TEHRANGELES

A wealthy Iranian family in Los Angeles has a reality TV deal—and their inner lives—turned upside down by Covid-19.

The four Milani sisters are ready for their moment in the spotlight. They’ve grown up rich, thanks to their dad’s booming snack empire—he’s the inventor of the “Pizzabomme”—but now they have a chance for stratospheric fame in the form of a reality show. Two of the sisters already know they have “Main Character” energy: Roxana, the daddy’s girl and ambitious influencer, and the youngest sister, Haylee, who’s obsessed with wellness culture and clean eating. On the other side of the family spectrum is Violet, the sensitive eldest, who has built a career as a model, and the chronically ill and “practical” Mina, who is more interested in anonymous online stan culture than her own face on TV. The four young women live in a sprawling estate with their mismatched parents—their slick snack-baron dad and gloomy mother—and (obvs) the household help. But as the six members of the Milani family are about to begin filming a Kardashian-style TV show, the pandemic forces them to confront the variety of secrets and hidden longings they’ve all been harboring for too long. Khakpour, who was born in Tehran and raised in Los Angeles, has written a kind of hyperreal neon inversion of Little Women, if the March girls had to deal with hashtags, eating disorders, microaggressions, and group chats. Khakpour aims for, and mostly hits, the sweet spot of satire, where critique blurs at the edges with sympathy for the hot messes that are the Milanis. It’s not easy, after all, to figure out your identity, especially when the world is watching.

Iranian and American cultures collide in a shower of glitter and tears in this sendup of the SoCal elite.