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ianungstad
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Love

#1 Post by ianungstad » Tue Dec 23, 2014 3:30 am

Somewhat old news but Netflix has given a 2-season order for Love produced by Judd Apatow and starring Gillian Jacobs of Community fame.

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domino harvey
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Re: Netflix Originals

#2 Post by domino harvey » Tue Dec 23, 2014 10:14 am

Co-written by Vice's Leslie Arfin! I loved her book Dear Diary

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mfunk9786
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Re: Netflix Originals

#3 Post by mfunk9786 » Mon Mar 14, 2016 10:47 am

While not as much of an auteur series as the excellent Master of None, with its unique aspect ratio and contained one-off Louie-aping short film episodes, Love has a very strong tone and feels like a natural successor to Judd Apatow's other TV work (Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared - I wouldn't say Girls is anyone else's but Lena Dunham's). I don't know if the existence of binge-watching excuses the overlong (50 minutes!) and flabby (50 minutes!) pilot, which entirely exists as character introduction done to varying degrees of success, but once it gets going, there are some really honest moments here that are much more reminiscent of something like Freaks and Geeks than of Apatow's film work.

Gillian Jacobs is great (for someone who almost surely is a well behaved and careful person behind the camera, she plays damaged very well - this role is a lot like just getting to see Britta's home life away from Greendale that she's constantly making references to - I keep waiting for her to proudly exclaim that she lived in New York), and while it took me a bit longer to warm up to Paul Rust, who along with his real life partner Lesley Arfin co-created the show with Apatow (mostly because of some of the cliched characterization in the pilot), fears are immediately put to rest that an unappealing male lead is going to tank this whole thing with the excellent second episode that finally puts the leads on screen together and lets their chemistry do the rest. Jacobs and Rust really are great at dancing around one another's eccentricities, and their relationship feels real and alive in a way that something like the inherently novelty-spawned courtship in Knocked Up is never quite allowed to.

Once we get further along to characters like Jacobs' incredibly amusing roommate and Rust's frustrating student (played by Apatow's daughter - but well, otherwise I'd be the first person griping about his family being shoehorned into yet another project), the show really begins to gel and feel like something that can easily evolve into something very special, if sort of unimportant and relaxed in a shaggy way. Aspects of the show like Rust's gaggle of apartment buddies and Jacobs' work life feel like they need some retooling, but I'm seven episodes in (all in one day, and it was practically impossible to tear myself away to go to bed), and there are already three episodes of this show (the aforementioned "One Long Day," "Magic," and the absolutely masterful Joe Swanberg-directed, Andy Dick-as-himself-guesting, thinkpiece-launching [spoilers] "Andy") that feel like essential television classics upon arrival. Unless no one watches, I suppose - its release was buried under the arrested development phenomenon that is Fuller House - but Season 2 has already been shot and is coming early next year!

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Roger Ryan
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Re: Love

#4 Post by Roger Ryan » Mon Mar 14, 2016 12:16 pm

Love definitely improves as it goes along (I was thinking of bailing after the underwhelming pilot, but stayed with it because of Jacobs). Still, it pales next to the Duplass brothers' HBO series Togetherness which has mined similar territory (lightly-plotted relationship comedy featuring L.A. denizens who work in the entertainment industry). I do like seeing Silver Lake scenesters like Mark Oliver Everett show up, but the show doesn't seem to know what to do with the talented people playing the smaller roles.

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mfunk9786
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Re: Love

#5 Post by mfunk9786 » Tue Mar 15, 2016 12:03 pm

Finished the season last night, and this show definitely has no interest in giving the audience the warm fuzzies - Rust's character grew much less sympathetic in my view, and then I turned to LQ and she was fuming over Jacobs' character's behavior instead - there's definitely some specific button pushing going on with both sides of the show's central courtship, and while it didn't exactly run out of steam approaching the finish line, the stakes felt much lower for both characters once so much earth was scorched (being deliberately obtuse so this post isn't a big black box).

Glad to hear that Season 2 is going to be a bit longer, and I just hope an intended resolution is delivered and we don't get the 'what could have been, but it still works' cancellation a la Enlightened or Freaks and Geeks - I mean, one could watch the first season of this show and it could never come back and it would still work as its own elliptical portrait of the development of a relationship, but I definitely have a ravenous need to see what comes next.

This is a low-key great show. Hope more here take the time to watch it, and don't let themselves bail after the first episode or two. It's an easy few day binge and both leads + the writing staff + the cavalcade of interesting directors (among them: John Slattery, Steve Buscemi, and Michael Showalter [dom!]) do great work.

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domino harvey
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Re: Love

#6 Post by domino harvey » Tue Mar 15, 2016 12:38 pm

Gillian Jacobs and Michael Showalter?! Resistance is futile

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mfunk9786
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Re: Love

#7 Post by mfunk9786 » Tue Mar 15, 2016 1:06 pm

One of the main characters works as a tutor on the set of a CW-type show, which, unless I'm off-base, seems like it may be up your specific alley too. It's not a Sorkin-level backstage exposé, but there's a lot of great histrionics around the machinations of that sort of thing by some very well cast character actors.

