Love Season 3: Ending with a Resting Beat

In season 1 and 2 of Love, we watch a handful of flawed people, perhaps not fall in love, but collide into one another. Mickey and Gus’ and Bertie and Randy’s romances were plagued by anxieties that grounded them. But the best part was that the show was a Rorschach test: the characters were so engagingly multi-faceted and unpredictable, you may have found that your sympathies as a viewer, and perception of their relationship, were based on your own experiences of what it is to love and be loved. Because as well as the patience and understanding, tolerance and compassion the characters comedically demonstrated, there was also a hefty self-destruct button written into almost every episode in the form of their frustrated understanding of themselves. 

In season 3, this threat was all but neutralised. Mickey’s indiscretions while Gus was away on a shoot were never uncovered by him and barely touched upon by other characters. In fact, her entire character appeared to do an about-turn - the girl who had struggled with alcoholism, sex addiction and commitment issues had been replaced by a level-headed alternative, who married Gus without much resistance and imagined herself as a mother. Gus came off as a bit of an entitled prick more than once, which made it hard to celebrate his victorious transition into screenwriting with him, which had the feel of having been crowbarred in to appease the audience for the sake of a happy ending. 

And actually, that’s where the biggest problem of the season lay. As the last season commissioned, it seemed that the creators of the show (Paul Rust, Lesley Arfin, and Judd Apatow) had dispensed with bittersweet comedy that really speaks to the viewer and replaced it with the path of least resistance. The funny, engaging and, at times, uncomfortable show we know was still very much there, now with added sugar. That’s not to say that season 3 wasn’t good, it was, but it could have been an interesting painting with depth, instead of a picture featuring all your favourite colours.