I Love LA is HBO's newest comedy series, created by and starring Shiva Baby star Rachel Sennott. The show premiered its Pilot episode on November 2 and is also available to stream on HBO Max.The show follows Maia (Sennott), a 27-year-old woman working as a junior employee at a talent acquisition firm. Like her peers and co-workers, Maia is ambitious and wants to climb the social ladder in her company. However, her plans change when her college best friend Tallulah (Odessa A'zion), a social media influencer, arrives in her life unannounced.Although I Love LA isn’t drawn from one specific real-life event, it does reflect aspects of Rachel Sennott’s own experiences living in Los Angeles. The storyline and characters are fictional, yet the show captures relatable, grounded themes that feel true to life. According to its creator, the comedy series will especially speak to the young generation, who are constantly hustling in a competitive city while navigating complex friendships and relationships.More on this in our story.I Love LA is Rachel Sennott's love letter to the cityIn a recent interview with Variety, creator Rachel Sennott recalls the fall of 2020, the time when she first moved to the city of Los Angeles. While the NYU-bred woman had big plans and dreams of becoming an actor in the titular city, it faded with the failure of ABC’s Call Your Mother, the one-season sitcom that brought her to LA. In addition, she was always away from her friends and missed New York. So, what motivated her to create I Love LA, a show centred around the city that gave her such an underwhelming welcome?In another interview with Elle, the astronomy aficionado reveals how she experienced a “Saturn return,” a phenomenon that forced her to become serious and get over her party life in New York. After the success of her Indie movie Shiva Baby, she started seeing the city in a different light and eventually decided to create a comedy series on it.While I Love LA is not directly inspired by Rachel Sennott's life but she borrows a lot of inspiration from the events and people that shaped it. The constant push-and-pull between Maia and Tallulah is at the heart of the show and the actress feels like she embodies both the characters. This is how she breaks it down in an interview with Elle magazine:“Tallulah is a representation of my old self and Maia is kind of like me in my worst control-freak era. Hopefully, now I’m an evolved version with a little bit of both. Maia and Tallulah are better together, and I’m better when I have the balance of those two.''I Love LA is an authentic portrayal of city life and modern friendships View this post on Instagram Instagram PostWhile I Love LA borrows many themes and experiences from Rachel Sennott's life, the characters are fictional. At the center of the story is Tallulah, Maia's old college friend, who is now a successful social media influencer. While Maia and Tallulah had planned to move to the titular city together, Tallulah backed out at the last minute, leaving the protagonist alone. While Maia's life gets chaotic with Tallulah's sudden arrival, she eventually uses her fame to impress her boss and earn a promotion.Through characters like Tallulah, I Love LA delves deep into the influencer culture and online activity of the Gen Zs in the titular city. The terms of Maia and Tallulah's new friendship are very on-brand with modern friendships.Talking to Fader, Sennott remarks how her comedy series will speak to the young generation as it voices their hardships with relationships, friendships and career in a bustling city:“For young people, we all came of age in such a tumultuous time during COVID either through school or entering a bad workforce. Maia is someone who grips onto control and tries to hold onto things that make her feel O.K.”Rachel Sennott's I Love LA might not have roots in one story but its mature themes of modern friendships and hustle culture are rooted in reality and will be universally felt by every adult trying to make it work in a big city.I Love LA releases weekly episodes every Sunday on HBO.For the latest scoops on your favorite TV shows and movies, follow SoapCentral.