Uncoupled is now available on Netflix and it’s one of the best shows this year! It’s a story of healing and full of good friends who support you in the good, the bad, and the best times. Furthermore, the series shows that LGBTQ+ representation matters. Ready?
Here we go!
DEVASTATION
At the beginning of Uncoupled, Michael is completely happy. He has a good job, a boyfriend- Colin – who he loves and who is celebrating his birthday. Michael is throwing him a surprise party and he can’t wait to see Colin’s face when he finds out. But, at the end, who is surprised is Michael. Colin dumped him in the middle of the night and, without telling him a thing, moved to another apartment. And this is the beginning of the story.
I have to be honest and say that I never empathized with Colin. What he did was cowardice and absolutely nothing excuses him. Michael and Colin had been together for 17 years, and if Colin wasn’t happy, the least Michael deserved was for Colin to have talked to him and tried to fix it. Somehow, after leaving him, Colin proposes to Michael to go to couples therapy (something he should have done before) and in the session one of the couple’s problems begins to be seen: Michael is so focused on him that he doesn’t listen.
And yes, that’s definitely a problem, but it doesn’t justify Colin abandoning Michael in such a cowardly and unfair way in Uncoupled. Living as a couple is not easy, much less doing it for 17 years. There will be times when you feel like it’s not worth pursuing, times when the problems feel too big, but that’s what communication is for.
The least you should do is talk to your love and try to work it out. I can’t understand how someone could be so selfish and cruel as to abandon the person they claim to love and have been with for 17 years overnight simply because they’re having a mid-life crisis. Michael deserves better than that.
The thing is, Colin left, leaving Michael devastated, wondering what happened. That was the worst, not having an idea of what happened, how and why they got to that point, and what to do to fix it. Colin walked out and started a new life without giving Michael a second thought or how he would feel.
HEALING
In that situation, Michael must figure out how to get by on his own. Luckily, in Uncoupled, Michael has some friends worth gold, and Stanley, Billy, and Suzanne are there for him in whatever he needs. They’re there to listen to him, to be his shoulder to cry on, and to dance with him when he needs to have fun and stop thinking. They’re also there to encourage him to move on without Colin in every way.
That’s why, like Michael, we felt like a betrayal when Stanley went to Colin’s inaugural dinner for his new apartment. Yeah, it might be childish, but it felt like a stab in the back. Colin dumped Michael and left him broken, going to his dinner is like Stanley sending the message that he didn’t care what Colin did to his best friend.
Later, when Stanley explained his reasons, we understood. It makes sense that he would want to go there to find out why the hell Colin acted like this and if, somehow, he had a good reason, even if what he did wasn’t right. Michael wasn’t going to be able to really move on until he had answers to his questions until he knew why. Stanley thought that at this dinner he could get that answer and help Michael.
MIRROR LIVES
Amid his struggle to heal and rebuild his life, Michael finds himself reflected in Claire’s story. Her husband also abandoned her overnight and the two form a reluctant friendship based on similar life experiences that bind them together amidst sadness, anger, and confusion. Also, Michael is in charge of selling Claire’s apartment and getting her a new place to live.
We loved Claire and Michael’s relationship in Uncoupled. Claire is a difficult woman but she also learns throughout the series to be less uptight, plus the relationship that she begins to forge at the end with Suzanne is great. She is the counterpoint to both Suzanne and Michael and I think they help each other. Claire helps Suzanne get some perspective on her relationship with her son and as for Michael, well, no one but the two of them really understands what they’re going through.
After many vicissitudes and a path that led him to know himself much better, Michael manages to begin to heal. He is not well but, for the first time, he feels that he will be at some point. Michael also accepted that he may never get an answer to why Colin did what he did but that can’t stop his life anymore. He really needs to move on.
SECOND CHANCES?
And, just when Michael can actually smile and be in Michael’s presence, talk to him, and remember their past together without completely breaking down, just when he can remember Colin with a smile, Colin hurts him again. He sneaks into Michael’s house to tell him that he was wrong. The nerve. It’s too late! Uncoupled ends without knowing what Michael says – we need season 2 now! – but honestly, I hope Michael sends him to hell.
As we mentioned before, Michael is not a piece of furniture that Colin can leave or pick up again whenever it suits him. Colin has already dumped him once for a mid-life crisis, what assures Michael that Colin won’t do the same thing again? Michael is not a second-rate dish and he deserves much better than that. Michael deserves someone who truly loves and respects him, not someone who leaves him overnight without speaking to him. So yeah, I hope Michael tells him to fuck off. Colin deserves no less.
REPRESENTATION MATTERS
Uncoupled is a story of healing and the journey to find oneself, but it’s also a love story. Brotherly love, friendship love, romantic love, and sex. LGBTQ+ representation is on point in Uncoupled. Through Michael and the secondary/episodic characters, we find the representation of all kinds and that is something other shows should learn from.
Also, even though Uncoupled is a comedy, it never parodies situations in which the representation is a central point of the scene. Yes, they will make you smile and laugh, but the show doesn’t make fun of any situation it represents, it only reflects reality humorously.
Also, we have to mention that Uncoupled should be an example of how to represent sexual relations between members of the collective. It’s not something we’re used to seeing in other shows or movies. When it comes to straight couples, we can see much more than kisses but if it’s an LGBTQ+ couple, we usually only see a kiss.
Uncoupled throws all that away, just as it should be. The series shows us several sex scenes and in every one of them, kisses and pleasure are shown, without becoming vulgar and not hiding anything either. So other shows and movies should learn from the series because this is just the right thing to do.
GOOD SUPPORTING CHARACTERS…WITH TOO LITTLE WEIGHT
Supporting characters are a key part of Uncoupled, however, they have too little weight in the show. Neither has their own plot until the end and we think the series should have gotten more out of them. Stanley’s illness left us worried, it would have been nice to see more of that.
The same goes for Billy’s epiphany because yes, he needs to show much more about how much he loves his friends and that he’s going to be there for them when they need him. He focused so much on himself and on giving the image that nothing else mattered to him, that even his friends think that of him and he needs to change that. But it would have been great to see this reveal sooner.
And exactly the same can be said of Suzanne. Uncoupled left us very intrigued as to what she found out about the father of her child, but we should have seen a lot more of this.
Uncoupled owes us good stories for all these characters in season 2. Please and thank you.
You will not regret watching Uncoupled, it is a show that shows that LGBTQ+ representation matters, does it justice and, at the same time, you will feel reflected because it’s a story of healing and friendship in which we all feel identified.
Uncoupled season 1 is available to stream on Netflix.
