Stephanie Hsu shines in the cool, contemporary rom-com Laid

“My vagina is killing people,” Ruby Yao (Stephanie Hsu) laments while standing over the grave of a previous lover. Of the 20 or so partners she’s been involved with in her lifetime, six are already gone. The remaining soon start to meet their maker in absurd ways (and in chronological order). Laid uses this mystical contrivance to understand why Ruby is an expert avoider of intimacy and honesty. If this sounds serious, don’t worry because Peacock’s show has the right amount of whimsy too. Laid is a cool, contemporary rom-com that works primarily because of its lighthearted tone and multidimensional heroine.

Ruby dreams of a Meg Ryan/Billy Crystal-movie type of splashy romance, the casual effect of being a ’90s kid. But it’s hard to find that when she’s basically Fleabag 2.0: She bails easily, refuses to open up to almost anyone, and has a complicated family dynamic. Despite these troubles, the scripts smartly peel back layers to reveal a vulnerable, candid woman with no choice but to deal with the fallout of her actions. After her breakout work in Everything Everywhere All At Once (she was robbed of that Oscar!) and Joy Ride, Hsu conquers the screen yet again. She’s a force of nature here as she pulls down Ruby’s walls to win everyone over in eight half-hour episodes. 

Laid co-showrunners Nahnatchka Khan and Sally Bradford McKenna are determined to keep Ruby in check and allow her to grow, with Hsu matching the complex, wide-ranging emotions beat by beat. Ruby realizes something is very, very wrong when her college boyfriend dies, a past hookup collides with a car in front of her, and her almost fiancé gets an incurable disease. Ruby and her best friend, true-crime aficionado AJ (Zosia Mamet, sadly stuck in The Flight Attendant mold), take the next logical step: Make a kickass murder board/sex timeline to connect the dots and solve this whodunit.

Ruby and AJ then go around warning those still alive of their impending doom with no real insight into why sleeping with Ruby has turned into a fatal curse. (“This is not a Nathan Fielder show,” Ruby has to clarify to an ex at one point.) Their quests result in several fun cameos, with Josh Segarra, Mamadou Athie, Alexandra Shipp, Brandon Perea, Finneas O’Connell, and Simu Liu playing her frustrated exes. However, no one steals the show (or will make viewers laugh more) with a four-minute appearance quite like John Early playing himself, regretting the one time he decided to sleep with a woman. 

As Ruby confronts the ghosts of her past, each one holds up a brutal mirror to her. And boy oh boy, she does not enjoy what’s reflected in it. Ruby grappling with her issues gives Laid a richer narrative beyond basic What’s Your Number?-esque humor. Her interactions with some of them, while often funny and silly, also get unexpectedly deep. Her old flames don’t hesitate to lay out exactly why things didn’t work out with Ruby. Is she as carefree and chill as she believes, or just selfish and withholding?

Ruby’s harshest reality check comes from Richie (Michael Angarano), an ex who miraculously doesn’t die and teams up with her to mitigate her crisis. Naturally, long-buried feelings simmer, but Richie gets competition in the form of Isaac (Tommy Martinez), Ruby’s party planning client who she has an instant spark with. It’s too bad she has to keep things professional and has a girlfriend. Plus, she doesn’t dare to bang him, lest he drop dead. But the possibility of a When Harry Met Sally love story with Isaac prompts Ruby to finally act instead of just ponder over why her relationships fail. 

All these elements give Laid a mostly refreshing twist without losing the rom-com clichés. (There’s a public declaration, a kiss in the rain, and a goofy dance sequence related to The Greatest Showman.) At times, the show tries too hard to be evocative, like during a mind-boggling finale cameo or when Ruby claims “I’m queerer than I thought” without ever addressing what that means for her sexuality. Thankfully, these missteps are easy to forgive because Laid coasts on charm and Hsu’s delightfully distressed performance. 

Laid premieres December 19 on Peacock