Review: Kay Cannon’s Girlboss

In lieu of an abstract, here is the first paragraph of the review: Girlboss (2017), created by Kay Cannon (writer of Pitch Perfect and 30 Rock), is an American comedy distributed by the streaming platform Netflix. The first and only season was released on April 21, 2017, having been canceled the following June. The show is based on Sophia Amoruso’s autobiographical book #Girlboss (2014) and it follows a fictional Sophia (her last name was changed to Marlowe) as she begins a career as the founder of the Ebay store Nasty Gal Vintage. Talking to The New York Times, Kay Cannon highlighted her objectives: “I wanted to tell the story of a flawed woman that is not a fairy tale”. Adding “rough edges” freed Cannon up to more “interesting storytelling”. Working with Netflix and its binge-able mode of distribution (making an entire season available at the same time) allowed Cannon to feel less restricted when it came to presenting, as she put it, an “off-putting” protagonist.