''Modern Love'' is an American

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typic ...

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors. In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically cate ...

streaming television Streaming television is the digital distribution of television content, such as TV shows, as streaming media delivered over the Internet. Streaming television stands in contrast to dedicated terrestrial television delivered by over-the-air a ...

series developed by John Carney, based on the weekly column of the same name published by ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', that premiered on

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, also known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming and rental service of Amazon offered as a standalone service or as part of Amazon's Prime subscription. The service pr ...

on October 18, 2019. In October 2019, the series was renewed for a second season, which was released on August 13, 2021.

Premise

''Modern Love'' explores "love in its multitude of forms – including sexual, romantic, familial, platonic, and self love", which are presented in eight half-hour episodes. The Amazon series, based on the ''New York Times'' column of the same name, adapts different love stories taking place in New York City.

Cast and characters

Season 1

Episode 1

Cristin Milioti Cristin Milioti (born August 16, 1985) is an American actress. She is known for playing Tracy McConnell in the CBS sitcom '' How I Met Your Mother'' from 2013 to 2014, and for her work in theater productions such as ''That Face'', ''Stunning'' ...

as Maggie Mitchell * Laurentiu Possa as Guzmin * Brandon Victor Dixon as Daniel * Daniel Reece as Mark * Charles Warburton as Ted

Episode 2

* Catherine Keener as Julie * Dev Patel as Joshua * Caitlin McGee as Emma * Erik Jensen as Darren * Andy García as Michael

Episode 3

* Anne Hathaway as Lexi Donohoe * Gary Carr as Jeff * Quincy Tyler Bernstine as Sylvia * Judd Hirsch as cop/vendor/taxi driver

Episode 4

Tina Fey Elizabeth Stamatina "Tina" Fey (; born May 18, 1970) is an American actress, comedian, writer, producer, and playwright. She is best known for her work on the NBC sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' (1997–2006) and for creating the ...

as Sarah * John Slattery as Dennis *

Sarita Choudhury Sarita Catherine Louise Choudhury (born 18 August 1966) is a British actress, known for her role as Mina in the Mira Nair-directed feature film '' Mississippi Masala'' (1991). Choudhury has played roles in American and international films and te ...

as therapist * Aidan Fiske as Jack * Arden Wolfe as Nancy

Episode 5

Sofia Boutella Sofia Boutella ( ar, صوفيا بوتلة; born 3 April 1982) is an Algerian actress, model, and dancer. Early life Boutella was born in the Bab El Oued district of Algiers, Algeria, to an architect mother and a jazz musician father, Safy Boute ...

as Yasmine * John Gallagher Jr. as Rob

Episode 6

* Julia Garner as Madeline "Maddy" * Shea Whigham as Peter * Myha'la Herrold as Tami

Episode 7

* Andrew Scott as Tobin * Brandon Kyle Goodman as Andy * Olivia Cooke as Karla * Ed Sheeran as Mick

Episode 8

* Jane Alexander as Margot *

James Saito James Tomio Saito (born March 6, 1955) is a Japanese-American actor of stage, motion pictures, and television. Saito is best known as the original Shredder in ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'', Dr. Chen in the ABC series ''Eli Stone'', Harry Kim i ...

as Kenji * Peter Hermann as Philippe * Petronia Paley as Janice * James Waterston as Chris

Season 2

Episode 1

On a Serpentine Road, With the Top Down * Minnie Driver as Stephanie Curran * Tom Burke as Michael * Don Wycherley as Neil

Episode 2

* Gbenga Akinnagbe as Jordan * Zoë Chao as Zoe *

Aparna Nancherla Aparna Nancherla (born August 22, 1982) is an American comedian and actress of Indian descent. She has appeared on '' Inside Amy Schumer'' and has written for ''Late Night with Seth Meyers'' and '' Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell''. Nancherla ...

as Vanessa

Episode 3

Lucy Boynton Lucy Boynton (born January 17, 1994) is a British-American actress. Raised in London, she made her professional debut as the young Beatrix Potter in ''Miss Potter'' (2006). She starred in television productions ''Ballet Shoes'' (2007), ''Sense a ...

as Paula * Kit Harington as Michael * Jack Reynor as Declan *

Miranda Richardson Miranda Jane Richardson (born 3 March 1958) is an English actress. She made her film debut playing Ruth Ellis in '' Dance with a Stranger'' (1985) and went on to receive Academy Award nominations for '' Damage'' (1992) and ''Tom & Viv'' (1994). ...

as Jane

Episode 4

Dominique Fishback Dominique Fishback (born March 22, 1991) is an American actress and playwright who is best known for having played Billie Rowan on ''Show Me a Hero'', Darlene on '' The Deuce'', and Deborah Johnson in ''Judas and the Black Messiah'', the latter ...

as Lil *

Isaac Powell Isaac Cole Powell (born December 30, 1994) is an American actor and singer. He played the role of Daniel in the Broadway revival of the musical '' Once on This Island'' and was cast as Tony in the 2020 Broadway revival of '' West Side Story''. ...

as Vince * Milan Ray as Lil (age 12) * Pierson Salvador as Vince (age 12)

Episode 5

Lulu Wilson Lulu Wilson (born October 7, 2005) is an American actress known mostly for the horror films '' Ouija: Origin of Evil'' (2016) and '' Annabelle: Creation'' (2017), as well as the television series adaptation of ''The Haunting of Hill House'' (2018) ...

