Is reality more inspiring than fiction?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a major fan of romantic comedies, and I’m all about the “you know what happens in the end” kind of plot. But there’s something else about hearing true love stories, even if the end is not what we hoped to be. Sometimes reality is more inspiring than fiction.
Most people will say that they love fiction romance for the sake of knowing that at the end, they will find their way back, and I love it too. Although real life is not always like this, we like to think we can have it someday, and like it or not, we are constantly chasing that kind of love: that swipes us up off our feet and simply be the missing piece that we were looking for all the time.
Reality can be more challenging than that. Maybe people do not find their way back, but they have such a fantastic story and memory that made sense for that moment in their life, so why should it be taken away for not working out? This is the reason I fell in love with the Modern Love column of The New York Times.
The Modern Love column at The New York Times receives random love stories from readers to share their most crazy adventurous experiences when it comes to finding the one, or simply the one for that particular moment in their lives. To our luck, Amazon Prime decided to create a TV show in their streaming to showcase the most amazing stories submitted to the newspaper and make “normal” people have their moment seeing their love story on the screen. Because every love story is worth a movie.
In 2019, in collaboration with The New York Times, Amazon Studios released Modern Love season one that had eight episodes in total and had amazing actors starring the sweet love stories like Anne Hathaway, Dev Patel, Tina Fey, and so many more.
The way the show portrays love is by telling the story of ordinary people, who have 9-5 jobs, some were giving up on love or facing challenges in their lives, but love still found its way to them. And that is the most beautiful thing that Modern Love can do to our society today. With random people, regular routines, they still had extraordinary experiences and found love in unexpected ways.
Season two of Modern Love was released in 2021 and also had eight episodes and different stories. Singular personalities, backgrounds, environments, plot twists, Modern Love, is the new rom-com of 2021.
If you are on the look for heartwarming storytelling time with real-life experiences, Modern Love is the go-to for you. Since each episode is a different story, you can watch in the order you like, watch the ones you are curious about or binge-watch all of them!
I ranked my top five favorite episodes from both seasons one and two below.
- “When the doorman is your main man.”
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Season One, Episode One
I started with this story because it is definitely the most heartwarming plot I ever watched on TV, especially recently. The story follows Maggie (Cristin Milioti), a book reviewer living in New York, and develops an amazingly close friendship with her building’s doorman, Guzmin (Laurentiu Possa). Guzmin always took care of Maggie and made sure she had the best guys in her life in terms of dating. He helps Maggie navigate through life, supporting her decisions.
- “take me as i am, whoever i am.”
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Season One, Episode Three
Starring Anne Hathaway as Lexi, an entertainment lawyer who hopes to keep a major secret about her life from everyone she knows. Until she meets Jeff (Gary Carr) in a grocery store, her world turns upside down, and her fear of not being entirely accepted by her new love brings alternative decisions and whether or not she can trust him.
- “The night girl finds a day boy.”
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Season Two, Episode Two
A fantastic plot about Zoe (Zoe Chao), a woman who suffers from a condition of deprived sleep during the day and being awakened at night. When Zoe meets Jordan (Gbenga Akinnagbe), their worlds must collide to keep the relationship alive and finding ways to meet each other as Zoe is only awake at night and Jordan during the day. It is an excellent story about compromising and how being together is important to them.
- “A Life Plan for two, followed by one.”
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Season Two, Episode Four
Following the story of Lil (Dominique Fishback) and Vince (Isaac Powel), two best friends that grow up together and how it suddenly turns out to be more than a friendship. After trying to navigate life, growing up apart, they find their way back to their friendship. This story is definitely the reflection of how sometimes our best partner in life may not be the ideal romantic partner.
- “strangers on a (dublin) train.”
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Season Two, Episode Three
If you are in the mood of hoping for love during the pandemic, this is the story for you. In March 2020, Paula (Lucy Boynton) and Michael (Kit Harington) left their lives behind and embarked on a train to Dublin back home. They meet during the trip and connect immediately. However, since their connection was so good, they decided not to communicate after and only meet up in the same train station two weeks after quarantine is over. Well, quarantine did not end in two weeks as most people expected, so their story can be very different and quite charming as we all lived the pandemic and lockdown situation.
There are many more episodes to watch about these fantastic love stories from The New York Times, and I assure you that at least one will touch your heart.
The main message is that love does not have to be how it is in fiction romantic comedies. Real-life romance can be just as good as the movies; you just have to be open to find it.