I love rooting for a 20-to-30-something character who’s still trying to figure their life out. That might be an “easy” genre, kind of overplayed, but when it’s done well, it still hits home. In Issa, Insecure has a lead that’s messy, awkward, engaging, and likable in the midst of all her faults (a few Issa-related spoilers.)
Even though Molly, who’s much more type-A, is an easy character to peg as always having a plan, that kind of applies to Issa too. The only trouble is, a lot of her plans are New Year’s resolution-esque, big intentions that she struggles to follow through on. When we meet her, she’s just turning 29 and has started to realize that her goal of having all her shit together by the time she’s 30 has fallen off track. She’s not excited about her job, her relationship seems to be in a holding pattern, and she’s going along with things instead of going after what she wants. She makes a big declaration of changing all that, of becoming a “new” Issa and discarding all her old bad habits.
But the follow-through on that goes in fits and starts. She makes a big swing to speak up at work, but then, when she’s given the sort of opportunity she’s been wanting, she thinks she can wing the presentation. She decides she’s going to leave her stale longtime relationship and reconnect with her what-if guy, but rather than making a clean break with Lawrence, she just avoids the issue and winds up getting into a messy situation involving both guys. In her friend group, she’s known as the one who’s still kind of floundering, and no one is ever surprised when one of her resolutions falls through.
Despite appearances, though, Issa is (very slowly) making her way toward progress. After a few false starts, she really steps up at the non-profit where she works and brings good ideas to the table, taking the time and putting in the work to do things right. Her plan to leave Lawrence and get with Daniel doesn’t go the way she hoped it would, but it does shake her out of some complacency and make her evaluate what she really wants in a relationship. And when she finally hits upon an idea that she’s really passionate about, the Inglewood block party, she manages to scrape through the various disheartening setbacks and forge ahead, accepting help where she needs it to make her dream happen.
Of course, Issa still has a ton of things she has to work on. She’d almost always rather put off a problem than address it, she resents others for bad behavior she practices herself, and like a lot of protagonists, she can get wrapped up in her own problems and not realize how she’s monopolizing a relationship. But she remains smart and imaginative, dreaming up neat ideas even if she doesn’t know how to execute them, and over the seasons, she’s gotten better at brushing herself off and pressing on. I like different montages the show has done of Issa taking ownership by literally getting her house in order, like when she fully unpacks her new apartment at last after leaving boxes sitting around for who knows how long.
Side note: I
really enjoy Issa’s sense of style. I live for her collection of message
tees/graphic tees, I like that she’s often more dressed down than her friends,
and I like seeing how she frequently changes things up with her hair. I don’t
always pay a lot of attention to a character’s look, but Issa’s is done in such
a way that really accentuates the feel of the character.
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