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.
