Friday, August 13, 2021

What I’m Watching: Modern Love

Modern Love: Season 2, Episode 5 “Am I...? Maybe this Quiz Will Tell Me” (B+)

I’m happy to see that this show is diversifying its pool of featured romantic partners, both in terms of age and gender pairings. This was the second installment to be substantially set in high school, though this one didn’t progress past that and instead stayed with its endearingly awkward teenager protagonist. I’m not familiar with either Lulu Wilson, who played Katie, or Grace Edwards, who played Alexa, but I did recognize Maria Dizzia from “Orange is the New Black” and “The Outside Story” as Katie’s mom. Wilson and Edwards were both terrific, and it was fun to see them bond so immediately over anime and form an instant connection while Katie was driving herself crazy about whether she was gay or not. The quizzes she took were really so random, and I love that she tried to engineer a particular result so that she could prove something to herself that she wanted to be true. Ending up together on the second floor during the lock-in provided an opportunity for Katie to take an unexpectedly bold step, but unfortunately that led to them getting in trouble and an uncomfortable cover-up when everyone asked where they were. The ending of the episode was very sweet, moving from Alexa not being happy to find Katie in her room to an honest admission of the conflicted feelings that she was having, followed by some pointed and direct questions from Alexa that clarified the simple truth of it all. This pair seems like they’re definitely headed in a positive direction.

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