Ah the single life, mythically described as a constant party of sex, drugs and drinking, all the while being the best time of your life as well as the worst (you know the cliché: man sits at home in an armchair drinking a beer, woman sits on her bed stalking an ex on Facebook).
While the cliché is tired and overworked, screenwriters and TV networks still jump at the opportunity to make shows surrounding the topic.
Love, created by Judd Apatow, Lesley Arfin, and Paul Rust – who co-stars as Gus alongside the superbly watchable Mickey, played by Gillian Jacobs of Community fame – is exactly what you expect it to be; two vaguely middle-class media folk trying to make it through life in the decidedly hip and modern Los Angeles while falling in love with each other (with the appropriate peaks and troughs along the way).
It is a show I should not like – there is too much in the way of faux-hardship and first world problems – starring a Woody Allen knock-off, yet the characters of Gus and Mickey are reliably believable and flawed, neither falling into the classification of manic-pixie-dream-anything. Despite the show’s problems, which include Mickey’s addiction to literally everything as well as Gus’ irritatingly over-niceness (albeit one of his character’s flaws as well as the show’s), once you buy into the characters and their lives, it is almost impossible to let go.
At times the show is overly slow; 10 episodes of 40 minutes each in such a classic format would be expected to run a little bit faster, but much like Netflix’s other city rom-com Master of None it adds to the charm of the show and allows for all of the characters to develop realistically.
Overall Love is an eminently enjoyable and charming comedy, there are few laugh-out-loud moments but that is not why the show is there; it is a refreshingly realistic and flawed look at romance and the single life.
Image: Luke Hayfield
