Envious Review: Frustrating Ending and Insufferable Protagonist

In this Argentinian comedy-drama series, we follow Vicky, an almost 40-year-old woman who is envious of everyone around her, especially those who are married while she waits for her long-term boyfriend to take the next step. After issuing an ultimatum, which results in a disaster, Vicky decides to jump headfirst into the dating scene, only to discover that finding herself is more important than finding a man to marry.

The series is written by Carolina Aguirre and has 8 episodes, each with a runtime of around 35 minutes.

Envious Review

You know you are in for an unbearable run when the Netflix series Envious starts with our protagonist Vicky competing with her neighbour for who reaches their floor first. Only that the neighbour is in the elevator and she’s wearing high heels on the stairs and, actually, competing with said elevator. Actor Griselda Siciliani manages to bring some sort of vulnerability to the chaos that is Vicky and I applaud her for that, but to be very honest, it is grating watching a character who has no regard for anyone else and gets into some really bad situations most of the time because of the choices that she makes.

The series will remind you of those classic comedy shows where the woman, after having been burned by many others, decides to do some very questionable and obsessive things before going on a self-reflecting journey to discover herself once again… somewhat. The path that Vicky takes is embarrassing and sometimes annoying, making us cringe more than making us laugh because, in 2024, we don’t laugh at a woman with gum in her hair rifling through her ex-boyfriend’s things after trying to befriend his new wife. There’s a level of surrealism to the series that makes you wonder whether you were expected to take this seriously or just move on after chuckling for a bit and that feeling of confusion surprisingly never goes away for the entire 12-episode (!!) journey of the series.

I think there are moments when the series gets its messaging and emotions right (and stable), especially from the other characters. You feel seen and heard during these moments, that you aren’t going crazy hating on this fictional character – Vicky really needs the plot armour to kick in so that she can go on a journey and find what she is looking for in others and in herself. The situations that the series portrays also feel straight out of a telenovela, which I am not sure this one was supposed to be. The only character who is stable in this series is Esteban Lamothe’s Matías; the poor guy deserves so much more than what he gets.

The series also feels really dated sometimes. For a good chunk of its runtime, the only thing we think about is Vicky desperately trying to get a guy in order to solve all of her problems. It’s sad and really dehumanising to watch a woman be like this. It’s not just about her begging men to look at her, which she does a lot, but the series also showcases her being so negative and destructive around her friends’ happy moments. One might think that the series will let her catch a break at some point but she continues to be thoroughly humiliated in every episode, making us feel oddly heartbroken for her and, at the same time, hating her in equal measures.

But the problem, I feel, is that the series feels awfully insulting to the viewers, meandering in and out of pointless plot points surrounding Nicholas and not giving our protagonist enough space to grow. Because, sure – Vicky can be a broken human in need of some guidance but what is not right is making viewers watch 12 episodes and then ending on a frustrating note that makes the series feel half-baked and the conflicts unnecessary. Why Vicky is left to ponder in the end, and why the audience is not given a moment of respite from her silly choices are questions we will never get answered, but the fact that the series doesn’t find it offensive to frustrate us, making us watch Victoria making some of the worst decisions and solving the conflicts in such an all-over-the-place manner is what boiled my blood when the series closes off its runtime.

Final Thoughts

It’s not that Envious isn’t entertaining, in fact, it’s a rage watch like no other. But the series gives us a chaotic and messy protagonist who, till the very end isn’t able to show us an arc that would make us hate her less. Characters can be messy because people usually are in real life, but the fact that she continues to be awful from start to end is something that I find hard to get over. There surely are some relatable, sweet and funny moments, but when the protagonist is so thoroughly flawed and given no respite from her humiliating choices, it’s hard to not feel a burning sense of anger at the end of 12 episodes.

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