Loving all that sunshine? It takes a while

Some New Yorkers, we’re told, hate moving to Los Angeles.
There’s all that annoying warmth and sunshine and open space. They can’t wait to get back to real life.
They might go west, Rachel Sennott said, with their “guard up, being, ‘I hate it here. I’m going back to New York; I miss how cold I was …. I want to carry my laundry up the stairs.’ Then you slowly relax into it.”
At least, she did. Now she writes, produces, stars in and sometimes directs the comedy “I Love LA” (shown here), at 10:30 p.m. Sundays on HBO and Max.
The show a little about the New York/Los Angeles thing, but also about:
— The woes of going cross-country when you’re young and single.
— The way many “Generation Z” people approach life. “I think Gen-Z has a bit of a sillier, more fun approach,” said Jordan Firstman (left), who co-stars. Previous generations may have focused on angst, he said. The Z’s “are still (bleeped) up, but we’re just a little sillier and ditzier about it.”
— And a specific problem for some Z’ers: Just as they finished school and were ready to expand their world, Covid hit.
That happened to Sennott (right). “I first moved to LA (during) Covid,” she said in a Zoom press conference. “I was feeling really isolated; I felt like I didn’t have a lot of friends.”
Also, she kept getting in traffic accidents. “I’m still doing car accidents, but now I have insurance and it’s awesome.”
She’s 30, which makes her two years older than the Z definition. But her life does fit that fun/ditzy/makeshift style.
Sennott grew up in Connecticut and moved to the city for the New York University theater program. She also studied at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting and branched out — open-mic comedy, indie shorts and movies and Instagram humor. Then came the move west, including playing Kyra Sedgwick’s daughter in “Call Your Mother,” the first new comedy to emerge during the pandemic.
It was a terrible time to find a new life, Sennott said. Gradually, it clicked. “You find your friends, you find your neighborhood, you find your spots — then all of a sudden, you look around and you’re like, ‘I love it here.'”
In the series, she’s a 27-year-old with a boyfriend (Josh Hutcherson) and key friends (Firstman, True Whitaker and Odessa A’zion).
Firstman, 34, plays a stylist who is gay (as is his “English Teacher” character). He became Sennott’s friend in the New York alt-comedy scene, but the others know about LA and have show-business roots.
A’zion (second from right), 25, is the daughter of Pamela Adlon, the “Better Things” writer-producer-director-star; she’s big on Los Angeles.
“I really love palm trees,” she said. “It just makes me feel … a little bit island-y.” Besides, she said, “I can’t cram myself into a shoebox apartment,” especially with her 135-pound dog.
Whitaker (second from left), 27, is the daughter of actor-producer Forrest Whitaker. She grew up in Los Angeles, moved to New York, and is happy to be back. “You can just drive. You blast some music. If you’re crying, if you’re laughing, just time to yourself in the car is something I forgot is really, really exciting.”