Jordan Firstman, True Whitaker, Odessa A’zion, and Rachel Sennott star in “I Love LA.”

Photograph by Kenny Laubbacher/HBO

“This city just draws such a spectrum of people that I kind of love that about it,” says Josh Hutcherson, speaking about Los Angeles.

Jordan Firstman jumps in to add, “I think L.A. feels haunted in a way, and I think everyone comes here with something to do and most people don’t do it and some people do. So I think it leaves this kind of middling energy, but it also is a kinetic energy where anything can happen at any moment and you wait here for 10 years for something to happen and then you meet someone at a comedy show or at a coffee shop that can change your life forever.”

Given their thoughts about the city, it seems appropriate that they both star in the new comedy series I Love LA.

In the show, a codependent friend group reunites on the West Coast and works to understand how time apart, ambition and new relationships have changed them.

Created by Rachel Sennott, who also stars, writes, directs, and executive produces, the cast also features Hutcherson, Firstman Leighton Meester, True Whitaker and. Odessa A’zion.

In crafting the narrative, Sennott says, “We had a lot of references of iconic shows — we talked a lot about Sex & The City, we talked about Girls, we talked about Insecure. Also, Entourage was a big reference, Atlanta is another big reference for us.”

However, even with these influences, Sennott says, “but ideally we wanted to create something that felt unique to us and very specific to now. But yeah, I think it’s impossible not to be inspired by other amazing things, and then you hope you take that and you put your own sauce into it and you come up with your own tone and style.”

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Her experience as a transplanted New Yorker also helped in shaping the story, says Sennott.

“I think it’s like you have to find your way in LA]. It’s like coming in here with your guard up, being “I hate it here, I’m going back to New York, I miss how cold I was,” and then, you slowly relax into it — by the way, I love New York too and I will never stop loving New York — but I think it’s when you spend time [in LA] that you let that go a little, and you fall in love with it.”

Sennott’s learned some things about assimilating to Los Angeles that she’s willing to share, saying, “Moving here, you have to be very active in your own life. There’s opportunity here, there’s friends here, but it’s not gonna come to you, you have to go out and grab it and make it happen.”

Firstman, in assessing the series, says many recent series during what he dubs a ‘millennial renaissance,’ were ‘very self-effacing, “like, I’m depressed and I’m gonna show my depression.”

But now he feels that, “Gen-Z has a bit of a sillier, more fun approach, and I think that’s what I love about this show is [that] in a lot of ways and it is self-reflective, but it also doesn’t skimp on the ‘We’re making a fun, entertaining, funny show that you can be happy watching,’”

He adds, “Um, we are still fucked up, but we’re just a little sillier and ditzier about it.”

To this Hutcherson replies, “Yeah, that’s a very Gen-Z thing, right? To be like, ‘Everybody’s fucked up, get over it, be funny about it.’”

***‘I Love LA’ airs Sundays at 10:30e/p on HBO and Max, and is available for streaming on the HBO app. ***