Why Paula Pell is the Best Part of “Girls5eva”

The actress, best-known for her work on Saturday Night Live, deserves appreciation for her formidable comedy chops.

Sometimes, you watch a show that manages to cast a spell from its first moment, and Girls5eva, the new comedy series streaming on Peacock is one of those. Through some strange sort of alchemy, it manages to be endearing, bitingly funny, and piercingly satirical all at the same time. Focused on a 1990s girl group that tries to reunite in the present, it manages to ruthlessly lampoon both the ridiculous (and incredibly sexist) late 1990s but also the equally inane world in which we currently live.

The more I watched the show, the more it dawned on me that Paula Pell is the MVP. Don’t get me wrong, the rest of the cast is amazing, and they each manage to capture the rich complexity of their characters. Sara Bareilles brings her signature everywoman charm to Dawn, Renée Elise Goldsberry channels shades of larger-than-life (and never satisfied) Angelica Schuyler in her portrayal of Wickie, and Busy Philips is somehow both sultry and silly as Summer. Pell, however, manages to do something a little more ambitious than her cast-mates: she gives us a character who is not just uproariously funny but also deep, warm, and compassionate.