Netflix’s new reality show follows a girl group primed for stardom by the pop rebel – and you will be hopelessly sucked in by their spectacular tiffs
Historically, girl bands have been put together and managed by middle-aged men, often resulting in the gruesome situation of young women being told what to do, say and wear by those men in order to make the men as much money as possible. As much as I’m With the Band: Nasty Cherry (Netflix) is a fairly standard X Factor setup – a mentor develops a fledgling act, drawing on their own industry experience – it does, at least, offer a glimmer of a fresh take. The six-part show follows the progress of “alt-pop” group Nasty Cherry, who have been flung together by Charli XCX and her best friend and the band’s manager, Emmie Lichtenberg, from when they move into a house together to when they play their first live show, four months later.
The aesthetic is a riotous clash of Big Brother meets Drag Race meets Spice World, yet the mood is peculiarly mumblecore. Each episode is about 10 minutes too long, because there is so much lingering on the day-to-day business of the women simply existing. Charli loves eating in bed and has a wedgie. Debbie the drummer can’t open bottles. It becomes her thing, her USP: at one point, she hides from the cameras, laughing, because she doesn’t want her inability to open a wine bottle shown on television. This is an era in which everything from breakfast to sunset is broadcast for an audience: perhaps this is the content we deserve.