‘Fairfax’ Season 1 Review: “A Story of Influencers, Hypebeast, and Clout”

Fairfax Ave, a place of fashion and culture. It’s an area of Los Angeles filled with clothing stores, vegan spots, and almost everything under the sun you could want… If you’re rich. It’s a place filled with hypebeasts, culture vultures, and everything wrong with the said culture currently. Simply put, depending on how you look at it, Fairfax can be either good or bad. Amazon Prime’s new show Fairfax is based on this area. The show is a parody of the hypebeast and influencer culture, while also showing that true friends can be found in fake places.
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The show is about four middle school teens – Dale (Skyler Gisondo), Derica (Kiersey Clemons), Truman (Jaboukie Young-White), and Benny (Peter S. Kim). The teens go on an adventure through Fairfax as they try to gain clout and become influencers. Derica wants to become an activist, Truman wants to be a director, Benny wants to be a shoe plug, and Dale just wants to be a good person. The ‘Gang, Gang’ goes on adventure after adventure for eight episodes that are tons of fun.
I grew up during what I like to think is the height of the hypebeast era. When kids HAD to have the latest Supreme, Diamond Co., Obey, DGK, etc. Whether it was clothes or an item, everybody had to have it. Nowadays, we have things like the SNKRS app and the resell culture. Believe it or not, this show covers it all in its eight-episode season. It makes a parody of things like hypebeasts and social media influencers, but they also tackle things like family and friendship.
The cast of this show is incredible. Billy Porter plays Hiroki Hassan, the creator of the Latrine (Supreme) line in the show. JB Smoove and John Leguizamo play Glen and Quattro, two pigeons that are seen often on the show. Camila Mendes makes a few appearances as Melody as well. Yvette Nicole Brown and Rob Delaney play as Dale’s parents Trini and Grant, and they are a highlight in a few episodes. There are a few guest appearances that I don’t want to spoil for you, but trust me they are amazing. The chemistry for the cast is so much fun and makes the show a lot more entertaining.
Joseph Shirley lends a great score that meshes well with a wonderful soundtrack. The music in the show fits the theme very well and makes you feel like you’re just in one giant rager. Writers Aaron Buchsbaum, Matt Hausfater, Peter Knight, Laura Pollak, and Teddy Riley keep a well-put-together story running through the eight episodes. Somehoodlum designed these characters, and the animation style wonderfully leans into the Bojack Horseman style.
This show is curated by great minds that have delivered Emmy-nominated cartoons. Somehoodlum and Pizzaslime are consulting producers for the show. Jon Zimelis, Jason Nadler (midnight), Knight (Bojack Horseman), Chris Prynoski, Ben Kalina, and Antonio Cannobio (Big Mouth) also serve as executive producers for the show. It’s in good hands, and it shows throughout season one of Fairfax.
Season one of Fairfax is very very fun. I don’t recommend letting your children watch this unless you’re in the room. It’s a good story that’s well put together by a great team. They tackle the hypocrisy of social media – the fake wokeness takes a big hit. They even kind of take the cancel culture topic and flip it. It’s just a lot of fun, and has very few faults if any. You’re going to laugh, and have a good time with this. Remember, we’re all here for the clout. – Rascal F. Kennedy
Rating: 9.5/10
Fairfax premieres on Amazon Prime on October 29th!