I am not one to impatiently count down the days for a show to come out. But after stumbling upon Netflix’s “Love” last February, and finishing the first season in a matter of days, I was immediately left craving more.
Finally, on Mar. 10, 2017, season 2 came out. I watched the entire season in a night, and it rocked my world.
Sexy, messy, rude, real, funny. The quirky story world that Judd Apatow, Lesley Arfin and Paul Rust set up in the first season, develops and comes together beautifully in season two.
As journalist Sam Wollaston put it in The Guardian for his 2016 review of the first season, the show is “hilarious, annoying, addictive.” Season one of “Love”, released in February 2016 on Netflix, was received with high praise. The Tomatometer for the series on Rotten Tomatoes is at 88 per cent. The audience score came in it at 87 per cent. American critics overwhelmingly praised the show for its honest depiction of modern-day romance.
The drama-comedy show follows the relationship of Mickey Dobbs (Gillian Jacobs) and Gus Cruikshank (Paul Rust) through its beginning, its development, and all the hilarious, touching, awkward stages in between.
This honesty is present in every area of the show: from the character development, to the setting, the language, the pleasantly awkward relationships and encounters the show portrays.
While season one was a little messy and all over the place at times, season two feels a little more focused. Mickey and Gus’s relationship starts to take more concrete shape, in all its ups and downs of course. Season one focuses a lot more on the individual characters, and their own issues, while season two portrays the two more as a pair and a lot of the issues brought forth centering around their complicated relationship. Luckily, all the while, the show keeps its sassiness and realism: complete with fights, public sex, lazy mornings, passive-aggressiveness and pimple-popping.
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While set in L.A., I admire how far from Hollywood standards the show remains. While this kind of show could easily be replicated in somewhere like Brooklyn or Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, I don’t think it would have the same scrappiness as it does in unglamorous-normal-civilian-L.A.-land. Instead the setting adds to the grittiness, true to the ‘tude of “Love”. We are brought to highways, parking lots, inside gas stations, corner stores, local ramen and Indian restaurants…L.A. things we aren’t used to seeing on the big screen.
Jacobs shines in the role of Mickey, particularly in season two. She drives the show; her wit, her swearing, and her brutal honesty offer not only most of the show’s humour, but the show’s essence.
“Love” is a refreshing portrayal of two adults who kind of like each other, and are trying their best to act on it. “Love” is simple, hilarious and real. A definite must-watch.