Reel Review: We Need A Season Two of Peacock’s Laid Now
I’m absolutely living for the romantic comedy renaissance upon us. What’s even better? Romantic comedies in a television format. Adam Brody and Kristen Bell’s hit Netflix romance series, Nobody Wants This stole the hearts of audiences earlier in 2024. However, I’d argue that Peacock’s newest show, Laid deserves just as much praise. Stephanie Hsu’s portrayal of Ruby Yao in this dark comedy was a true gem to binge, and I am praying audiences get a season two after the insane cliffhanger season one ended on. Warning: spoilers ahead!
Laid follows Ruby, a party planner with a messy love life. Well, messy is an understatement. Her love life turns deadly when her hookup body count turns into a legitimate death body count! Ruby has a long history of blown-up relationships with men and women, but she’d never kill any of them…intentionally. When she and her best friend AJ (played by Zosia Mamet) learn that Ruby’s short-lived—pun intended—college romance died, they attend the funeral where Ruby learns their breakup had a lasting affect on her ex’s life, while she nearly forgot it ever happened. Things get really scary for Ruby when her dead ex’s best friend, Jeffrey (played by Josh Seggara) shares an Uber ride with Ruby and he gets hit by a passing car. Jeffrey was also a scorned hookup from Ruby’s past. Two dead hookups in one day? A pattern seems to be forming.
AJ’s character effortlessly leans into the trope of women being obsessed with true crime. As she and Ruby learn of more deaths of Ruby’s previous flings, she goes into full detective mode. She hilariously creates an in-depth board filled with all of Ruby’s hookups, details on the relationship, and a breakdown of who’s died. Once she learns that the only exes that died are previous sexual relationships, Ruby is convinced she has a STD or underlying condition that’s poisoning people. She visits her gynocologist who reasons with Ruby that an STD cannot cause a death like a foul ball to the head. Yes, one of Ruby’s exes was an MLB player who took a foul ball to the head on national television. So, if Ruby’s body isn’t causing all of these deaths, then what is?
As all this chaos unravels, Ruby continues working. She’s planning a anniversary party for a couple, who has a gorgeous son planning the whole ordeal. Tommy Martinez plays Issac, a sweet guy who Ruby hits it off with instantly. Too bad he has a gorgeous, philanthropic, seemingly perfect girlfriend named Merci played by Olivia Holt. Even though sparks are flying between she and Issac, Ruby tries her best to keep it professional around him.
Ruby and AJ attend a wedding for her ex-boyfriend, Robert. He looks completely healthy and happy, which Ruby can’t stand. When she confronts Robert, he tells Ruby how selfish she is. Obviously this tough blow to her ego sends Ruby to a darker place, and to the bedroom of AJ’s ex-fiance, Zack (played by Andre Hyland). When the two realize they betrayed AJ, they vow to keep it a secret. However, one underlying problem is that since Zack hooked up with Ruby, his days are numbered. Additionally, to make matters even worse, Zack and AJ get back together. Awesome news for Ruby.
This twist made the stakes so much higher—as if inadvertent murder wasn’t already stressful. Ruby must figure out what’s killing her hookups, but also keep a terrible secret from her best friend. AJ’s undying support for Ruby makes Ruby’s guilt even worse. Ruby consistently does things that make it hard to root for her, but you can’t help but hope she figures out what’s happening for all the victim’s sake, but also her own.
Ruby and AJ go on a city-wide tour warning every sexual encounter Ruby’s ever had of their impending deaths. We see a hilarious cameo from Simu Liu who plays one half of a couple Ruby dated. One of her past flings stands out amongst the rest: Richie, who is played by Michael Angarano. This man from Ruby’s past is a trivia host at a local bar who is very upset with Ruby. When she warns him, he and Ruby get in a huge fight about Ruby’s selfishness. As Ruby waits for the news of his death, she seems more affected by his impending death than any of her other exes. However, Richie doesn’t die. The curse skipped him and moved on to the next ex on the list. How did this happen? For now, we have no idea.
Zack accidentally spills the beans about he and Ruby’s secret when he chooses to tell the secret to the absolute worst person to have this information: Merci. Earlier, Merci walked in on Issac and Ruby bonding, and she instantly felt threatened. With Merci on a revenge tour, AJ finds out what her best friend and her boyfriend did. This leads to Ruby running to the arms of the one person who knows how crazy her life has become: Richie.
With Richie seemingly being a magical outlier of the curse, he hilariously proposes that Ruby and him hookup since she can’t hookup with anyone. At first, Ruby completely disregards this idea, but when Issac leaves Merci for Ruby, and professes his love to her, Ruby uses Richie as a vessel—for lack of a better term. What starts out as a harmless friends with benefits situation, turns extremely messy when Issac finds out Ruby cheated on him, and Richie gains feelings for Ruby. I mean, when has a friends with benefits situation ever gone wrong? However, when Ruby tells Issac all her exes are dying, he thinks she’s lying to avoid being with him.
