Dollface Season 1 Review: Sometimes You Just Have to Listen to a Cat Lady

They say that boyfriends may come and go, but girlfriends are forever. That’s the core of Dollface Season 1, a smart, funny comedy that isn’t afraid to play with genre and formatting to make its point. 

The show follows Jules (Kat Dennings) a woman whose long-time boyfriend breaks up with her. After their five year relationship, she realizes that all of her relationships have expired and she needs to reconnect with her girlfriends Madison (Brenda Song) and Stella (Shay Mitchell).

The three friends all have wildly different personalities. Jules is the boring one. Madison the bossy one. Stella the fun one. Yet, they all weave in and out of their roles, redefining and shaping wo they are within these ten episodes.

What really makes this comedy work is the presence of Old Cat Lady (Beth Grant) who regularly shows up in Jules’ life and dispenses advice in the form of satirical formats like game shows and a 9-1-1 call. 

It’s these departures from the regular show format that make Dollface fresh and entertaining to watch, and causes it to stand out from the other comedic fare. Dollface really leans into the exaggerated moments as well which create interesting visuals that are dynamic but don’t overshadow the story.

Yet, at the same time, this half-hour comedy is searching for something deeper, and it accompishes it despite a few wavering moments. 

Can You Trust a Cat Lady?

Shortly after her breakup, Jules meets an Old Cat Lady on a bus that’s supposed to help her get back to spending time with other women.

Cat Lady serves as a compass for how Jules will react in each scenario she encounters. She never offers advice, but she does push Jules in the right direction. 

Cat Lady: Take it from me ma’am, relationships with other women are sacred and necessary. In today’s world the bonds of sisterhood are all you have to turn to. 

Depicting a fairy godmother-esque character in the guise of a trope that’s commonly conceived of as a homebody feels appropriate. Afterall, what kind of person would you expect to know about being alone?

As the series progresses, it’s clear that Jules would rather be at home than doing just about anything this character is advising, but she follows the advice. Not out of fear, but a genuine desire for reconnection. 

While it sounds insane that Jules has to take advice from an Old Cat Lady, but her advice holds a lot of value and doesn’t steer Jules wrong. 

Cat Lady: Don’t look so worried,  just remember, women need each other now more than ever. Turn your back on them and you end up alone. You can guess what happens then. 

Who Does Woom Really Serve?

Jule’s place of work, Woom, is a character in itself. The environment is rife with cultural appropriation, racism, and problematic femimism. 

Woom and its employees, save Izzy, lean into the reputation of a certain kind of workplace and its aesthetic.

This is enforced when we first meet Celeste, whose trying out a amphibian facial for Woom’s skincare list. The interactions she has with Jules are peppered with fake feminism and self-egrandizing statements designed to make her employees worship her.  

Jules is the rare bird in this scenario is able to hold onto her individuality, which is contrasted nicely with “Other Allison B.” who comes clean about her real identity on Dollface Season 1 Episode 1, “Guy’s Girl.”

The fact that Izzy felt the need to use a fake name at work should really tell us all we need to know about the kind of work culture that Woom creates. 

The scene on Dollface Season 1 Episode 3, “Mystery Brunette,” where The Allisons are going around getting rid of things that don’t spark joy is another farce to that effect. This little dash of Marie Kondo symplification is the perfect garnish to displaying Woom’s culture.

Afterall, who in their right mind would get rid of functional items like another employees stapler or a mouse. 

Jules: Did my stapler do something wrong? 
Allison B: Celeste wants us to throw away anything in the office that doesn’t spark joy. 
Jules: My stapler doesn’t have to spark joy, it just has to staple.

Jules works in Woom’s web design team, and on “Mystery Brunette,” we see her encounter a work problem when her boss Celeste asks her to upload a smell to the website customers to sample.

Users of the internet will tell you that’s not a thing, and the fact that Celeste thinks that Jules can just magically make that happen shows just how entitled she thinks she is when she’s not even on screen. 

