Middle-aged, gay and single, Stanley James is a New York art dealer who is an endlessly watchable mix of vulnerable and seen-it-all sardonic confidence. He may not be ripped like the guys in his friend group, but so what? Not everybody has to buy into the constant status-seeking that fuels a certain class of New Yorkers. He’s loyal and sweet but nobody’s fool. Take, for example, his answer to the required photo of one’s lower anatomy that is de rigueur on dating apps for gay men: It’s a sketch artist drawing. “You actually sat for that?” comes the incredulous question. “Like ‘Whistler’s Mother’?”
As played by Brooks Ashmanskas, he is the thumping heart and soul of the Netflix comedy series “Uncoupled.”
He is also, I should point out, not the lead character.
Really, he should be. His is the one story that feels grounded in something real, even when he’s making you laugh.
But that’s not what creators Darren Star and Jeffrey Richman had in mind for the show.
Instead, it stars Neil Patrick Harris as a handsomely neurotic, self-involved real estate agent named Michael Lawson who is dumped by his longtime finance bro boyfriend (Tuc Watkins). Adrift for the first time in 17 years, the show follows Michael’s misadventures of self-loathing and uncertainty that tend to follow a breakup.
Star is a brand name in television, known for everything from “Sex in the City” to “Emily in Paris” and the format of “Uncoupled” — visually and stylistically — follows in those footsteps. Richman is a seasoned TV writer as well, whose credits include “Modern Family,” “Desperate Housewives” and “Frasier.”
And yet too often “Uncoupled” comes across like a collection of ideas stitched together by an algorithm: “Sex and the City” but make it gay, about a guy who wouldn’t be out of place on a high-end real estate reality show like “Million Dollar Listing: New York.” Kicky music? Check. Confabs over dinner and drinks? Check. Everybody’s effortlessly wealthy? Check. Relatively tame sex scenes? Need you ask? (I loved the detail of two men in nothing but their black socks; it was one of the few times I laughed!)
No matter how hard Michael tries to “get back out there,” some things have changed. It’s meant to be a humorous if jarring realization, despite the fact that he has all the shallow external markers of a desirable person: Trim, stylish, still young in appearance. But who is he, outside of a man now made miserable by divorce? I’m not sure the show really knows. Neither likable or unlikeable, he’s just sort of … there.
Stanley, on the other hand, is a wholly realized human being. I wonder if someone behind the scenes belatedly understood this as well, because there are some welcome course corrections in the latter half of the season.
That’s when, finally, the focus expands out to give some of the supporting characters a reason to exist as more than a sounding board to Michael’s breakup blues. His circle also includes his bestie and fellow broker Suzanne (Tisha Campbell) and another longtime friend Billy, a semifamous TV weather forecaster on the prowl (Emerson Brooks). Throughout, Michael’s ex remains a pleasantly attractive cipher. We never find out why he left exactly, but the show suggests it was Michael’s fault — that he’s so self-absorbed that he was unable to see his partner’s increasing dissatisfaction and impending midlife crisis. That’s a damning personality trait and I would have liked to see the show put a little more salt in that wound rather than its blandly breezy portrayal here. Michael lies to himself that he’s a nice guy, but he’s a peevish jerk a lot of the time and has trouble seeing the world outside himself — so why does the show swaddle him in bubble wrap rather than poke savage fun at him?
But look, Carrie on “Sex and the City” (and the show’s continuation-in-middle-age “And Just Like That …”) has always been an insufferable character too easily let off the hook, as well. That seems to be Star’s approach. So be it. There are worse things to have on in the background while folding laundry. And gay men should be centered in TV rom-coms; this is a welcome step in that direction, although it’s a pretty narrow slice of queer life as depicted here. I’m not saying that’s unrealistic. I’m sure this is an accurate portrayal of a certain age and class of person. Now if only the show could conceive of ways to have Black gay men not exist as tokens within their friend group, that would really be something.
Maybe the writers will have a chance. The finale’s cliffhanger makes clear that the show creators expect a Season 2 renewal. Based on the kind of series Netflix has been pursuing as of late, that’s probably a good bet.
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'UNCOUPLED'
2.5 stars (out of 4)
Rating: TV-MA (may be unsuitable for children under the age of 17 with an advisories for coarse language, nudity and smoking)
How to watch: Netflix
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