NDL

 

“Love Life” TV Review

Created by: Sam Boyd

Rated: TV MA

Runtime: 10 Episodes

 

Starring Anna Kendrick, Zoë Chao and Peter Vack, along with a few other familiar faces here and there, HBO’s daughter streaming service, HBO MAX, finds its first original series with “Love Life.” It’s your typical romantic comedy about modern love in the big city. However, typical is not a bad adjective in this case. Instead, “typical” symbolizes something familiar and comforting about the series, with instantly lovable characters. And yes, this even includes star Anna Kendrick’s character, who shines in the series without being her usual, annoyingly peppy character. And yes, I’m just as shocked as you are that she was extremely likable in this.

The show chronicles the love life of Darby Carter (Kendrick), from her first love ever all the way to her last, including love between friends and family. The anthology-like series is extremely similar to Amazon Prime’s “Modern Love” (2019), so chances are that if you absolutely loved this show as I did, you will be sure to fall in love with “Love Life.” The only difference in the two shows is that this one follows one protagonist for the most part, while “Modern Love” follows many protagonists. Additionally, “Love Life” also is not as melodramatic, which I consider a good thing — we have enough to cry about these days!

What makes this show so relatable to many millennials is that it showcases a character who is made to believe that she doesn’t deserve love. As harsh and dark as this sounds, this is exactly how the character of Darby feels, just in a giddy, rom-com form. The show is, for the most part, humorous, but will sometimes make you angry or even cry. It captures all emotions, to say the very least. Aside from being relatable and entertaining, it just feels long overdue in terms of decent television. I feel as if television shows try too hard nowadays to be different and edgy, and just want to make waves with critics and Emmy voters, and never the everyday audiences who are the key consumers. “Love Life” succeeds in developing genuine connections between its audiences and its characters by presenting to the world a story that is light-hearted, but also authentic. 

“Love Life” is a well-paced, adorably binge-worthy series. I do feel as if the show is very girly, but also would still be enjoyable for everyone. The show is mildly appropriate for the most part, but would be most appreciated by ages 20 up, for millennials on the young side can definitely relate. This show was an easy binge for me — I watched all 10 episodes in two days — and I highly recommend it to anyone who has HBO and wants a fun, light-hearted romantic show to watch. I give it a 9 out of 10 because it was that amazing.