Seeing how Jules interacts with the women of Woom defines how she’s navigated her life over the last five years while she was with Jeremy. Jules had work and Jeremy, and that was it.

As she treads deeper into Woom culture, I have to wonder if she would have lost it sooner had it not been for Jeremy. She really doesn’t fit into the cliche-y culture, and Celeste’s brand of fake feminism probably wouldn’t last too long in the scheme of a show’s run. 

What is a Feminist?

In any show that deals primarily with friendships between woman, some themes pop up over and over again.

In the case of Dollface, those themes are all connected to feminism: there’s leaning in references, lots of talk about things that sound like what other shows have called “girl code.”

From the very beginning Jule’s is on the road of “how to be a good friend.” This theme quickly grows a lot of legs and proceeds to become not just about the friend group but women as a whole. 

The series tries to unpack this really well on the aptly titled, Dollface Season 1 Episode 9, “Feminist,” which explores themes through the lens of a Wizard of Oz retelling.

The structure of the episode works within the fabulist nature of the rest of the series. It hits all the notes of the movie without being too on the nose.

Stella is the scarecrow who thinks she doesn’t have a brain because she got rejected from her safety business school. Madison is the tin man trying to protect her heart from getting hurt. Izzy is the lion who can’t stand up for herself because she doesn’t know who she is. Celeste is the Wicked Witch of the West with The Allisons as her “flying monkeys.” 

All of these illusions work and the slight exaggerations that the series takes in how its presented is fantastic. The costuming in this episode is especially stellar bearing light and stylish illusions to the movie. 

Yet, the episode doesn’t lose its modern thread, using both The Women’s March and The Speaker is a great way to make it timely.

The fact that they ultimately meet The Speaker privately and she tells them something that every woman needs to hear, that feminism isn’t defined by a clear set of rules, is good takeaway from Season 1 as a whole, and does ultimately enforce Jule’s actions going into the season finale. 

However, it feels a little bit cheapened when it’s revealed that the entire episode has happened in a dream. 

While the Wizard of Oz structure allows the show to get a little meta and call out what’s happening inside Jules’s head. When Dorothy clicks her heels and says “there’s no place like home” she wakes up back in Kansas with Auntie Em and her Uncles.

Jules’ awakening is much different, full of technology and canceled plans. It’s a heartbreaking end for the episode. 

What is a Bridesmaid For?

The breakup with Jeremy is made much worse by the fact that Jules needs to continue to serve as a bridesmaid for his sister’s wedding.

Given that Dollface aptly sets up Jules to find comrodery in, not just her old friends, but also Izzy from work, I had some hope that maybe Ramona actually liked Jules and wanted her to be around because she wanted a friend. 

Why else would she want Jules to continue to be in her wedding? 

On Dollface Season 1 Episode 10, “Bridesmaid,” Ramona’s behavior makes it very clear that she’s all about the aesthetic and that’s largely why this wedding is taking place. 

Ramona’s wedding is a solid subplot to the series, really only coming to the viewers attention during the bachelorette party and the season finale.

This is just enough time to dedicate to this issue. If I wanted to see someone lose it over a wedding, I’d watch Bridesmaids. 

The conversation that Jules has with Ramona just serves as a reminder of why genuine friendships between women are so important. 

Ramona: Honestly, except my bachelorette, I hadn’t seen half these girls since Sydney’s wedding six months ago.

I mainly picked everyone so all of our haircolor would create a gradient effect in the pictures.

All I’m saying is, there’s a time when your girlfriends are supposed to be your whole world. And there’s a time when that’s supposed to end. You’re beautiful and smart. Someone like you is gonna have a lot of options. Just, choose somebody. 

Ramona’s advice here is counterintuitive, and really just serves to show exactly what was wrong with Jules in the first place: losing herself in a guy. 

Dollface shines a light on the wedding industrial complex. While Ramona isn’t exactly a brideszilla she’s concerned about photos and how her bridesmaids look than her relationship. She doesn’t bring up Alec once, and it shows when he appears in the series finale. 

