Modern Love
Taco Bell, Amazon Prime, and Me (Sad).
Donald Trump can kiss my ass. For a plethora of reasons, obviously, but calling the New York Times “The Failing Times”? Pucker those bird lips and plant one on my booty cheek, Donny. While I will 100% not pay for a New York Times subscription nowadays, the Modern Love column is *ALMOST* worth the 5.99 taken out of my PayPal account monthly. Alas, I have AMAZON PRIME to fill my hankering for the romance I’m not getting IRL. Nora Ephron has been off this earth for some time now (RIP) and what I REALLY needed was a show that made me believe in the magic of love again (bonus points for being based on TRUE STORIES). Enter: Modern Love, Amazon’s new series portraying the stories taken from New York Times’ Modern Love column. (And yeah, I pay $5.99 a month for Amazon Prime, but I get like, groceries and books delivered at the speed of light and it doesn’t come with the impending doom and dread I get from reading NYT articles.) I got through the entire first season in one night. Let me set the scene for you.
I had a bad week. Like most weeks in 2019, it was a doozy. That’s life, right? I was stuck in the limbo that is Los Angeles traffic and a Modern Love billboard sat high above the 101 as a beacon of hope. I promised myself if I ever got home, I would empty my bladder of the Starbucks that had been hanging out in it during the two-hour commute and then I would cozy up and give Modern Love a shot. After a week of fumigating my NEW APARTMENT (yes, NEW) and racking up parking tickets on some motherlovin’ BULLSHIT, I deserved to have a break and to veg out on some romance. And look, I haven’t caught a cold in 8 months (maybe longer; the vagina knows no time) because my then boyfriend up and moved to the Philippines — I NEED HOPE FOR LOVE IN MY LIFE.
All of the episodes are set in New York City, which is a city that I have no particular love for, but in the grand play of life, sits center stage. New York City has its promises and sure, it can feel a little bit like magic if the wind is right and the smell of hot garbage isn’t permeating your nostrils. The stories are different, but every episode has some sort of message about how different and yet all-encompassing love — in its simplest form — can be.
AND I’M HERE FOR THAT SHIT, OK?
The first episode ALONE made it onto my Instagram stories (Plug) and literally only the most random AND important things go up on that platform. Single and lonely in the City That Never Sleeps, a young woman shares a special bond with her doorman, who is not only a father figure, but watches the parade of young men who aren’t worth her time march in and out of her apartment with much disapproval… until one day… LIKE, DON’T TELL ME YOU’RE NOT ALREADY INTO THAT.
In this world of a constant barrage of negativity, it was nice to take a pause and believe in something as simple as love again. There are examples all around us and love, as a concept and constant, is all around us. Modern Love on Amazon Prime is a representation of that love in a very simple and almost nostalgic way. Give it a gander. Bring tissues. And Taco Bell.
