The stars shine in bright and boisterous new buddy comedy, executive produced by Issa Rae, that only stumbles when it leans into cartoon

I will be the first to say: I miss Insecure, which left a dynamic duo-sized hole in the TV landscape since it concluded in December 2021. Issa Rae’s era-shaping series was about many things – the Black community in south Los Angeles, the diversity pablums of the 2010s, millennial dating, for starters – but at its core, it was a seminal portrait of longstanding, complex female friendship in one’s late 20s, the kind forged by time, ridiculous escapades and plenty of meaty conflict for viewers to hash out at the proverbial water cooler.

The shadow of the erstwhile HBO series looms large over One of Them Days, a boisterous new buddy comedy executive produced by Rae and penned by the former show writer Syreeta Singleton. Also set in south Los Angeles – albeit on one sweltering, no-good first of the month, when the rent is due and tenancy is in flux – One of Them Days, directed by the Rap Sh!t and music video veteran Lawrence Lamont, similarly concerns two wayward twentysomething besties who can, for enough moments to suffice, conjure the fizzy magic of its forerunner.