Sometimes the mere presence of a particular actor or actress as part of an ensemble is enough to elevate a title from a potential pass to a must-watch for me. Stephanie Hsu, the actress who took everyone’s breath away with her portrayal of the daughter in The Movie Everything everywhere at onceis one such example of what I’m talking about. Just seeing her name as part of a cast is an automatic stamp of approval for me, especially given the excellent projects she’s taken on recently – like The wild robotNetflixs Blue-eyed samuraiand the new Peacock rom-com Laid.

I don’t know about you, but Laidin which Hsu plays a young woman who discovers her former lovers are dying in unusual ways, has been all over my TikTok lately. But this ubiquity isn’t the only thing that fascinates me about the series. Laidwhich debuts Thursday, is also launching with a perfect 100 percent critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, which has been the pattern of several recent Peacock shows (like Kaley Cuoco’s recently released second season). Based on a true story).

Nahnatchka Khan and Sally Bradford McKenna are the co-showrunners and writers behind it Laidthe creation of which was largely due to them wanting to return to the dizzying romantic comedies that don’t seem to be made as much anymore. “When we started to develop Laid“,” they explained in a statement to the press, courtesy of Peacock, “we were intrigued by the idea of ​​bringing back the traditional, old-school romantic comedy (swelling music! Kisses in the rain! Anne Hathaway or someone equally appealing.” is). !), but because we were living in such a dark time (pandemic! industrial strikes!) we felt it needed a twist.

“Sure, it could be optimistic and heartwarming and make you believe in love again, but it should probably also contain suspense, death and blood. The premise of Laid – a woman discovers that all of her exes are mysteriously dying – seemed like exactly what we were looking for: a shitty romantic comedy.”

Overall, Peacock has had pretty solid success in 2024, especially because it’s one of the smaller streaming services that doesn’t have nearly the resources of a competitor like Netflix. I definitely remain a happy subscriber, and that’s because of the nice variety of original shows – from spy dramas like The Day of the Jackal to more light-hearted dishes Laid. “Hsu is a dream in the new high-concept romantic comedy Laidgiving us one of the funniest and most memorable comedic characters of the year,” raves a Rotten Tomatoes critic about the new show.