TV PREVIEWS
Five stars out of five: Married: Sitcom. 10 tonight on FX.
Four stars out of five: Satisfaction: Drama. 10 tonight on USA.
Four stars out of five: You’re the Worst: Drama. 10:30 tonight on FX.
SAN FRANCISCO — Turning to television to find shows about romance these days has become a matter of looking for love in the worst place imaginable.
With a handful of exceptions, romance is a nonstarter in 21st century television, and nothing proves that better than three shows premiering tonight that offer exceptionally bleak views of modern relationships and marriage.
That isn’t to say that the shows are bad — in fact, two are very good and one is exceptional — but since television rarely tiptoes to the cutting edge of social attitudes, what do these shows say about how we value authentic love in our time? If television is a mirror, and it is, what we see looking into it is either falsely idealized love in the form of insipid fare on the Hallmark Channel, love as a kind of game show on “The Bachelor,” or sex and hookups on sitcoms like “Undateable,” and a pair of FX shows premiering today.
The obviously titled "Marriage," created by Andrew Gurland, stars Nat Faxon ("Trophy Wife") and Judy Greer ("Archer") as Russ and Lina Bowman, whose wistful memories of their carefree and sex-filled premarital days only make them gloomier about the reality of trying to raise three young daughters, never having time for themselves or each other, and trying to make ends meet.
When the kids are finally put down for the night, Lina crawls into bed with a vampire novel while Russ tries without success to initiate sex, only to wind up pleasuring himself while she turns pages fantasizing about hunky bloodsuckers. Things have become so routine that Lina says she wouldn’t really care if he took a mistress, as long as he was discreet. Is she serious or kidding?
The writing is superb and painfully funny, while the cast is terrific.
"You're the Worst," also premiering on FX, is about two people who have been burned by failed relationships to a point of no return, making them, of course, perfect for each other. Now, couples have battled toward happily-ever-after since even before Petruchio's spats with Katherina in old Padua. "Worst," created by Stephen Falk ("Weeds"), takes that well-worn conceit and forces it through the cold sieve of contemporary antiromanticism, and the result is often very funny.
You can pretty much lay odds that all the dispassionate hooking up will lead to love in the end, but in the meantime, snide British egoist Jimmy Shive-Overly (Chris Geere, “The Spa”), and celebrity PR handler Gretchen Cutler (Aya Cash, “The Wolf of Wall Street”) will snarl, hiss and insult each other and the whole idea of true love because that’s how they’ve adapted after being burned by past relationships.
The flawed but oddly compelling drama "Satisfaction" takes an especially cynical view of marriage, but it's no laughing matter in the USA drama premiering tonight.
Neil Truman (Matt Passmore, “The Glades”) is an investment banker who has it all and hates most of it. In an early midlife crisis, he’s questioning his job, the fact he can’t even attend his daughter’s performance in her high school talent show, why the pool outside his very expensive suburban home is always cluttered with leaves and why he and his wife, Grace (Stephanie Szostak, “R.I.P.D.”), no longer even use the pool.
Yes, Don Draper has gone suburban in the drama created by Sean Jablonski (“Nip/Tuck”).
Virtually anyone who’s ever wanted to take this job and shove it, or who wasn’t careful about what he’s wished for, will immediately identify with Neil. He can’t be the husband he wants to be, the father he wants to be or even the man he wants to be, and the most convenient thing to blame is his soul-slurping job.
Neil’s marriage certainly does seem perfect — on the surface, at least. Grace is beautiful, supportive, patient and quick to praise Neil when he comes home to report he’s being given expanded responsibilities at the firm. To him, the new responsibilities are more of a burden, but he can’t find the words to tell Grace what he’s going through because he doesn’t really understand it himself.
He has a mini meltdown at work, but his boss thinks he’s kidding. The next day, after being stuck in an airplane for five hours waiting to take off, Neil finally loses it.
Or maybe he’s really found it.
He can’t wait to tell Grace, but that’s when “Satisfaction” really gets interesting: He discovers something about Grace that makes him question everything he’s ever thought about her.
The cynical part isn’t that this discovery blows the marriage to kingdom come — it’s the opposite: Neil and Grace find ways to pursue their own interests while maintaining the mirage of marital perfection.
More proof that love doesn’t stand a chance on contemporary television.
About the Author
