Modern Love is a perfect series, with perfectly-written installments that have so much heart. They made us laugh and cry, both.
Cry: No Complaints, Maggie
Guzmin from “When The Doorman Is Your Main Man” is paternal AF. Every girl needs a Guzmin in their life. No wait, everyone needs a Guzmin in their lives. Guzmin is Maggie’s doorman, her woke partner, someone who looks after her. He warns Maggie to stay away from toxic guys by looking at them just once.
Maggie accidentally falls pregnant, and she decides to keep the baby. After Maggie’s girl is born, Guzmin takes care of her while the mother is at work. In the end, Maggie decides to leave the city to take up a job offer at L.A, Guzmin wishes her the best and goes, “No complaints Maggie.”
Smile: L.A is Smoggy And Phony
Maggie is doing a bloody good job of raising her kid and working her back off, she gets a job offer as an editor of a literary supplement magazine. The only thing, however, is that it’s based in L.A. Even though Maggie’s made the decision to take up the job, she goes to Guzmin with her insecurities.
She does the sad walk, which makes Guzmin kid, “Oh no, not again.”. He hints at Maggie’s previous pregnancy. While making the announcement, she goes on an epic rant against L.A and calls it smoggy and phony. Makes Guzmin smile and ask, “When are you leaving?”
Cry: You’re A World Of One
Calling a homeless woman, ‘a world of one’- not cool. Calling a homeless woman, who’s decided to give you her baby ‘a world of one’ - heartbreaking.
“Hers Was A World Of One” is a story about two married men who decide to adopt a homeless woman’s baby. Things are going smoothly until comes to live with them in the third trimester. She catches the couple Tobin and Andy off guard with her arrival. She makes a Bedouin camp in their living room, brings a homeless guy home without checking with either of them. And so she and Tobin run into an argument.
She calls him a ‘hipster liberal’, he retorts by calling her a ‘world of one who can’t even take care of her own baby’.
Smile: Cattle-pips
By the time Tobin is a proud father of baby girl June, he’s learned to accept the fact that there are various kinds of people out there. There still are hunter-gatherers, people who constantly move. He narrates the following story to June: “There are capitalists who wouldn’t survive the wild because there’s no restaurants or whole foods, or therapists or hospitals for when you get sick, or books for you to read or movies for you to watch.”
June stops her dad midway to spots her other dad reading her storybook. So when Tobin gets back to her asking what they were talking about, she says, “About cattle-pips.”
Capitalists- cattle-pips, funny business.
Cry: He Died When I Was 11
Madeleine from “So He Looked Like Dad. It Was Just Dinner, Right?” lost her dad when she was 11. The installment invited numerous reactions from fans. Some called it downright creepy, others went along with it. Madeleine gets friendly with a senior, Peter at work. He invites her over at his place. Peter is her father’s age.
Post dinner, Madeleine asks Peter to pretend he’s her dad and tell her a story. Naturally, it upsets him and he asks her, “So where’s your dad?” She responds by saying, “He died when I was 11.”
Smile: Lexi’s La-La Land Esque Dance
Anne Hathaway’s “Take Me As I Am. Whoever I Am” mainly focuses on her Lexi, with very few supporting characters. As Lexi begins typing her story on a dating website, it’s hard to miss the point. She comes off strongly for a dating website. She describes herself truly and honestly in the process.
Lexi begins her story by talking about a visit she made to the supermarket years ago. She’d chosen a sequinned attire to go shopping for peaches. She spied a vegetable counter and a real-deal man. We hear an epic La La Land dance narration of the same. It’s hard not to smile as she and the guy she just met, Jeff walk aisle to aisle.
Cry: I’m Bipolar, I’m Dealing With It, Will You?
Lexi doesn’t know what ticks her bi-polar disorder. She thinks it could be blood sugar, chemical or psychological. As Lexi hides in her bed, the peaches rot. She has a story and it’s heartbreaking.
It all began in high school. One day Lexi couldn’t get out of bed and 21 days later, she was still there. Early diagnoses meant she could find a solution early on. She juggled through high school and college, by missing 50% of the year and by making up for it in the other half. But that, unfortunately, couldn’t work in the law firms, and she ended up getting fired, again and again. The absolute heartbreaking moment is when she finds herself unable to get out of the toilet to open the door for Jeff, her date. She begs herself and sobs wildly in the process.
“Come back, come back.”
Smile: Is It That Obvious?
Dev Patel’s Joshua is the CEO of Fuse, a dating app. We see him in a formal interview with the prying journalist, Julie from The Times. The end of their interview is the beginning of a lesson. Julie asks Joshua, totally off the topic if he’s even been in love. There’s a story written all over Joshua’s face according to Julie.
Joshua is in love with Emma, but they are no longer together. It’s been a couple of years since he broke up with her for almost cheating on him. Emma almost slept with her ex. We get a flashback into the critical juncture. Joshua and Emma take turns explaining what love really is. For Joshua, love is trust, and it is the only currency. For Emma, love is a lot of things.
Cry: Old Love Is Different, Yet It is Also The Same
Tom Hall talks make the most astounding observation about love in the last installment. Margot and Ken played by Jane Alexander and James Saito, respectively get married after their spouses have passed away. They begin their relationship in the last years of their lives. Considering they have a short life span left, they funnily don’t worry so much about failing the relationship. But heartbreak is heartbreak, no matter the years.
At Ken’s funeral Margot eulogies him and their love the best.
“Old Love is different. More realistic, maybe. When Ken and I met, we had already been through many ups and downs in life and we had learned how to compromise and we had survived loss and mistakes. And somehow we felt, if this relationship failed, we would survive this too. I am not so sure about that anymore. Old Love is different, yet it is also the same because Ken and I did everything that young people do.”
Smile: The Purpose Of True Love
Modern Love wins hearts with an epic description of love at all stages, the young love, the middle-aged love, the old love. And it doesn’t discriminate in any of these. Even the love that’s lost. But it’s Julie’s description of true love that makes one smile. Julie says:
“Sometimes, you realize that true love, in its absolute form, has many purposes in life. It’s not actually just about bringing babies into the world, or romance, or soul mates, or even lifelong companionship. The love we had in our past, unfinished, untested, lost love seems so easy, so childish to those of us who choose to settle down. But actually, it’s the purest, most concentrated stuff.”