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domino harvey
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Re: Love

#8 Post by domino harvey » Sun Apr 10, 2016 10:50 pm

Hated the first episode, went back to watching Halt and Catch Fire for a few hours, came back for the second episode and warmed a little more to this series-- I still don't think I've laughed once, but I'm pretty sure I smiled a couple times at least. Between the two I could probably do with a binge-worthy series not filled with a bunch of assholes, but so it goes

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mfunk9786
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Re: Love

#9 Post by mfunk9786 » Sun Apr 10, 2016 11:27 pm

It gets better. Glad you heeded the warnings about the first ep and kept at it. 3rd episode is a little bit of a stumble too but then it's off to the races.

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nosy lena
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Re: Love

#10 Post by nosy lena » Thu Apr 14, 2016 11:19 am

mfunk9786 wrote:One of the main characters works as a tutor on the set of a CW-type show, which, unless I'm off-base, seems like it may be up your specific alley too. It's not a Sorkin-level backstage exposé, but there's a lot of great histrionics around the machinations of that sort of thing by some very well cast character actors.
This felt like a wildly missed opportunity to me, or I must have missed something. The level to which the backstage part was used wasn't more revealing or interesting than what had previously been done in series like Master of None or even the pilot episode of Seinfeld.

I watched the whole thing and I am not entirely sure what kept me going. This 'damaged pretty girl' and 'nerdy guy who has his shit together' thing is pretty frustrating in the end. Why can't it ever be the other way around?

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mfunk9786
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Re: Love

#11 Post by mfunk9786 » Thu Apr 14, 2016 2:12 pm

But does Gus have his shit together? He's barely hanging onto his employment and is stuck in varying degrees of arrested development in multiple areas of his life (he lives in what essentially has the floor plan of a glorified premium dorm building)... Mickey has a home, a better and more stable job - her addiction and depression issues seem to be the only thing holding her back from being sort of an ideal friend/partner, where Gus has a lot of growing up to do. But of course, this is the same debate that LQ and I were having - she tended to sort of round Gus up while being appalled by a lot of what Mickey was up to. So perhaps I'm off base, but I don't see Love as typically binary/cliche in the way that a lot of this type of material is.

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domino harvey
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Re: Love

#12 Post by domino harvey » Thu Apr 14, 2016 3:08 pm

Gus is the worst. So is Mickey. Like the old joke goes, they could both do better. I guess there's some appeal in thoroughly unappealing characters being "realistic," but so are functional / nice / interesting people

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mfunk9786
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Re: Love

#13 Post by mfunk9786 » Thu Apr 14, 2016 11:06 pm

Thoroughly? I mean, it ebbs and flows, but this isn't Girls

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mfunk9786
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Re: Love

#14 Post by mfunk9786 » Tue Mar 21, 2017 2:51 pm

Season 2 started very clunkily just like Season 1 did, but smoothed out its rough edges as it went along and managed to cobble together a very strong second half. There are some diversions that just don't work (Gus' Witchita boss putting a move on him, an antic and unnecessary episode involving Mickey's coworker and his girlfriend), but from Episode 5 - a really lovely Lynn Shelton directed gem - onward, this was as strong as the show's ever been. The acting is better too, as more sensible breathing room is given to the supporting cast. Claudia O'Doherty is even more of a standout this time around as Mickey's roommate Bertie, and her plot feels almost as vital as the main storyline - she is one of the most naturally funny people on television (or streaming, or whatever). Rich Sommer returns and does some really complicated, difficult work in a limited role. Time spent with Gus' tutoring job has thankfully been minimized, though I continue to have no particular squabbles with the inclusion of Iris Apatow's very believable, tortured child actor Arya.

But as was the case with Season 1, the reason to watch this show is Gillian Jacobs. Her portrayal of Mickey's fits and starts in the direction of self-improvement is exactly as frustrating and fulfilling as it should be. Mickey's failures and successes through the last few episodes of the season (after the catalyst of the visit by her father, in the series' best guest starring turn by Daniel Stern [why he hasn't had more of a late career resurgence is completely beyond me]) are difficult to watch play out but scripted almost perfectly. The undercurrent of Mickey's addiction is what the show is about more than any romantic concerns, and it's handled really well. And that's without losing the shabby, almost slapstick half-hour comedy roots that Love comes from (Joe Swanberg does a great job with a sort-of chase sequence and its aftermath in the final episode of the season, to name one example). Luckily it seems that Season 3 is already underway, and at a lean 22 half-hourish episodes in, I continue to strongly recommend this if you want a quick series to catch up with.

