Midlife dating can’t step out of Sex and the City’s shadow
Uncoupled (Netflix) is brought to you by the creator of Sex and the City, which is obvious from the moment that it starts. The characters live in a sparkly Manhattan, where they drink cocktails and hang out at galleries and talk endlessly about dating. The difference is that the gaggle of best friends here are gay men, and the comic sidekick is a straight woman. The Carrie Bradshaw role is played by Neil Patrick Harris, who shares her love of a walk-in wardrobe and clearly makes as much from his job as an estate agent as she does from writing newspaper columns, because his apartment is fabulous.
When we first meet Michael (Harris), he is happily ensconced in a relationship with his partner of 17 years. Unfortunately for him, his partner is unhappy, and leaves. Cue Michael launching himself unsteadily onto the dating scene, with faithful pals Stanley (Brooks Ashmanskas) and Billy (Emerson Brooks) providing pep talks or a shoulder to cry on.
Darren Star, who created Sex and the City and Emily in Paris, is the brain behind Uncoupled, along with co-creator Jeffrey Richman. Star has called it a “much more mature show” than his previous work, but judge for yourself. One episode is set in
a gay ski resort, and Michael says he feels like James Bond in his ski-wear. Billy says: “Play it cool, 007, and you may find your Man with the Golden D--k.” If that’s not a line written for Sex and the City’s Samantha Jones, I don’t know what is.
It all goes down as easily as, well, Samantha Jones, and you could easily binge the lot in a couple of days.
By the end, you’ll have warmed to the characters and be quite happy to see them again in a second series (it goes out on a cliffhanger, begging to be recommissioned). Harris is likeably awkward on his dates and you could imagine any of these situations being transposed to Sex and the City: a man who is too keen to settle down, or who feels comfortable enough to fart in front of his new partner in the first week of a relationship, or is so well-endowed that the prospect of sex is positively alarming (that last one, obviously, would be Samantha’s territory).
But it doesn’t feel as fresh as that show did when it first appeared in the late 1990s and it simply isn’t as funny, although occasionally there are decent lines – as when Michael tells his partner that he’s still young at 50, and gets the reply: “The only time people use ‘50’ and ‘so young’ in the same sentence is at a funeral.”
The Resort (Peacock) is billed as “a multi-generational, comingof-age love story disguised as a fast-paced mystery about the disappointment of time”. Just half of that would have done nicely, but the writers have set their sights high.
On one level, it’s a fun adventure story about a couple who go on holiday and investigate the case of two missing tourists. But it also involves mystical goings-on and the distortion of linear time. It has a hint of Lost, minus the polar bears and the divisive ending.
The opening episode sets things up nicely yet only hints at the flights of fancy to come. Emma (Cristin Milioti) and Noah (William Jackson Harper) are on holiday in Mexico to celebrate their 10th anniversary. He is content with their relationship and the all-inclusive resort. She is bored by both. During a trip to the jungle, she stumbles across an old mobile phone that links to the disappearance of tourists Sam and Violet, who went missing 15 years earlier. Emma throws herself into some amateur sleuthing, which provides the excitement that has been missing, while Noah reluctantly joins her.
Then we go back in time to track Sam and Violet (Skyler Gisondo and Nina Bloomgarden), who meet on the first day of their holidays and begin a tentative romance. Also thrown into the mix are a flamboyant head of security (Luis Gerardo Méndez, supplying the show with charisma), a crazed hotel owner who believes that his memories are leaking out of his ear, and a reclusive novelist whose book may hold the secret to everything. The show is aiming for an eccentric, Big Lebowski energy that it can’t quite achieve, but at least it has a good go. Clues and red herrings abound, from a mysterious mural to a warning about “the yellow snake with four noses”.
The plot is so crammed with these things that it stops making sense, but just carries us along to the next stage of the adventure. The easy chemistry between Milioti and Harper helps with this, as does the comedy. And while the ending is not entirely satisfying (you will have questions) it won’t have you throwing things at the TV.
Uncoupled ★★★ The Resort ★★★★