Platonic is a 2023 comedy series on Apple TV+ created by Francesa Delblanco and Nicholas Stoller. The half-hour series explores the friendship between lawyer-turned-stay-at-home-mom Sylvia (Rose Byrne) and brewery owner Will (Seth Rogen) as they navigate a difficult time in their lives – Sylvia is feeling unfulfilled as her children are getting older and her husband is busy as a partner at his law firm, while Will is recently divorced. But unlike most male-female platonic friendships, Will and Sylvia aren't secretly in love or barrelling toward an affair. Instead, they bring out their most infantile and immature in one another.
Tropes include:
- All for Nothing: Sylvia goes through various desperate attempts to repair the painting of Kurt, including trying to paint over the seam with white-out and pay an obscene amount of money to a sketchy artist to paint over it (he ends up painting a penis on Kurt’s face). In the end, nothing was necessary because Sylvia was caught on video damaging the painting in the first place. She’s fired instantly.
- Amicable Exes: Zigzagged. Will and Audrey can’t see one another without screaming at the beginning of the series. By the time Will contacts her about the painting, they are far more civil and he confirms they’ve been texting. They still occasionally snip at each other.
- Badass Boast: Will vows that no matter what his partners want, he will never leave Lucky Penny, before storming back to the tank room.
- Berserk Button: Don’t tell Will you feel sorry for him.
- Beta Couple: Katie and Andy become this and even get married in the finale.
- Cringe Comedy: The series' main source of humor, which is especially prominent during Sylvia's attempts to connect with the much younger law associates at her new job or Will tagging along with Charlie's coworkers to a Dodgers game.
- Deconstructed Character Archetype: Sylvia is a deconstruction of the stilted and stifled housewife archetype. While it initially seems as though her friendship with Will is going to help her spread her wings creatively and break out of her mundanity, she actually uses him as an outlet for venting and begins regressing into a borderline adolescent.
- Didn't Think This Through: The outcome (getting fired) might have been the same, Sylvia should have probably realized that her law firm had plenty of security cameras and that, whether or not she tried to repair the painting of Kurt, the damage would have been caught on video.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Johnny Rev is rebuffed by Sylvia after trying to kiss her despite knowing she’s married. He reacts by being verbally abusive to her over the course of an entire evening, and even gets in a physical altercation with her friends.
-
Doing It for the Art: Will feels this way about beer. He cares about creating high-quality craft beer, regardless of how appreciative or willing to pay the general public will be. He resents gimmicks like the hard kombucha and Omar’s candy-infused beer. - Everyone Can See It: Played with. Sylvia and Will aren’t actually attracted to one another, but others can see that their relationship is either inappropriate or self-destructive, and that they have a chemistry that the two lack with their respective partners.
- "Friends" Rent Control: Averted, as Charlie and Sylvia own a fairly nice house that is still too small for them and their three kids. A subplot concerns them trying a new, bigger house, and given that they're a single-income household and live in one of the most expensive cities in America, the only one they can afford is a former retirement home, which Will points out will still be expensive due to the cost it'll take to renovate the whole place. In the finale, they finally find a perfect house within their price range that seems too good to be true, and it turns out that the house has been severely marked down due to a grisly series of murders that took place a few years prior.
- The Generation Gap: One of the main themes of the series is the divide between Will and Sylvia—two millenials in their forties—and the younger Gen Z people they regularly interact with, with Will being more comfortable around them than Sylvia is.
- Jerkass: There are a lot of jerkasses in this series; Will and Sylvia both have their moments (more so the former), Will’s partners both show shades of this, but by far the biggest jerkass is the crude, aggressive Johnny Rev.
- Just Friends: Sylvia and Will are this and, despite all odds, say this.
- Like an Old Married Couple: At times to an extreme degree. As much fun as they have, Sylvia and Will also argue viciously and quickly forgive one another.
