Amazon wants you to just love a little bit again.
The streaming service’s new anthology series, “Modern Love,” is based on The New York Times column about the different ways we love in the contemporary world. This can be love in a marriage, sure, but also between a paternal doorman and a tenant, a couple on a second date or any other way we express or acquire the emotion, or lose it. Or almost lose it.
The fourth and best episode of the series, “Rallying to Keep the Game Alive,” is about a marriage on the verge of collapse, a husband (John Slattery) and wife (Tina Fey) who aren’t sure what they will have in common after their growing children leave the house. They eventually find their way back to each other, through admitting their failures, putting the past in the past and playing a lot of tennis.
The episode is instantly relatable for those who have been in long-term relationships that require care and maintenance, and who go through rough patches that seem to have no end. Its universality makes it even more surprising that the episode is based on a column written by “Rescue Me” actor Denis Leary’s wife, Ann.
Slattery’s “Dennis” is an actor of at least some fame and wealth (his fabulous New York apartment and a fan encounter make that clear), and his wife, Sarah, is often aggrieved by the lifestyle of partying and affirmation that being an actor has afforded him.
But their problems are deeper than fans coming up to him in restaurants or her being kept at arms’ length from the fabulous parties he attends. They’re about the resentment built up between them when they didn’t notice, a frustration that they can’t even discuss openly at marriage counseling sessions. It isn’t until they give up on therapy and share a resigned meal that the real problems they confront come to the surface, so they can start addressing them. Eventually, the rhythms of tennis help their relationship rally, quite literally.
Over its eight episodes, “Love” uncynically embraces sentiment, a tone that’s welcome in some episodes and distinctly mawkish in others (the final episode’s attempt to tie them all together in a saccharine montage is fully on the side of cloying and annoying). “Rallying” finds a space for a small amount of skepticism about the sheer power of love without losing a hopeful mood. It also has a sardonic humor that’s distinctly missing in other episodes.
The notion that no amount of money or fame can solve love’s limits is reassuring. We all struggle, but some of us overcome and “stay in the game.”
