gives any of the nudist colony stuff a run for its money – but it feels more like Loot in its most comfortable rhythm.
Already, Loot has found that groove, having evidently not lost a step across three seasons. For now, it’s lacking a certain unifying storyline to thread the episodes together, but that’s probably coming. It remains very funny, with really likeable characters and a good sense of what’s interesting about each of them. In a comedy like this, that degree of self-awareness could potentially sustain it forever.
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