Love Life season 2 star William Jackson Harper addresses comparisons to Insecure. In the second installment of the HBO Max rom-com anthology, Harper plays Marcus Watkins. A book editor with hopes of one day becoming an author himself, Marcus is already in a stable relationship at the beginning of season 2. He’s been married to his wife, Emily (Maya Kazan) for more than four years but, in his own words, he feels "stuck." When he meets Mia (Jessica Williams) at Darby’s wedding, the encounter leads to the end of Marcus and Emily’s marriage, and Marcus reluctantly finds himself re-entering the dating scene.
Over the course of 10 episodes, Marcus reconnects with high school crushes, experiences awkward hookups, and stumbles into unexpectedly serious relationships. But again and again, Marcus finds that he returns to Mia, even when it might seem at times like it would be smarter to walk away. The story structure represents a shift from Love Life season 1, which focused on Anna Kendrick’s Darby Carter as a young woman looking for her soulmate.
The new path charted by Love Life in its sophomore outing has drawn comparisons to the HBO dramedy Insecure. In a new interview with TVLine, while discussing all 1o episodes of Love Life season 2, the actor says that he’s flattered by those comments. Harper stresses that Insecure, and its star and co-creator Issa Rae, helped pave the way for shows like Love Life and especially its second season. Still, Harper notes that he ultimately disagrees with the comparison. Harper’s quote is included below.
“That is the biggest compliment anyone could say. To be compared to Insecure in any way, because it’s a phenomenal show, is great. But this isn’t ‘Insecure for dudes,’ and I’m not the male Issa in New York. That said, like Insecure, we did some honest work, we did our best, and the success of an amazing show like Insecure definitely paved the way so that we could.”
In a sense, those comparisons and attempts at making a connection are certainly understandable. So much of pop culture, whether that should be the case or not, depends on what came before and what has proven to resonate with audiences. And, as The Good Place alum himself notes, there’s a case to be made that he wouldn’t have been able to showcase his excellent chemistry with Williams if it hadn’t been for Insecure standing as an example of the fact that there was an audience ready to watch love stories on the small screen. Those stories, like Love Life itself, can’t be easily categorized as a sitcom or a drama. They’re not simply romantic, or platonic or familial, but shift the focus depending on the episode.
There is a danger, though, in relying too heavily on comparisons and connections. Particularly in its last stretch, Love Life season 2 sheds light on how Marcus goes through his days as a Black man. Whether he’s dealing with the flippant and insensitive comments from a white woman he’s seeing or having to confront his clueless boss about what it actually means to be an ally, these moments are deeply personal and it does a disservice to simply write it off as being just another version of Insecure, or any other exisiting story.
Source: TVLine
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