Can a man and woman ever just be friends? That’s a question that’s been asked countless times, most famously by the 1989 Nora Ephron-penned classic When Harry Met Sally. The answer is almost always a resounding “no,” but Apple TV+’s newest comedy series, Platonic, seeks to answer that with a new answer: “Of course they can!”
Platonic isn’t just a wickedly funny show that creatively tackles the age-old question of whether two people of the opposite sex can just be friends. It also features star Seth Rogen at his sexiest. Rogen’s performance is beautifully layered, and he’s got fantastic chemistry with the rest of the cast, especially Rose Byrne as his best friend; she’s worked with Rogen before, in the Neighbors movies.
But Rogen isn’t just hot in Platonic. He’s also intellectually appealing, thanks to Ben’s identifiable struggles. But it’s hard to get past the fact that his mere presence is so scintillating that it could make watching this show in the summer heat lethal. That’s a risk I’m more than willing to take, as Rogen’s character brings together every glorious element of the actor’s career into one absolutely sensational package. It marks an evolution for the actor, whose characters have finally matured into truly attractive figures worth lusting after—and Platonic’s Rogen character is his most appealing yet.
Rogen plays Will, a man whose life is in sudden turmoil over his divorce. His ex-wife has quickly moved on with a new partner, but Will has found himself alone after years of marital bliss. But he doesn’t seem too shaken: He’s got a great job, great friends, and his former best friend Sylvia (Rose Byrne) has reached out to reconnect. At least, I think that’s all true—the details are fuzzy, because I can’t stop staring into Rogen’s eyes.
OK, so this isn’t exactly breaking news: Seth Rogen has been hot for a long time. The rise of one of Hollywood’s unlikeliest sex symbols started in earnest with 2007’s Knocked Up. (Before you ask, “What about The 40-Year-Old Virgin?”, please remember his ghastly facial hair in that movie.)
Knocked Up found Rogen playing Ben, who, for lack of a better word, was a bit of a loser. Yet throughout the film, Ben goes through considerable growth, spurred on by Alison’s (Katherine Heigl) pregnancy, after they had a one-night stand. Rogen’s character goes from schlub to something close to a stand-up guy. Ben makes plenty of mistakes along the way, but that’s part of why he’s so likable. They say that attraction is often based on seeing an opportunity to improve that person until they’re the partner of their dreams.
That’s part of Ben’s appeal—and indeed, the charm of many of Seth Rogen’s characters. But for all of Ben’s questionable choices and comments, he’s there for Alison when it counts, showing up in a big way when she delivers their child. Ben isn’t just one of those guys you can never fix, doomed to live a miserable life with. He can actually change and become a better person. What’s hotter than self-improvement?
Since Knocked Up, Rogen has played a treasure trove of goofy men—the kind of guy your parents would be extremely hesitant about, but rest assured, he’ll win them over eventually. Through Rogen’s charm, he turns these down-on-their-luck characters into guys you’d want to spend your life with. In movies like Pineapple Express, Funny People, and This Is the End, in which he played a version of himself, Rogen perfected the lovable stoner.
There’s nothing about me that would like the kind of character Rogen came to fame playing. In high school, I was whatever the opposite of a stoner is. I’m ashamed to say that I could never understand the people that would smoke outside school, instead of being studious and attending classes (I was very cool). As a byproduct of my confusion, they infuriated me.
But through watching Rogen’s characters, years later, I discovered the charm of stoners. Though I’ve never become one (I am, by all accounts, still very uncool), Rogen’s performances gave me an avenue into a life I never knew. It was eye-opening, and exciting, to see this new point of view I never quite grasped before. But as I watched his various classic performances, from old-school Freaks and Geeks to Superbad and beyond, I went on a magic carpet ride with Rogen, and he showed me a whole new world.
While getting high is still very much a part of Rogen’s on-screen persona, that aspect of his character has become more muted throughout his career. It certainly hasn’t disappeared, mind you—his role in The Fabelmans is one of the few he doesn’t light up—but nowadays, the stoner aspect of Rogen’s work is a fun quirk, rather than a character-defining attribute. Through films like Neighbors (2014), Long Shot (2019), and An American Pickle (2020), we’ve seen very different sides of Rogen. What’s he like as a dad? A journalist? An Orthodox Jewish factory worker with a penchant for pickling?
The answer to all these questions is the same: incredibly appealing. His roles in Long Shot and An American Pickle are a big part of Rogen’s recent film revolution. The boyish, messy charm of his early roles is still in his character’s DNA, but there’s a newfound maturity to his recent characters. Sure, if you’re with a Rogen character, you’ll probably end up on an inevitable drug trip, but when the morning comes, he’s off to work and getting things done, instead of still lounging around and getting high.
This growth has made Rogen so much more attractive to me. And when it seemed like he couldn’t get any hotter to me, Platonic finds him leaning into the Jewish aspect of his character. Judaism has informed plenty of his characters in the past; The Guilt Trip, The Night Before, An American Pickle, and The Fabelmans (2022) are just a few examples of some of Rogen’s outwardly Jewish characters. But being Jewish feels especially challenging right now with antisemitism rapidly on the rise. Rogen playing an unashamedly Jewish character in 2023 feels poignant and powerful—and those are sexy qualities.
It’s ironic, because Platonic sets us up to find Seth Rogen decidedly unsexy. When we first see Will, the first thing we notice (beyond his dreamy salt- and- pepper stubble and glasses that frame his face to perfection) is the gaudy clothes wrapped around his body. Sylvia describes his outfit as “a ’90s grunge clown,” and that pretty much says it all. He’s wearing a hideous grandfather cardigan, and under that is a shirt with cartoon skulls cascading down it. The outfit is completed with purple beach shorts (??), long socks, and sandals (?!?!).
Perhaps Will dresses so horrendously because the show is daring you to imagine him without clothing—a challenge I’ll take, though honestly, Rogen’s Will is bursting with a beguiling charm that allows you to forget that he’s wearing some of the ugliest fits you’ll see on television in 2023. He wears every single one with such undeniable confidence, they all feel runway-ready.
Will also proudly wears a Star of David around his neck (a plot in Episode 1 finds him and Sylvia on a mission to get him a new one), and as a Jewish person, it feels particularly wonderful to see that open embrace of religion right now. Conveniently, it also lets me imagine how happy my parents would be to see me bring a nice, proud Jewish boy home.
Later, at a drunken outing, Sylvia observes Will fighting with a man that he calls a Nazi, who happens to be his wife’s new beau. “Don’t pretend your family likes Jews,” Will shouts—a comment the guy doesn’t defend. As a Jew, nothing has quite brought me to nirvana this year more than Rogen’s character fearlessly screaming at a man he perceives as anti-semitic, while also being hilarious while doing it; his taunt of “Go back to the bunker!” had me in stitches. The fact that Will also makes fun of the reprehensible Mel Gibson in the same episode made it all but destiny for me to fall madly in love with him, after just one episode.
Platonic brings together every glorious element of Seth Rogen’s cinematic persona. He’s the kind of guy you can have a great night out with, but you also have the reassurance that he can pay the bills at the end of each month. He’s put-together and confident, and he isn’t afraid to lean into his culture. He un-self-consciously wears ridiculous clothes, which somehow makes him even hotter. The age of Sexy Seth Rogen has been decades in the making, and with Platonic, that time is finally here.