Alec doesn’t have any real function other than to be window dressing answering every question by drinking more alcohol. He never says another about Romana, the wedding, or expresses any excitment about the future. 

This blatant display serves as a point to the series as a whole. 

How to Say Goodbye to A Nickname?

If Dollface is about a woman rediscovering who she is, and reconnecting with her friends then it accomplishes its mission with tact. Jules does go on a journey over the course of ten episodes and finds that she’s put a little too much stock in other people and their opinions. 

The transformation begins early on. She’s not only learning how to be herself outside of Jeremy, but also that she has an opinion. On Dollface Season 1 Episode 2, “Homebody,” she has to stand up for herself and learn that she ultimately has a say in what happens in her life.

It’s the start of a very slow shift, but it does lead her to where she needs to be. 

By the time she talks to Jeremy at the wedding she says confidently that she likes who she’s become and doesn’t want to be the person she was with him again. 

Jules: The person I was with you, I don’t want to be her again. 

Her outright rejection of the nickname Dollface also marks a point of transformation. From the moment that Jeremy called Jules Dollface during their breakup, I had him pegged as a jerk.

Dollface, carries connotations of being a toy: something you can dress up and place to the side when it no longer suits you. Rejecting this name means Jules is placing herself first. She’s taking charge of her life, and ready to be herself. 

The fact that the climax of the finale begins with Cat Lady encouraging her to say something is a terrific launch point for what comes next.

Jules: We do know each other don’t we?
Cat Lady: We used to, but I’m not so sure anymore, Dollface. 
Jules: Don’t call me Dollface.

Jules’s speech at the wedding is the perfect climax to the whole affair. Hearing Jules call out everyone from Colin to Ramona is a cathartic. There’s a sense that she’s done with other people’s expectations and knows where her loyalty needs to be.

Jules: F*ck that. F*ck being terrified of things that are hard, and f*ck picking your friends for their f*cking haircolor, and f*ck backsliding into bad relationships, and f*ck cheating on your wife, and f*ck you.

This version of Jules is steps away from who we met in the first episode, and while the last scene is them driving back to Los Angeles it’s clear these three women have more adventures, and that Jules, Stella, and Izzy probably have some more work to do on themselves too. 

While it does feel like Dollface struggles a little bit to find its footing, the show ultimately comes together cohesively. It’s a smart and funny comedy that wants to explore women outside of relationships, and does so with success. 

It’s a show that is ultimately deserving of another season and can benefit from fleshing out these four women even more. 

 Stray Thoughts

• So, remember in “Mystery Brunette” when Jules unpacked why Madison hated magic? There’s such a parralell when she realizes that she’s been lied to by Colin. I kind of hope they unpack that a little bit more in Season 2. 
• Stella is really a standout character this season. I didn’t talk much about his on this episode, but Shay Mitchell is terrific in this role. Watching Stella find herself and apply to business school is a very interesting subplot, and seeing Jules be supportive of her friend’s new aspirations is amazing. She got into Penn and I have to salute her for that, but I also selfishly want her to stay in Los Angeles with these ladies. 
• Izzy’s rebranding is kind of like Jules light when it comes to having to find herself again. I wish that the season had unpacked this a little more because Izzy’s storyline was much more tangible. Trying to find things that she likes apart from other people is another step that I don’t know Jules has taken yet, and it may take time. 
• This season had amazing guest stars. The cameos by Dave Coulier and Joey Lawrence were great and the introduction of Matthew Gray Gubler and Goran Visnjic were fun to watch. 
• Dollface Season 1 also crushes it with music. It’s one of those shows where the music enhances the scenes so perfectly that you can’t help but enjoy it even more. 
• I want Jules’ Craigslist house. That antique charm was adorabe and she blended it in so great with her stuff. 
• The irony that Madison was also losing herself in Colin isn’t lost on me. The way she tries to hard to project an era of sophistication on Dollface Season 1 Episode 5, “Beauty Queen,” is a slippery slope and one that I am glad concluded by the finale. 

What did you think of this season of Dollface? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Dollface Season 1 is now streaming on Hulu. 

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