The dramedy Everyone Is Doing Great started as a web series pilot in 2018 and then a first season was produced via crowdfunding. Hulu picked it up and showed its first season, but then canceled it before the already-finished second season was shown. Five years after that first season debuted, Netflix has now picked up the show and is streaming both seasons.

EVERYONE IS DOING GREAT SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: A man walks out of the back of a truck and puts a box into a storage unit. He’s packed it to the gills, and almost can’t close it. He’s triumphant when he can lock it, until he sees a folding chair he left behind.

The Gist:  Seth Stewart (Stephen Colletti) has an apartment situation, so he’s temporarily living with his girlfriend Sarah (Karissa Lee Staples). He definitely has eyes on making the arrangement permanent. And, he also has an acting job lined up, something he’s had trouble doing since his hit YA vampire show Eternal ended five years prior.

His best friend and Eternal co-star, Jeremy Davis (James Lafferty), is living in a sober house with a group of recovering addicts. Unlike most of his housemates, though, he doesn’t have a job he goes to; he just makes money from recording Cameos for Eternal fans. He’s trying so hard to stay sober that when Seth comes around to visit, Jeremy tells him to hide a bottle of kombucha he brought, given how it’s fermented.

Meanwhile, Jeremy’s ex-wife Andrea (Alexandra Park) is starring in a police procedural series, but she’s under some stress. When a director can’t seem to tell her and her co-star Michael (Sean Carrigan) what he wants from a scene after dozens of takes, she bolts for her trailer.

Andrea visits Isabella (Cariba Heine), who is moving in with Oliver (Thomas Cocquerel), but Oliver has been so busy on a huge movie gig that boxes are still packed and they haven’t discussed much about their wedding. When Isabella tells Andrea about it, Andrea reveals to her that her father is in the hospital with a head injury after falling off a ladder, and she’s hoping he’ll be OK.

Seth goes to the set of his new acting gig, where he has a scene as a hockey player. He gets in costume, even though a PA tells him it’ll be hours. “I get paid to wait; I act for free!” Seth tells the PA. While waiting to be called to set, he gets salsa on the hockey sweater he’s wearing for the scene. Then when he gets to the set, the man playing the coach (Aaron Staton) can’t seem to do his part of the scene the same way twice. In the meantime, Jeremy gets kicked out of the sober house for becoming a distraction, but the house manager offers to become his sponsor.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? This reference might feel a little old, but just like for Season 1, we think Everyone Is Doing Great is like You’re The Worst, only not as caustic or funny. Give us a break, though; we wrote the first-season review five years ago!

Our Take: We had to refresh our memories about Everybody Is Doing OK, which was created by and stars Colletti and Lafferty and based on their experiences after being on being typecast after starring in One Tree Hill. We didn’t like the beginning of the first season much, because when Seth and Jeremy were together we found their brooding over being typecast to be more annoying than funny. But as the second season begins, everyone is in a more reflective mode.

Seth is happy to get jobs again, even though he’s dealing with a screaming director and a scene partner who lives to throw him off. He also is looking to make the living situation with Sarah permanent. Jeremy seems to be serious about his sober journey, though now he has nowhere to live. Andrea is going to struggle with grief while navigating a job that’s becoming increasingly frustrating. And Izzy just wants to connect with Oliver.

The stories in the first episode may feel a bit disconnected from each other, but it definitely shows the quartet are all feeling various amount of discontentedness, and at least those feelings feel like they’re authentic. That authenticity makes up for the show still not being as funny as it thinks it is.

Performance Worth Watching: Alexandra Park is excellent as Andrea, especially as she unloads on Izzy about what’s going on with her father.

Sex And Skin: None in the first episode.

Parting Shot: Andrea gets a call from her mother with some very bad news.

Sleeper Star: Even though Aaron Staton has a small role in this episode, it was fun seeing the former Mad Men star on screen again.

Most Pilot-y Line: Jeremy “falls off the wagon” by opening and drinking a bottle of kombucha after he gets kicked out of the sober house.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Everyone Is Doing Great comes back from the dead with a much-improved second season that shows the characters as human instead of obnoxious whiners.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.