Even though AJ wants nothing to do with Ruby, she can’t help her mind from wondering. She figures out who could’ve sent the curse to Ruby. In a completely unexpected turn, a disgruntled coworker of Ruby’s named Brad (played by Ryan Pinkston) was so mad at Ruby one night, that he drunkenly let a woman put a hex on Ruby. Ruby led Brad on, but they never hooked up, so he avoided an impending death. AJ agrees to help Ruby find the woman who created the curse, but she’s still not forgiving Ruby. Brad, Ruby, and AJ hunt down the woman, and she’s just a normal businesswoman who works for Cinnabon’s corporate offices. However, normal as she may seem, she’s in touch with a dark magic that let her curse Ruby. The woman tells Ruby that the curse isn’t breakable, but it is transferable. Ruby is thrilled, but AJ fights with Ruby and tells her it’s selfish to let someone else live with the curse.
With AJ icing her out again, and Issac upset with her, all Ruby has now is Richie. Richie delivers an adorable speech to Ruby saying the right man wouldn’t care about the curse—however in this case, he means himself, not Issac. Immediately after this speech, guess who knocks on the door. Sweet, gorgeous Issac. Issac tells Ruby he believes the curse it real, and that he doesn’t care. Richie was too late to get the girl.
The final episode opens with Ruby and Issac together, but not hooking up. They hilariously avoid actually hooking up, but it’s clear the curse is driving them crazy. Ruby doesn’t want to give the curse to someone else, but living with it is hurting her relationship. After Ruby left Richie’s apartment with Issac, Richie tells Ruby he wants nothing to do with her. Although the curse it stressing her out, she’s even more heartbroken by losing AJ. Ruby decides to do a selfless grand gesture for AJ—she hires Amanda Knox (someone who AJ mentions in every single episode) to have dinner with AJ. In true romantic comedy fashion, AJ runs back to Ruby’s arms and the best friends make up.
Now that AJ and Ruby are best friends again, all that’s left to do is get rid of the curse. Issac, Zack, AJ, and Ruby brainstorm people who can take the curse, but they can’t think of anyone. By this time, the deaths have caught up to Ruby’s most recent hookups: a tinder date named Jason (played by Finneas O’Connell) and Zack. The clock is ticking as the group frantically tries to transfer the curse. No matter who they transfer it to, innocent people will die. A light bulb goes off in the group’s minds when the old, nosy neighbor of AJ and Ruby pops in their heads. She’s an older woman, so in theory, all her hookups would have already passed on or be at the end of their lives. The group follows the instructions to transfer the curse, and decide to wait a month to see if Jason passes away. If he’s still alive by then, they’ll believe the curse had lifted.
One month goes by, and the group finds Jason not just alive, but thriving! Ruby runs into him as he completes a marathon and hugs his girlfriend. With Jason still alive, Zack is off the hook, and Ruby and Issac can finally hookup. The happy couple wastes no time. It seems to be happily ever after for Ruby and Issac until the ultimate plot twist closes out the season: Ruby’s estranged dad shows up, and tells her he also had the same curse. Right then, AJ and Ruby learn that Jason died right after the marathon. The curse never transferred, so Zack and Issac are going to die. After all of this is revealed, the screen cuts to black, and audiences are left stressed out.
The series does an excellent job balancing comedy with drama throughout the series. Ruby starts out as protagonist that’s truly difficult to root for. While she struggles with the death of her mother, the abandonment of her father, and how her grief manifests in her poor relationship skills, audiences watch Ruby transform from a selfish person, to a selfless person—while perfectly weaving in comedy like Ruby being unable to even pronounce the world “selfless” at first.
The characters are all hilarious in their own right, but Stephanie Hsu shines in this leading role. It’s refreshing to see her in a starring role after years of killing it as a supporting actress. Richie and Issac are both great guys which makes choosing the right love interest for Ruby nearly impossible. The way season one ended seemed like Issac and Ruby are endgame, but it seems like Ruby’s heart will ultimately belong to Richie—especially after he contacted Ruby’s father for her even though he was mad at her. Plus, we never learned why the curse skipped Richie. Perhaps, it won’t kill her true love? If we lose sweet, gorgeous Issac next season to the curse, I will be extremely mad.
The reveal that Ruby was cursed by her coworker came out of nowhere, which makes the twist even more shocking. At least for me, I hardly even noticed Brad until AJ was confronting him about the curse. This revelation got even crazier when audiences learned that a random woman hexed Ruby seemingly just for the fun of it. Note to self: don’t hex someone’s entire life just because you’re having a bad day. Perhaps the sneakiest twist would be the decision to transfer the hex to Jill, the old neighbor. While she was mentioned throughout the entire season as a loud neighbor, it didn’t seem to have any weight to the plot. However, once I broke down the reasoning for Jill getting cursed, it made sense.
The show did a spectacular job delivering plot twists throughout the entire season. I mean, who expected the real Amanda Knox to show up? Whether it was Zack and Ruby hooking up, Issac having a girlfriend, or insane deaths everywhere you looked, nothing will compare to the final shot when Ruby’s estranged father showed up. This cliffhanger perfectly sets up a season two for the show. I can already see Ruby and AJ frantically trying to lift the curse before Zack and Issac die, and Richie returning to confess his love for Ruby. However, what I really want is answers about Ruby’s dad. If he had the curse too, then wouldn’t that negate the entire hex storyline?
While Peacock hasn’t confirmed season two is on the way, I’m hoping that with Stephanie Hsu’s star power, the enticing plot, interesting characters, and unanswered questions, that audiences will reunite with Ruby and her messy life in season two of Laid.
All episodes of Laid are streaming now on Peacock.
