In recent years the world of show business has joyfully rediscovered the charm of romantic comedies, especially on the big screen, a new era populated by titles of great success that have offered new love stories to the audience of enthusiasts. Romance is often at the center of TV series and sometimes becomes the beating heart of them. Those looking for romantic stories but not too rich in those saccharine clichés will be happy to rediscover these three titles that tell of a love that is not seen as a hurdle-free milestone, but as a complex journey made of trauma, insecurities, and compromises. Love stories that manage to move because they abandon that veil of perfection that makes everything seem more unreal. Because love is beautiful precisely thanks to its imperfections.
Romantic TV Series but Not Sappy: The Best Alternatives to the Usual Clichés
Love
If you’re after an unconventional love story that will test the viewer’s patience, you can’t miss Love. The title itself is already a strong calling card, but don’t be fooled, because the couple involved forms a bond that is anything but linear. Their relationship consists of few steps forward and drastic steps back, dealing with the fear of intimacy, self-sabotage, and the inability to feel good with themselves before they can feel good with someone else. Conceived by Judd Apatow, Paul Rust and Lesley Arfin, it comprises three seasons streaming on Netflix from 2016 to 2018. The protagonists, Gus and Mickey, are portrayed by Paul Rust and Gillian Jacobs, and they meet by pure chance in a Los Angeles convenience store. Love exposes the flaws of both leads and highlights their limits, pushing Gus to confront his manipulative side and Mickey toward emotional rehabilitation.
Normal People
Although not exactly a romantic comedy, Normal People shows the visceral, at times magnetically intimate bond between two young people: Connell and Marianne. She is cynical and solitary, while he is popular at school and also brilliant academically. The story follows these two from the school desks to university, tied by a strong thread that keeps drawing them closer. Their relationship is constantly hindered by communication problems, personal traumas, and deep insecurities that affect both, and when they try dating other people and taking different paths, they cannot do without each other. Adapted from the novel of the same name by Sally Rooney, Normal People made Daisy Edgar-Jones and Paul Mescal, the two leads, famous, and is available in Italy on RaiPlay.
Love Life
Comprising two seasons released from 2020 to 2022 and available on streaming on Prime Video, Love Life is a TV series created by Sam Boyd presented as an anthology series. The first season stars Darby, played by Anna Kendrick, a girl who lives in New York and is trying to make her way in the art world while facing the challenges of adult life without renouncing love. Darby faces all sorts of experiences and from each one learns something, from the wrong roommate to the youthful first crush, showing love for what it is in real life: a journey made also of mistakes. Through Love Life, the TV series tells us how the way we love others can change according to our personal growth.
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