Starring: Gillian Jacobs, Paul Rust.
Love, is the Netflix original series that follows two 30 somethings as they face love, life and work in LA.
Realistically, this is probably the worst show I've watched in a while. I love Judd Apatow shows, Freaks & Geeks yes please and Girls omg yes but this is a strong no.
I think this whole genre of 'millennials fucking up but not really because they have a decent job and flat/house' kind of thing is overdone now. I'm very much over watching 25-30 year old, white middle class people complain about their mundane lives and first world problems. It's SO boring and I genuinely couldn't care less. If I wanted to hear about that, I would literally just go talk to anyone in a bar in Shoreditch.
I find the characters completely irritating and whiny, with no redeemable qualities. The only characters that I do like are some of the friends who seem genuinely nice and caring. I find Gus (Paul Rust) to have the worst on-screen presence ever. Maybe they've written him this way and we're not meant to like the characters but I just can't see his character going anywhere in the show.
Mickey (Gillian Jacobs), whilst mildly annoying at the start of the series somewhat grows on me when we start to see her addictive personality come through. At the end of the series I just wanted the show to be about her and the addictions that she faces, why she has them and how she is going to progress on from there. I feel like that would be a much more successful show than the route Love is currently going down.
Her character also may be the only relatable thing about this show. I'm 20 years old and living in London so I found it very hard to relate to but I can't imagine my, almost 30 year old, friends in New York or LA acting the way these characters do either. And maybe it's meant to be insightful rather than relatable but I don't really want an insight into something that doesn't really exist? But Mickey's love, sex, drugs and alcohol addiction is pretty much the only aspect that seems realistic and draws me into the show.
On paper this show ticks all the boxes for me but on screen it's nowhere near. I've also just had the realisation that Apatow never uses people of colour as the main characters in any of his shows or even sub characters really. This made the show much less enjoyable for me because it just seemed so much more of white people doing whatever the fuck they want. I get that you should write about what you know and maybe he doesn't know about other cultures but he could easily find out and include it... even then I'm ethnic and there's not really a difference between me and my white friends so I really can't see the issue with being more diversely inclusive.
Also, I understand that Netflix's primary audience is probably middle-class white people who have a similar kind of personality to these characters (or at least want to, to make their lives seem somewhat interesting for their Instagrams) but come on. Do something original. Not to say Netflix isn't original because they do produce great shows but we already have Girls, Broad City and Master of None, we don't really need another show like this, especially when there's no stand out plot.
Overall, I really didn't enjoy this show. I didn't really find myself laughing or even caring once and was mostly irritated throughout. The only take away I got from this was me thinking about those mustard Carhartt overalls and how much I need them in my life. I feel like if it goes in the direction of solidly following Mickey through her addiction issues and maybe even her roommate, then the show has a lot of potential but otherwise, I really wouldn't bother too much.
