Life Is Easy: a charming and intelligent body swap comedy
02 Aug 2020.

Life Is Easy is a perfectly charming body swap comedy from New Zealand. It’s about two best friends, a straight Asian girl named Jamie-Li, and a gay white guy named Curtis. Somehow, they end up in each other’s bodies. How it happens is moot - something to do with a horoscope, some strange liqueur, and a moonlit swim under an eclipse. Whatever, it doesn’t get in the way of the fun. The obvious laughs come from the high concept premise, like when she experiences a rupture for the first time or when he has to apply a tampon.

Later episodes show trouble at work (they can’t do each other’s jobs at all) and there is also lots of stuff about racism and sexism. And of course, they get to awkwardly experience sex in a different person’s body. They also use the opportunity to change each other’s lives. Chye-Ling Huang, who plays Jamie-Li and co-created the series said that, “It was important to create POC and queer characters with active, positive sex lives and write experiences not based in trauma.” Her co-creator Cole Jenkins, who plays Curtis said, “LIE engages in conversations around toxic masculinity, femininity in men, sexual expression, white privilege and the Queer Person of Colour experience in a way that isn’t accusatory, or super earnest and serious.”

Despite these weighty proclamations, the acting and writing in Life is Easy is light and brisk, and we’re constantly shifting our point of view from one character to another. There are so many complications it is hard to keep track, but intelligent comedy doesn’t come along all that often, so when it does, it's good to watch.