Anne is in the middle of moving when she encounters her ex-girlfriend on the street in Amsterdam. As she spends the weekend making her move, she also unpacks her past relationships. Living on her own, she is left only with thoughts of all the women involved in her arrival at the present.
With a restraint that keeps you lusting after each subsequent episode, and with a great generosity of spirit and texture, this rundown of plus ones is entirely charming. Steeped in romance and deeply concerned with softness, each piece is saturated with an urgency and a nostalgia both well-balanced and poignant. The pieces subtly weave in greater themes such as friendship, identity, youth, and the particular challenges of queer courtship with a richness that never impedes the joy in watching. Startlingly modern with great humility and grit, this work would be salacious and scandalous if it wasn’t so believably grounded. Carried by an excellent performance by Hanna van Vliet, Anne is equal parts bold, gullible, sweet, and awkward. This series feels cross sectional of queer life in a rigorous way. Longitudinal without losing depth, each episode paints not only a more dimensional picture of Anne, who is elaborately lovable, but also a clearer picture of young life in Amsterdam. Relatable in its smoothest and most heartbreaking moments alike, this lovers anthology will no doubt inspire the digging up of histories – personal excavations abound.
– Ashley Hoyle
