{"id":39180,"date":"2021-11-01T08:11:44","date_gmt":"2021-10-31T21:11:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/?post_type=articles&p=204366"},"modified":"2021-11-01T03:49:14","modified_gmt":"2021-11-01T03:49:14","slug":"love-life-season-two-review","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/love-life-season-two-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Season Two Of “Love Life” Takes A Good Show And Makes It Great"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Marcus. Credit: HBO Max<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When I heard <\/span>Love Life<\/span><\/i> was releasing a second season this month, I had to rack my brain to recall what the show was even about. Landing right toward the end of Australia’s first lockdown, it fell in with all the other series we binged in our housebound fugues, like <\/span>Tiger King<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>Normal People<\/span><\/i>. Good shows, I just could not tell you anything about what happened in them, a year on.<\/span><\/p>\n

But <\/span>Love Life<\/span><\/i> seems to know most of us watched, well, way too much TV in 2020. The first episode opens with us at Darby\u2019s (Anna Kendrick) 2016 wedding to the terrible, awful Magnus. Darby! That\u2019s right \u2013 a hopeless romantic navigating the world of love. At first, I thought this was a continuation of Darby\u2019s story because I\u2019d forgotten who Magnus was. But once I remembered, I saw what the series was doing \u2013 taking us back a little and veering us off into another direction.<\/span><\/p>\n

We follow Marcus (<\/span>The Good Place<\/span><\/i>\u2019s Emmy-nominated William Jackson Harper), a struggling book editor whose wife marginally knows the newly married couple. Our narrator (more on that in a second) tells us that the search for love is different for everyone, etc etc. Basically, we\u2019re about to encounter an entirely different human being with entirely different complexities to both their personality and how they approach dating.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Marcus is a fantastic character. Married for ten years, we learn quickly that Marcus is having doubts about his marriage \u2013 his wife Emily (Maya Kazan) is white, and Marcus is questioning whether their love story is actually a love story, or whether it was a reaction to his overbearing parents who, he believes, would have preferred he marry a Black woman.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Marcus with wife Emily at Darby’s wedding. Credit: HBO Max<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Marcus is also having a crisis of identity. He tells us he feels he\u2019s always playing a role with people, moulding his personality to suit others. But who is he, really? He\u2019s confronted with both these crises during the first episode by love interest Mia (<\/span>Booksmart<\/span><\/i>\u2019s Jessica Williams), an effortlessly cool, self-assured wedding guest he meets while vaping outside. Then, later in the episode, he\u2019s confronted again about whether he\u2019s playing a role or being himself by a prospective Black author he\u2019s wooing to sign at his publishing house, who baulks at his suggestion to tone down his book. The author tells Marcus he\u2019s essentially trying to tone down Black culture, telling Marcus he\u2019s <\/span>\u201csafe and nonthreatening\u201d, like Obama.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Mia. Credit: HBO Max<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The decision to have a Black man at the centre of season two is a testament to how far we\u2019ve come in the past year with casting in film and television. Obviously, we still have a way to go, but <\/span>Love Life<\/span><\/i> doesn\u2019t, thankfully, just put a Black actor into a role that doesn\u2019t acknowledge the unique experiences only people of color have. Marcus is relatable on many levels to me, as a white woman \u2013 he is ambitious but stuck in a career plateau, he is questioning whether he is in a good marriage or just comfortable and unwilling to shake his life up, he is trying to break away from parental expectations while also making decisions that aren\u2019t simply <\/span>because<\/span><\/i> of parental expectations.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Mia and Marcus. Credit: HBO Max<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, he is also working through experiences I\u2019ll never personally understand \u2013 yes, we can all relate to moulding our personalities to be likeable, but Marcus\u2019 experience is unique to people of color because generations of oppression and the \u2013 often violent \u2013 pressure to assimilate into white culture comes into play. As Marcus battles between an affair with Mia and remaining faithful to Emily, one pivotal moment is when he asks his wife who he reminds her of \u2013 she says Obama, because he is always calm and in control. She doesn\u2019t realize it, but it\u2019s an offense to Marcus, who was just told critically that he is like Obama, \u201csafe and nonthreatening\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There are three episodes of Love Life<\/em> available to stream now, and I\u2019ve watched them all but for anti-spoilers sake, won\u2019t go into the other two. But the season is looking damn good – I liked season one, but season two has, thankfully, not just presented us with a new protagonist but an entirely new experience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Still, there are flaws. I forgot how much I can\u2019t stand the narrator \u2013 I get that it\u2019s meant to have us feeling like we are watching the story of someone\u2019s life, with the events having already unfolded, but it\u2019s jarring \u2013 it repeatedly reinforces that we are watching fiction, which doesn\u2019t exactly immerse you in Marcus\u2019 life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Marcus works as a book editor. Credit: HBO Max<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I also wanted to see some more distinctly modern dating experiences. Marcus is working through a stagnant marriage, but that\u2019s an age-old experience. What about the impact of social media on the way we love and date? The plethora of choice that in turn makes us paralysed? Commitment phobia, text-based relationships that don\u2019t translate to real life. Darby in season one met so many of her love interests in the real world, but we don\u2019t really experience dating that way anymore, for the most part. Again, we see Marcus meeting the people he dates via social events and chance happenings \u2013 it would be great to see more app-based dating complexities. Hopefully, they come as the season progresses.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ultimately <\/span>Love Life<\/span><\/i> season two is shaping up to be even better than season one. While I enjoyed Darby\u2019s journey toward a life partner, it really ran from first love to last love \u2013 I\u2019m finding that having a protagonist who is reassessing his life (and love) at a mid-point raises the stakes, because Marcus isn\u2019t just figuring out who he wants to live life with, but also who he is. He\u2019s having a mid-life crisis, but the real kind \u2013 not the one where you buy a convertible.<\/span><\/p>\n

Will Marcus end up with Mia, or was she just the chance meeting he needed to finally end an unhappy marriage? Will he end up back with Emily but in a fresh, healthy relationship? Or is there someone new on the horizon we\u2019re yet to meet? This is the beauty at the heart of <\/span>Love Life<\/span><\/i> and why we keep coming back \u2013 we want to see Marcus\u2019 story have a happy ending, and we\u2019re never quite sure who will be at that ending with him.<\/span><\/p>\n

Love Life<\/em> is currently airing on HBO Max.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n