Uncoupled

My Review - Uncoupled My Rating. 7/10 Streaming on Netflix

I enjoyed this new series especially its charismatic and talented star Neil Patrick Harris who plays Michael a mature age Gay man who's partner Colin of 17 years ( Tuc Watkins) suddenly announces on the eve of his 50th Birthday party that he wants to end their relationship and moves out of their apartment.

It's so refreshing to see a series that normalises the issues that we in same sex marriages or relationships experience which of course are the same as heterosexual relationships especially divorce or the ending of longterm partnerships when we all need the support of friends an family.

The Central character Michael (Neil Patrick Harris) now alone and in shock after his well ordered predictable lifestyle comes crashing down find's himself angry and resentful reluctantly entering the single world again with the help of some fun and interesting friends like his zany co worker Suzanne ( Tisha Campbell) , Stanley ( Brooks Ashmanskas) his chubby and wittily acerbic longterm friend and Billy (Emerson Brooks ) a narcissistic but lovable buddy .

I also liked Marcia Gay Harden who plays Claire a super wealthy Manhattan matron who like Michael finds herself alone after her husband leaves her for a younger woman.

The similarities to Sex and the City are obvious in this Gay rom com 8 part series . I noticed that before I read that the series co creator Darren Star also created Sex and the City . Of course it's setting is New York and the characters instead of being about Sisterhood is more of a Bromance but the humorous situations and sentiments are similar as we get to know some fun characters.

This series is far better than the dreadful sequel to Sex and the City "And Just Like That".

The other creator of this series Jeffrey Richman also has a fine pedigree of comedy writing with shows like Modern Family ,Frasier and Desperate Housewives.

I've read a few derogatory comments already but don't agree with many of them especially those accusing the writers of promoting gay stereotypes or the portrayal of white upper class privilege . Please , we're not talking about Tolstoy or Dostoyevsky here it's a light comedy about likeable characters in everyday situations that occur in all friendships the fact that they're affluent is irrelevant.

For generations GLBTQI film and television audiences have watched countless Heterosexual lifestyle domestic and comedy series like Sex and the City and movies and we enjoy them .

I think it's refreshing and important to now have the same focus on our GLBTQI lifestyles whether they are duplicates of the privileged affluent characters in Sex and the City or not ?

Michael could be Carrie Bradshaw , Billy could be Samantha , Stanley could be Miranda etc and no one complained of self indulgent white privilege or the slightly overt sexual content in Sex and the City While not perfect I found Uncoupled fun , light and entertaining and 5 or so hours of relief from the usual diet of murder and mayhem so freely available on television today.

No confirmation yet but Series 2 of Uncoupled is apparently on the cards and I'll look forward to it.