Modern Love: Amazon Prime TV Series

Reviewed by August Cosentino

Readers of the Sunday NYT Style section may be familiar with a weekly column called “Modern Love.” Turned off by some early pieces which ranged from the treacly to the insufferable, I usually scurry past ML as fast as my cycling-glove-covered fingers will take me.

Then why oh why am I so forgiving of the Amazon Prime TV translation that’s been running for two seasons and nominated for an Emmy?

It certainly helps to google  “Best ‘Modern Love’ episodes” ahead of time. That way you can pick and choose what you want to see, based on the cast and the situation you can best relate to. 

Topping the list for us so far was “Hers was a World of One” where a gay male couple (Andrew Scott and Brandon Kyle Goodman) are trying to adopt a baby. The best option open to them is a young, pregnant homeless woman (Olivia Cooke from “The Sound of Metal”). Once all parties agree, she moves into their very proper household where she exhibits such outrageous behavior, it’s touch-and-go as to whether the guys pitch her out the door before the baby is born.

I also liked “Take Me As I Am, Whoever I Am” where Anne Hathaway plays a bipolar woman who isn’t having much luck in life with either men or her career because of her dramatic mood swings. Sad and spot-on. 

Third runner up, “When Cupid is a Prying Journalist,” focuses on a tech genius (Dev Patel) who’s developed a dating app but is himself currently single. Turns out he harbors memories of the one true love he had and lost (Caitlin McGee). This episode borders on the maudlin, but it does star Dev Patel who could make reading the footnotes in a 10-K

watchable. 

While the episodes of ML are set in New York, I am sure that non-New Yorkers will relate to the situations and enjoy them as well. And at a time when bad news seems to radiate from all corners of the world, what’s so bad about feeling good for half an hour?