Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Envious’ on Netflix, A Silly But Heartfelt Show About A Woman Obsessed With The Fact That She’s 40 And Unmarried

Produced in Argentina, the new Netflix comedy series Envious stars Griselda Siciliani as a 39-year-old woman named Vicky who seems to be the only one in her friend group who isn’t getting married or living her ideal life. This manifests as envy most of the time, and as much as Vicky is truly jealous of everyone around her, the show depicts her as someone willing to move past that if she can just stop worrying about what everyone else is doing and focus on making herself happy.

Opening Shot: Vicky (Griselda Siciliani) walks down the street. She’s looking cute and feeling herself in her nice dress and heels, until she reaches her apartment building. Standing outside, she spies a woman in workout gear stretching and scrunches her nose in disgust at this skinny, seemingly perfect specimen of a woman.

The Gist: Vicky is the type of woman who only sees the world filtered through other people’s accomplishments. When her therapist asks Vicky about her day, Vicky launches into a complaint about her coworker, Magui, who tells fawning stories about her two perfect children, which aggravates the shit out of Vicky. When Vicky talks about her ex-boyfriend Dani and his new hot wife, she obsesses over their overnight courtship, but then has to be reminded that she’s the one who broke up with Dani.

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Vicky’s not playing victim so much as she’s 40 and starting to wonder when she’s going to get to live the life she really wants to lead. During the ten years she spent with Dani, she gave up on her own dreams to be an architect to support him with his law career, and seeing him move on from her hurts from every angle. She’s realizing that her career and love life are stagnant, and obsessing over other people’s Instagram profiles is only making things worse. Vicky also does those sitcommy things that none of us would probably do – over the course of a single day, she takes a dance class taught by her ex’s new wife, Bruna, and tries to secretly befriend her under false pretenses (and she gets caught). She sneaks into Dani and Bruna’s apartment to see how they live… and she gets caught there, too. After Bruna calls the police, Vicky is booked at the police station, but Dani comes to bail her out. On her way home, she realizes that she left her keys at Dani and Bruna’s house, so she stops at the restaurant next door to call a locksmith.

In the time that it takes for the locksmith to arrive, the man who runs the restaurant, Matias,who has seen Vicky before but doesn’t know her, proves to be an easy person to talk to, and he coaxes the truth out of Vicky. She does what she does, in pursuit of this “perfect” life and marriage and kids and everything else, because it’s what she never had as a kid. Abandoned by her father, she helped raise her sister and only ever wanted to have that perfect nuclear family for herself. Matias folds a gold candy wrapper into a ribbon and wraps it on Vicky’s finger, telling her they can get married. It’s a sweet gesture, and it’s not lost on Vicky that maybe she’s been so consumed by her envy that she hasn’t been focusing on her happiness.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Envious is entirely its own vibe, but premise-wise, it’s got dashes of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend ‘s relationship premise mixed with the slapstick absurdity of Ugly Betty and 30 Rock .

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Our Take: Within the first 30 seconds of the show, you know exactly who Vicky is, thanks to a scene involving Vicky and a neighbor in her building arguing about which of them will take the elevator up, as it can only hold one person at a time thanks to a repair issue. Vicky, seeing how fit her neighbor is, insists that her neighbor take the elevator, and the two argue in a battle whose subtext is “I am more in shape than you.” Vicky pants and grunts her way up the seven flights in order to beat the elevator, and then collapses on the floor out of breath. It solidly sets the premise that this is a woman who compares herself to the rest of the world, albeit in a funny way that’s basically funny because, let’s face it, we’re all a little competitive sometimes, even if only in our heads.

Vicky is a woman who is competitive in every way, simply as a way to prove to herself that she’s good and worthy. It’s why she’s in therapy, working through things. But her unhealthy level of jealousy and insecurity is the fodder for the comedy in the show too, and rather than coming off as cringe-worthy, Sicialiani plays Vicky with just enough vulnerability an charm that it’s more funny than uncomfortable.

Everything Vicky does blows up in her face and she makes a lot of rash choices, but it’s not because she’s crazy, it’s because she’s truly hurt. The people in her life have hurt her, from her own father to Dani – this becomes clear when she begs Dani to tell her “What does she have that I don’t?” in reference to Bruna. It would be heartbreaking, if it wasn’t also breaking and entering. But the show strikes just the right balance, not letting those hijinks overshadow its heart.

Sex and Skin: Not much to speak of, just some kissing.

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Parting Shot: Vicky sprawls across her bed looking at the crinkly ring made out of a wrapper that Matias has given her and accepts his friend request on Instagram.

Performance Worth Watching: Envious is carried by the comedic talents of Griselda Siciliani who manages to convey so much with her facial expressions and nuanced delivery. But she’s as talented as a dramatic actress as she is with comedy, and the show wouldn’t work without her.

Memorable Dialogue: “It’s not a competition,” Dani tells Vicky when she asks him to tell he why his new wife is so great. “It is a competition,” Vicky yells, hurt, jealous, and alone.

Our Call: STREAM IT! Envious is a vehicle for Griselda Siciliani’s talents, but it strikes a tone that’s equal parts humor and humility. Despite her terrible decision making, Vicky remains likable, a heroine you want to root for no matter what deadly sins she’s guilty of.

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction .

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