as Katie * Maria Dizzia as Lori * Grace Edwards as Alexa * Telci Huynh as Moush *

Linda Powell Linda Margaret Powell (born April 16, 1965) is an American actress. Early life Linda Margaret Powell was born in Fort Benning, Georgia, on April 16, 1965 the daughter of Alma and Colin Powell, the former United States Secretary of State, Natio ...

as Mrs. Vacher

Episode 6

* Garrett Hedlund as Spence * Anna Paquin as Isabelle * Ben Rappaport as Nick * Jeena Yi as Jeannie * Susan Blackwell as Allison

Episode 7

* Zane Pais as Robbie * Marquis Rodriguez as Ben

Episode 8

* Sophie Okonedo as Elizabeth Cannon * Tobias Menzies as Van * Eileen Walsh as Lily De Courcy

Episodes

Season 1 (2019)

Season 2 (2021)

Production

Development

On June 11, 2018, it was announced that

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...

had given the production a series order for a first season consisting of eight episodes. The series was set to be directed, written, and produced by John Carney. Production companies involved with the series were slated to include Storied Media Group and ''

''. On November 26, 2018, it was reported that

Emmy Rossum Emmanuelle Grey Rossum (born September 12, 1986) is an American actress, director, and singer. She is known for her portrayal of Fiona Gallagher in the television series '' Shameless'' (2011–2019). Since the mid-2010s, she has also directed ...

, Sharon Horgan, and Tom Hall would serve as additional directors for the series. Horgan and Hall also wrote the episodes they were set to direct while Rossum was expected to direct an episode written by

Audrey Wells Audrey Ann Wells (''née'' Lederer; January 25, 1960 – October 4, 2018) was an American screenwriter, film director, and producer. Her 1999 film ''Guinevere'' won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award. Early life Wells was born in San Francisco, ...

. Additionally, it was further reported that Dimitri Hoffman, Sam Dolnick, and

Choire Sicha Choire Sicha ( , born November 19, 1971) is an American writer and blogger. In June 2021, he became an editor-at-large at ''New York''; he had been the editor of ''The New York Times'' Style section since September 2017. Previously, he served as ...

would serve as executive producers, Trish Hofmann as a producer, and Daniel Jones as a consulting producer. On October 24, 2019, Amazon renewed the series for a second season which premiered on August 13, 2021.

Casting

On November 26, 2018, it was announced that Anne Hathaway,

, Dev Patel, John Slattery, Brandon Victor Dixon, Catherine Keener, Julia Garner, Andy García,

, Olivia Cooke, Andrew Scott, Shea Whigham, Gary Carr,

, and John Gallagher Jr. had been cast in the first season. In April 2020, it was revealed that Jesse Eisenberg has been cast in the second season. In February 2021, the second season cast was announced, including Gbenga Akinnagbe,

, Minnie Driver, Kit Harington, Garrett Hedlund, Anna Paquin, Jack Reynor and

. In May 2021, Sophie Okonedo and Tobias Menzies joined the cast of second season.

Filming

Principal photography for the series had begun by September 18, 2018, in New York City. The second season was filmed in the New York cities of

Schenectady Schenectady () is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2020 census, the city's population of 67,047 made it the state's ninth-largest city by population. The city is in eastern New Y ...

, Albany, and

Troy Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in present-day Turkey, south-west of Ç ...

, as well as in Enniskerry and

Stoneybatter Stoneybatter, historically known as Bohernaglogh (), is a neighbourhood of Dublin, Ireland, on the Northside of the city between the River Liffey, the North Circular Road, Smithfield Market, and Grangegorman. It is in the D7 postal district. T ...

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

, Ireland.

International versions

In April 2022, Prime Video announced the Indian version of the series in three different languages ''

Modern Love Mumbai ''Modern Love Mumbai'' is an Indian Hindi-language romantic comedy anthology Amazon Prime Video series produced by Pritish Nandy, that premiered on Amazon Prime Video on May 13, 2022. Its episodes run from 40 to 45 minutes. ''Modern Love Mum ...

'' in

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

, '' Modern Love Hyderabad'' in

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode ...

and ''Modern Love Chennai'' in

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, na ...

. A Japanese version of the series, titled ''Modern Love Tokyo'' has premiered worldwide on October 21, 2022. A Dutch version of the series, titled ''Modern Love Amsterdam'' will premiere worldwide on December 16, 2022.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

it received an overall score of 66%, and an overall score of 65 on

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

Season 1

The first season held a 75% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 64 reviews, with an average rating of 6.6/10. The site's critical consensus read: "Carried by its charming cast, ''Modern Love'' sweet and simple sensibilities are easy enough to enjoy, even if its quaint portrait of modern life in New York City doesn't always ring true." On Metacritic, the first season received an average rating of 66 out of 100, based on 26 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Season 2

The second season held a 58% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 12 reviews, with an average rating of 5.7/10. The site's critical consensus read: "''Modern Love'' struggles in its second season, favoring romantic clichés over the more complicated truths that make its source material so appealing - still, there's no denying the allure of its talented cast, which might be enough for some viewers." On Metacritic, the second season received an average rating of 61 out of 100, based on 8 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Accolades

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Modern Love (TV series) 2010s American anthology television series 2010s American romantic comedy television series 2019 American television series debuts 2020s American anthology television series 2020s American romantic comedy television series 2021 American television series endings Amazon Prime Video original programming English-language television shows Television series by Amazon Studios Television shows filmed in New York (state) Television shows set in New York City