Friday, August 13, 2021

What I’m Watching: Modern Love

Modern Love: Season 2, Episode 6 “In the Waiting Room of Estranged Spouses” (B)

This episode was certainly interesting and creative in how it played itself out, incorporating flashes to Spence’s time in the military so that viewers could understand how he was feeling in a given moment. There wasn’t much consistency to it, but it was at least inventive in a way that, at least stylistically, most of this show’s installments are not. I feel like I’ve seen Garrett Hedlund in countless roles and because of his strong accent work in films like “Dirt Music” and “Burden,” I couldn’t figure out if he was actually American or not (it turns out he’s from Minnesota). While he was a bit more villainous in “The United States vs. Billie Holiday,” this does seem like the typical role he plays, that of the man who wants to show his love but can’t always communicate it in the best way. I’m a big fan of Anna Paquin’s work in “True Blood” and I know she also plays someone direct and motivated in “Flack,” and here she just seems exasperated and not content to continue living with the status quo, as evidenced by her unsubtle placement of her husband’s phone. This romance felt somewhat expected despite all the reasons that it might not have happened, and for that reason I wasn’t completely drawn in to this episode. It did offer a neater conclusion that many of the other episodes, humorously finding the two of them in therapy together to process the issues that are more unifying for them than divisive.

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