- Limited Social Circle: Averted; Will, Sylvia, and Charlie have their own friends outside of each other: Sylvia has her friend Katie and some fellow moms from her kids' elementary school, Will has his business partners, and Charlie has his coworkers at the law firm. The three groups occasionally cross paths with each other.
- The Load: Omar appears to be this, being Book Dumb and totally clueless about beer; the only thing that subverts this is that besides Will, none of the partners seem to have a problem with Omar’s ineptitudes and even make him the brewmaster to spite Will.
- Manchild: Will comes across as a guy who’s never quite grown up, still being an impulsive loudmouth who prefers to hang out in a brewery all day than fit in with professionals – seemingly in contrast to Sylvia. However, as Sylvia progresses, we see that she is a female version of that.
- May–December Romance: A downplayed version. Will is 40, and Peyton turns 26 while they’re dating. Will refers to them as being “bookend millennials.”
- Mistaken for Cheating: At times, Will and Sylvia’s relationship is thought to be something more, especially by Charlie’s colleagues. Played with, as Charlie rarely suspects Sylvia and Charlie of having a physical relationship, but is jealous of their emotional intimacy.
- Mistaken for Romance: Sylvia and Will tend to let go of their inhibitions and shame together, which comes across like romance to some.
- Mood Whiplash: Sylvia and Will think they see a UFO on her new roof. They go down and lightheartedly announce to the party that they saw one. When Will begins to argue his point sincerely and Sylvia drops it, they end up in a screaming match in the kitchen where Sylvia tells hims he only began hanging out with him out of pity.
- No Antagonist: Neither Will’s ex-wife, Sylvia’s husband, the female partner with whom Sylvia has a slight rivalry, nor Will’s business partners ever really serve as antagonists – most are actually pretty reasonable. Mind you, when you’re this self-destructive, who needs an antagonist?
- Not a Date: In the finale, Will and Sylvia are offered a rose by a vendor who thinks they’re on a date.
- The Not-Love Interest: The closest trope that actually describes Will and Sylvia’s relationship. There’s no romantic or physical intimacy between them, but they can be their worst selves around each other.
- Platonic Life-Partners: Will and Sylvia become this for one another in their early forties, and have also apparently been this in the past.
- Product Placement: It’s an Apple TV+ series, so, naturally.
- Strictly Professional Relationship: Charlie and Vanessa’s relationship usually stays in this category. Usually.
- Shout-Out: Will and Peyton hooking up with each other in her apartment gets interrupted by her roommate, who wants to watch the Succession series finale with her. The show's iconic theme song can be heard playing during the scene.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Johnny Rev kisses Sylvia and she rebuffs him. Rather than a blowup right away, she tries to play nice in order to keep the deal afloat. And instead of being chastened, he’s emboldened by the experience and acts like a belligerent Manchild.
- Charlie feels frustrated by Sylvia’s lack of honesty and her regression with Will and takes comfort in the arms of his colleague, Vanessa. But rather than a torrid affair, they engage in some dorky dancing and momentary dry-humping.
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Will’s ex-wife is a stunning, glamorous woman, and he’s a schlubby hipster played by Seth Rogen.
- Toxic Friend Influence: It becomes very clear that Will and Sylvia, in spite of their close friendship, are bad for each other: Will's general immaturity mixed with Sylvia's desperate desire for some adventure in her life bring out the worst in each other, and the results tend to be very destructive.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Sylvia accidentally damages a portrait of Kurt. Rather than report it immediately and take responsibility, she tries to repair it, even going as far as to try to get it fixed by a painter, who paints a penis on the face. Instead of getting rid of it and reporting it, she just puts it back up and pretends it never happened.
- Women Are Wiser: Played with. Sylvia seems on the surface like she has things together compared to the recently divorced, youthful and foolish Will. However, as the series goes on, she reveals a self-destructive and immature streak that rivals Will’s. At the end, when they both get their lives together, they’ve done equally well for themselves.
