On-screen charisma of Harper, co-stars keeps 2nd season afloat
The anthology series “Love Life,” now in its second season on HBO Max, follows the dating ups and downs of New York City’s professional millennials. Last year,
Anna Kendrick carried the show. This year it’s the endlessly watchable William Jackson Harper, who came to prominence on the sitcom “The Good Place” and then revealed further depths of his talents in the horror movie “Midsommar” and the Barry Jenkins epic series “The Underground Railroad.” Harper can be funny and tragically human in a single moment, which means he is absolutely the kind of actor who can carry a romantic comedy.
He plays Marcus, a 30-something book editor who is already bored in his marriage just a few years in and livens things up with what he pretends is harmless flirtations.
This inevitably blows up in his face, and throughout the remaining nine episodes we follow a newly single Marcus as he dips in and out of a variety of dalliances over the years, plus some more serious attempts at relationships here and there.
Though structured like a romantic comedy, “Love Life” is paced like a never-ending story and these two qualities tend to work at odds with one another. There’s nothing wrong with the episodic nature of each episode, but taken together they tend to feel like narrative stall tactics and filler, especially because the character keeps us at arms length. Even when we spend time alone with Marcus, we’re not invited into what he’s thinking or what motivates
him or why he sours on a partner. Maybe he doesn’t know these things either. But we don’t see him trying to sort through whatever those feelings are; he just has them and then moves on to whatever’s next.
I’m all for longer, deeper looks at the intricacies of relationships but that would make “Love Life” a drama instead of a rom-com. It’s not that a show can’t theoretically be both, it’s that this show hasn’t found a way to blend these genres together more seamlessly.
Harper’s on-screen charisma and that of his co-stars is what ultimately keeps this season afloat. Even when he is in repose, Harper has one of those faces that looks as if a million thoughts are running through his head. He’s handsome and a person of substance.
And he’s charming, which is a must for this kind of material because Marcus can also be immature and prickly and self-involved. Harper is terrific on-screen company, and he finds all kinds of wonderful ways to deliver a line. “How’d you end up at this sad wedding?” he’s asked in the first episode by a statuesque beauty named Mia (played by Jessica Williams). “Uhhh, my
wife used to work with the groom,” he says, and the way he just barely swallows the word “wife” — this guy really doesn’t want to divulge that he’s married, and it’s such a subtle moment that tells you exactly where his head is at.
Mia is a presence throughout the season, and Williams is wonderful in the role, and she gets her own episode midway through the season. There’s also an episode dedicated to Marcus’ two closest friends, who are a hoot, played by the effortlessly funny Chris Powell and Arian Moayed.
“Love Life” isn’t concerned with real-world events, which feels right. But then in the second-tolast episode it is, abruptly introducing COVID19 and the Black Lives Matters movement into the storyline. The former feels clunky and superficial in the way it’s handled, while the latter feels as if it’s given short shrift.
There isn’t as much banter in the series either, and when it does happen it’s like the promise of a show that could have been. If only the writing overall were stronger and the storytelling tighter.