Love (Netflix series)

Starring

• Gillian Jacobsas Mickey Dobbs

  A radio programme manager who is an alcoholic and a love and sex addict, trying to stay in recovery while falling in love.

  Mickey Dobbs’s story

  Mickey is still going back to Eric, a cocaine user, when Gus pays for her coffee. She tries to set him up with her roommate, Bertie, then starts her sobriety over and falls for him herself; after a meeting of a love-and-sex-addicts group she tells him she is an addict and needs space, and he kisses her anyway. While Gus is in Atlanta she sleeps with her ex, Dustin, and when she ends it Dustin follows her across the city; in Gus's flat, with Dustin standing there, she asks Gus to be exclusive, and never tells him. In South Dakota, when Gus says he is wary of having children with her because of her sobriety, she is ready to leave, until he confesses his own failures. On Catalina Island they call off their wedding, then marry alone.

• Paul Rustas Gus Cruikshank

  An on-set tutor and would-be screenwriter who thinks of himself as a nice guy and has a temper when things go against him.

  Gus Cruikshank’s story

  Gus is dumped by Natalie, who tells him he is only fake nice, and the next morning pays for a stranger's coffee. Afraid of losing his job, he sits a test for his young pupil, Arya. He falls for Mickey, and on the day an outburst gets him fired from the writers' room he kisses her even as she tells him she needs space. Back from Atlanta, where he tutors Arya on a film, he is asked to be exclusive, never learning about Dustin. He shoots a film from his own script and loses his temper on set. In South Dakota he tells Mickey he is wary of having children with her, then confesses his failures in front of his family. Hired to write for a science-fiction series, he marries her, alone, on Catalina Island.

• Claudia O'Dohertyas Bertie Bauer

  Mickey's cheerful Australian roommate, who settles for Randy before realising she wants something else.

  Bertie Bauer’s story

  Bertie moves into Mickey's flat from Australia and is sent on a date with Gus that goes nowhere. She drifts into a relationship with Gus's friend Randy, and lends him his rent. On a birthday she has told no one about, she spends the day with Chris, a would-be stuntman from Gus's building, and tells him why she came to America: one day she simply left her long-time boyfriend and her job in a flower shop. She learns Randy has been sleeping in his car, sleeps with Chris and confides it to Mickey; when Chris says they should stop while she is with Randy, she cannot bring herself to end it. At last she breaks up with Randy, who takes it badly, and goes to Catalina for Gus and Mickey's wedding with Chris.

• Mike Mitchellas Randy Monahan

  Gus's broke, aimless friend, who dates Bertie and does not take it well when she ends it.

• Iris Apatowas Arya Hopkins

  The child star of the drama Gus works on, whom he tutors, under heavy pressure from the adults around her.

Why it matters

Love takes apart two romantic-comedy types. Gus is the nice guy, and the first thing the series lets a woman tell him is that he is only fake nice: his kindness keeps accounts, and his temper shows when they go unpaid. Mickey is the chaotic, desirable woman, and here she is an alcoholic and a love and sex addict trying to stay in recovery while she falls for someone. The show is interested in what honesty costs them both. Paul Rust, who created it with Lesley Arfin and Judd Apatow, has said the writers decided that Mickey's infidelity in the second season would never be discovered, because men on screen have cheated without being punished for a century. The ending was built to be read two ways, romantic and dark at once, and Gillian Jacobs said that if she were one of their friends on that beach, she would be worried.