Netflix's Love

Love aired on Netflix a few days after Valentines Day earlier this year. It had a couple of interesting tid bits about it that made it something I was kind of interested in. First off, its written by Judd Apatow. While I'm not the biggest fan of all of Judd Apatow's work, I have enjoyed some of it and I respect him as a writer and a director. I am also a fan of Gillian Jacobs from her work on Community. I thought this could be a fun little bit about love and might be worth watching for 10 episodes.

I'm not totally sure what I eventually ended up watching.

Love is a 10 episode series about Mickey (played by Gillian Jacobs) and Gus (played by Paul Rust). These two both have gone through relationships in the past and start the show suffering some kind of heart break through the ending of a previous relationship. They go through a funk, have some weird experiences until they finally meet one another and share a fun connection.

They don't immediately start dating, in fact Mickey even tries to set Gus up with her roommate, Bertie (played by Claudia O'Doherty). But eventually this show portrays the flash of a relationship these two have and tries to give a "down to earth" representation of relationships and how they are seen from each perspective, both male and female.

Here's the issue though...

These two are just the worst kind of people.

Like Gillian Jacob's character is an addict, which is not to say that addicts are terrible people, she's just kind of unpleasant at times and pretty neurotic. She really goes from hot to cold very quickly and when Paul Rust's character tries to bring her into the things that he likes, she really just shuts him down. She's blunt, I get it, but there's times where she is just uncharacteristically mean. I get that the show is trying to point out how both these people are to blame for this relationship not being tended to correctly and that both parties need to work at the tough times in relationships. However, the times where Gillian Jacob's is mean just seems like its for the plot and not her actual character.

And then there's Paul Rust...

While Mickey has the excuse that she is an addict and she's going through a lot of things that maybe she should have disclosed to Gus from the beginning, Gus is just an awful person. And he really doesn't have that much of an excuse.

And yeah, you might be looking at him saying, oh he's a dorky, nerd looking guy, he can't be that bad. But he really is. Not only are women flocking to him for no reason whatsoever, he doesn't know anything about tending to a relationship or being a decent human being.

I was watching this show and I couldn't help but just hate everything about Gus's character. And then when I started to hate his character, I started to hate his personality. And when I started to hate his personality, I started to hate his quirks and mannerisms. And when I started to his his quirks and mannerisms, I started to hate his stupid looking face. This show made me feel like an awful person for judging his face but I really hated everything about this character. This is for both him as a character and him in the relationship.

I've already kind of mentioned that these two just make for a god awful couple. They smoke weed one time and they sort of have the same type of humor, but at the end of the day there is no reason why these two should be together. I hated them both in the relationship, I hated Gus as a character.

Mickey I didn't actually mind.

I mean yeah, Mickey in this show is pretty much a trainwreck. She's very selfish and kind of an off putting person all together. There's a part where she shows up unexpectedly at Gus's place with all his friends and she's pretty much put in direct comparison with this hotter girl.

However, with Mickey you get the feeling there is more to her character than just the relationship that is at the center of the show. You can tell she's a train wreck but you want to get to know her more to figure out why she is this way. On top of that, you see her trying to get her life back on track and even when she fails, you want her to succeed.

If there is a second season of this show, the only reason I will be watching it is because of Mickey. I like Gillian Jacobs and her portrayal of this character and I want to know more about her.

The other really interesting thing about Mickey is the fact that she is an addict and the trials she goes through with that.

Netflix is really good at creating shows that start off as comedies and have some pretty funny first few episodes, but later in the season, you really focus more on the drama and in this case, it is done really really well. I was a lot more interested in what this show had to say about addiction rather than what it had to say about Love. Again, I think if there's a second season of this show, they should drop Gus and have this just be about Mickey going through life as an addict. I think that would be a lot more interesting and a lot more powerful.

Of course that is all sullied by this guy's stupid face.

Seriously... this guy sucks

I guess another interesting part about this show is the look that it takes on working in Hollywood. As much as I hated Gus, it was because he lets this world get to him and really kind of mess him up. He works as a tutor for actors going through school on TV sets. He sees this as a means to an end where he really wants to write for TV shows. Its not an unreasonable dream and I think I actually related to him for a couple of episodes. However, he soon gets caught up in the drama of it all and he becomes just a really disgusting person by the end of the season.

And then he's got that stupid face...

One of the main problems with this show is the writing. Judd Apatow has a gift at writing really interesting characters then compromising them so much that you actually start to hate them near the end of the show and even if you still like them, you're still sitting there pretty uncomfortable throughout the entire time because you know this is going down a really awkward lane. 

And this isn't the first time this has happened. 

A movie that came out awhile ago was Funny People. I actually look back at the movie as one of Adam Sandler's last decent roles because he was focused more on the drama and tried to be genuine, but still utilized his comedy chops for the comedic relief in what ends up being a pretty sad story. 

The issue is, the first two thirds of this movie are really good and the last act is incredibly awkward. 

I wanna go back and do a proper review of this movie, but my point is that this isn't the first time that Judd Apatow has started us on a path with a decent beginning but at a certain point it kind of fumbles and puts you in a really awkwardly uncomfortable position. For a show that wants to talk about "down to earth" relationships, Apatow is really good at spicing up the drama when a lot of the issues could be solved with honesty and communication.

But of course that doesn't make for good television does it.

Is Love good and worth watching? Well... yes... sort of.

I pretty much watched the entire season in one sitting while I was sick. So I guess it has something about it that I like, I just don't think that it's the best dramedy to come out of Netflix. I think the best comparison could be if you like Bojack Horseman.

Bojack is just brilliant and really shows the quality of the content Netflix is putting out because they're able to make relatable hilarious characters and yet have a very serious look at important issues. I think Bojack does it better but I think Love is in the same vein and deserves at least a look. It takes a little bit to get into, but I think you could probably enjoy Love one way or another.

But have you seen Love? What did you think? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for movies I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. I don't usually get political on this blog but its somewhat related because Joss Whedon is back, alive and he did a really great video about voting. Enjoy!