BurtonReviews Love Season 2: Progress

(Gif sourced from http://giphy.com/gifs/love-netflix-gillian-jacobs-Onqb49GApAFig)

 

Love, it’s complicated. Human Beings, that’s a whole other kettle of fish. So when Netflix debuted a trailer about an original series that would charmingly explore both with a romantic indie film type atmosphere, ala 500 Days of Summer, with big names such as the romantic comedy legend Judd Apatow (Knocked Up) also attached to the project, I was a lot more than interested. And last year’s season 1 of Love started the show off to a very strong start, chronicling the meeting and unexpected attraction between the show’s leads as their relationship spiralled more and more down the hole of complication. With season 2 introducing a logical but still interesting dynamic shift in the twos relationship as they make their way up the relationship ladder, will the show still retain its loveable charm, or like a lot of relationships, loose the spark that made the beginning so great.

(Video sourced from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYfVlGEmSC0)

 

Love follows the ever evolving and complicated relationship of free spirit Mickey Dobbs (Gillian Jacobs) and dorky, nice guy Gus Cruikshank (Paul Rust). After the tumultuous will-they-won’t-they stretch of season 1, the pair are now ready to take it to the next level, becoming more and more serious as they both reach for the ability to comfortably say they are in-fact “boyfriend and girlfriend”. But with Mickey dealing with her addiction to alcohol, drugs, love and sex, and Gus being a hopeless romantic, emphasis on hopeless, it’s not as easy as you’d think.

From the synopsis above you probably don’t think that this show has anything special to add to the bursting genre that is quirky romantic comedies. But that’s kind of the point. It’s normalcy and surprisingly grounded and honest representation of the cocktail of emotions that people are is one of, if not the strength of the show.

Seeing how realistic the show endeavours to portray the complicated quest of getting into a relationship, is what makes this show so engrossing as almost everyone who watches this will have had some, if not a lot, of the same experiences that the characters on screen are painfully having. When you text someone you’re interested in, but they don’t text back for hours that seem like millennia and your mind spirals until you get that fateful text back and realise they don’t hate you, but their phone just ran out of charge. It is the honesty and bucket loads of relatability that this show has that makes it such an all-consuming watch as you are transported right into their headspaces, for both their highs and lows as you feel every small victory of a shared kiss and every soul crushing defeat of a fight over Skype.

(Image sourced from http://cristaflanagan.com/netflix-series-love-premieres/)

But all the realistic interpretation in the world won’t save you if your characters are dull cardboard cut outs of the average Los Angeleno. Thankfully the characters, and actors who bring them to life are, just simply, loveable.

Paul Rust as dorky nice-guy Gus is perfect for the role, bringing, an often times heart wrenching, vulnerability and authentically quirky personality to the role. You can’t help but root for the guy and hope beyond all hope that something, anything will actually work out for this deserving and great guy.

Balancing Rust’s quirk is Gillian Jacobs’ effortlessly cool Mickey, who may on the surface seem like a polar opposite to the nerdy Gus, but it is also Jacobs’ ability to bring a real level of vulnerability to the role that lets the two fit perfectly together like long lost pieces of a puzzle; as each pull the best out of one another, creating new and better versions of themselves.

(Image sourced from https://hypebeast.com/2017/2/season-2-love-trailer-netflix)

The chemistry between Rust/Gus and Jacobs/Mickey is magnetic. You really see and understand why these two people from completely different worlds would keep gravitating towards eachother. Even after a huge fight where hearts are trampled on and feelings brutally exposed, you still can’t help but hope and  will their happy ending into reality.

And it is this delicate but brilliant dynamic, the realistic and raw representation of the emotions that go off and explode in a relationship, the lovable characters swept up in those emotions and the all too relatable actions and circumstances of the series that makes Love a charming watch that has me glued to the screen for every episode as I hold my head in my hands hoping the two are allowed their happily ever after, or even just a happy night.

Love = 9/10

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