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Murdoch
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Re: Love

#15 Post by Murdoch » Fri Mar 31, 2017 1:18 pm

I liked this new season quite a bit more than the first, which rubbed me the wrong way too often - Gus's outburst at the writing table toward the end providing too much cringe for me. But this one tones down the rather unlikeability of the leads, making it much more watchable. Mickey's addictions and flaws are dealt with more clarity and the writers do well to show Gus's flaws in coddling her. Daniel Stern(!) is a highlight as Mickey's dad and the way their relationship plays out over a single episode while Gus awkwardly tries to comfort her is to me the best moment of the season. I appreciate the dramatic elements of this show much more than the comedy, although it managed to get a few grins from me here and there. The mentally unstable ex that caps off the season perhaps hints that Mickey's self-destructive behavior will have larger consequences on her relationship with Gus, even if the whole thing doesn't get quite as messy as I hoped it would in the finale.

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Cinephile1
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Re: Love

#16 Post by Cinephile1 » Sat Aug 14, 2021 10:32 am

What are the chances that the entire series shall ever be released on a proper DVD/BD? I know that most Netflix productions do not. Currently, about half of the episodes are available on a very limited edition that was distributed by Netflix exclusively to Emmy voters, despite the fact that these are nominally not for sale, they sometimes do wind up on eBay and I have ordered them.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Love

#17 Post by therewillbeblus » Sat Aug 14, 2021 11:32 am

I imagine the chances are quite low. Mickey remains one of, if not the, most triggering character I’ve come across- a kind of amalgamation of the women I’ve dated (and have continued to since watching the series)- but one who I also greatly empathize with and, unsurprisingly, love.

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Cinephile1
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Re: Love

#18 Post by Cinephile1 » Sun Aug 15, 2021 5:00 pm

therewillbeblus wrote:
Sat Aug 14, 2021 11:32 am
I imagine the chances are quite low. Mickey remains one of, if not the, most triggering character I’ve come across- a kind of amalgamation of the women I’ve dated (and have continued to since watching the series)- but one who I also greatly empathize with and, unsurprisingly, love.
Thanks for replying, the problem seems to exist for most Netflix productions, unfortunately, they just seem not to care about physical media.

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Murdoch
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Re: Love

#19 Post by Murdoch » Wed Sep 15, 2021 9:45 pm

Rewatched this after seeing the thread bumped. It's become one of my favorite Netflix shows. I feel like my personality is a little like Gus's at times (repressed anger that comes out in bursts, trying to make everything seem as if it's going well when the opposite is true). While the show at time has a few too many assholes in it (especially on the set of Witchita), it does a great job of exploring its characters flaws and not casting judgment on anyone. Mickey and Gus are just equally damaged people and I really loved Gus's slow realization that he's just as fucked up as Mickey, if not more.

I'm sad there won't be a forth season. It makes sense to end things where it did
SpoilerShow
but I would've liked to see Mickey and Gus as a married couple. I kind of want a Before Sunrise/Sunset/etc. series to happen with them since I feel like their relationship is a lot more realistic and rewarding to watch than just about any other couple I've seen on TV/streaming.

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Cinephile1
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Re: Love

#20 Post by Cinephile1 » Thu Sep 30, 2021 10:40 am

Murdoch wrote:
Wed Sep 15, 2021 9:45 pm
Rewatched this after seeing the thread bumped. It's become one of my favorite Netflix shows. I feel like my personality is a little like Gus's at times (repressed anger that comes out in bursts, trying to make everything seem as if it's going well when the opposite is true). While the show at time has a few too many assholes in it (especially on the set of Witchita), it does a great job of exploring its characters flaws and not casting judgment on anyone. Mickey and Gus are just equally damaged people and I really loved Gus's slow realization that he's just as fucked up as Mickey, if not more.

I'm sad there won't be a forth season. It makes sense to end things where it did
SpoilerShow
but I would've liked to see Mickey and Gus as a married couple. I kind of want a Before Sunrise/Sunset/etc. series to happen with them since I feel like their relationship is a lot more realistic and rewarding to watch than just about any other couple I've seen on TV/streaming.
Some of those involved with the series do share your hopes, see e.g. here and here.

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Cinephile1
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Re: Love

#21 Post by Cinephile1 » Mon Jan 31, 2022 4:55 pm

Cinephile1 wrote:
Thu Sep 30, 2021 10:40 am
Murdoch wrote:
Wed Sep 15, 2021 9:45 pm
Rewatched this after seeing the thread bumped. It's become one of my favorite Netflix shows. I feel like my personality is a little like Gus's at times (repressed anger that comes out in bursts, trying to make everything seem as if it's going well when the opposite is true). While the show at time has a few too many assholes in it (especially on the set of Witchita), it does a great job of exploring its characters flaws and not casting judgment on anyone. Mickey and Gus are just equally damaged people and I really loved Gus's slow realization that he's just as fucked up as Mickey, if not more.

I'm sad there won't be a forth season. It makes sense to end things where it did
SpoilerShow
but I would've liked to see Mickey and Gus as a married couple. I kind of want a Before Sunrise/Sunset/etc. series to happen with them since I feel like their relationship is a lot more realistic and rewarding to watch than just about any other couple I've seen on TV/streaming.
Some of those involved with the series do share your hopes, see e.g. here and here.
Some of you might have seen these two recent posts by me: I will probably manage soon to get all three season via the same source.

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