Hi!
Love was a Netflix Original series that aired for 3 seasons starting in 2016 ending in 2018. The series starred Gillian Jacobs as Mickey, Paul Rust as Gus, Claudia O’Doherty as Bertie and Chris Witaske as Chris (Recurring in first 2 seasons). The show itself was a more ‘real’ view of relationships and realities of dating from both the male and female perspective. It has a topsy turvy outlook on how relationships begin and grow over time and the manner in which men and women can begin to think about their significant other at different points in the relationship.
Overall, I enjoyed the show, but when I look back, it was definitely something that took me a long time to finish respectively. I watched the first season on release, but each subsequent took me longer and longer to get around too. I had watched the first 2 episodes of Season 3 on release, but I didn’t watch the last 10 until about 3 months ago, so basically 2 years later. I thought the series was fun, real (Except for the pairing in terms of attractiveness, but that was probably the point), and something that everyone can relate to in at least one way or another.
Acting
I have recently found out that Gillian Jacobs has never drank, and considering her character Mickey is an alcoholic, that was amazing acting from her! She is someone that I knew from Community and was the reason that I turned the show on in the first place. Playing Mickey gave Jacobs the chance to flex her comedic muscles again and show the audience how fun and free she can be. While also getting to work with Netflix was great for her as she has since been in a few original movies that they have released, I think taking this role was a great step for her. We get to see her comedic skills, ability to be serious and how she was able to immerse herself in a character that is far and away from how she is in reality, great job!
Paul Rust is Gus, he is an actor that I had never seen before and I knew nothing about him. I did not think he fitted the role of Gus at all, but in saying that maybe it had more to do with the writing. As an audience we are meant to realistically we rooting for Gus throughout the run of the show as Mickey is with him due to him being a ‘nice guy’ and the opposite to what she would normally be with. But for most of the time when watching, Gus has few redeeming qualities and does not come across as the type of person who is amazing, and I found that I definitely preferred Jacobs character and was always wanting things to work out for her rather than Gus! But of course, they were tied together.
Claudia O’Doherty was Bertie (Someone who I was convinced was called Birdie for about 2.5 seasons!), she was like a ray of sunshine on the show. She was someone who had moved from Australia in search of the bright lights of LA. I always thought she was amazing, good fun and a bit of a laugh all around. In terms of seriousness, O’Doherty did not have a lot of work to do, her character is sort of comic relief, but given what she had to play with, she did an outstanding job and I would like to see her in more roles going forward.
Reception
The show was positively reviewed by critics and audience members alike. With the biggest praise going towards the cast, since the show was one centred around relationships, then the cast were always going to have the biggest job to play. If the cast weren’t up to scratch, then there was going to be a disconnect between fans and the characters, but thankfully that was not the case, I think everyone who watched the show was able to identify with at least one character and the qualities of another.
A lot of people are inclined to agree that the best part of the show was Gillian Jacobs, she carried the show to a large extent with her acting ability and how she was able to portray both sides of Mickey to the audience without one side compromising the other.
Criticisms
The show, like every show on television, does have some criticisms levelled at it. With the main critique here, being the length of time in each episode. Netflix usually runs episodes for 40 – 60 minutes, which was just too long for this show, a nice 25-30 minutes depending on the episode, would have been a much better fit. At the higher time that Netflix generally produce shows on, it was just taking too much out of the story, it took too long to get into things and everything was just dragged on and on.
Alongside this, there was also the previously mentioned issues that I had for the character of Gus. We as an audience, know who is meant to be in terms of feelings and opinions, but sometimes, it just misses the mark. We know he is meant to be nice, kind and a real step up for Mickey, but it never come across that way to me, again, that could be due to the writing or maybe Paul Rust was just not the correct choice for lead.
Ending
This show was not cancelled by Netflix, so it knew when filming the 3rd season that it was the end, they had the opportunity to create an ending for the audience that they would appreciate and be able to wrap up correctly. But, instead after a show that was grounded in realism and how relationships evolve between people over time, we get a wedding. Gus and Mickey decide that they are going to get married out of what feels like the blue. We have spent 3 seasons seeing them ebb and flow with their relationship and struggle with each other and with others, we become invested in how they are with one another and how they can support each other going into the future. But we get a wedding?!
They messed up the conclusion to this story in my eyes, they were never going to break up in this season, but you didn’t have to have them get married for us as an audience to believe that the ending was acceptable, the ball was well and truly dropped here and I don’t think I can forgive this fateful error.
Do you agree was the ending a mistake?
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MattsViews 