Oh, to live in a bright and shiny world created by Darren Star. Glittering, sophisticated cities that burst with colour and beckon with excitement. Places filled with glamorous people who exchange witty one-liners as they bounce through their romantic and professional trials. Communities that offer elegant restaurants, cosy cafes and sexy bars and clubs, and host art-gallery openings, theatre premieres and book launches. Star’s enticing, aspirational screen worlds, depicted in series such as Uncoupled (Netflix), Emily in Paris (Netflix), Younger (Stan*) and Sex and the City and its sequel, And Just Like That . . . (Binge, Foxtel Now), resemble a vibrant fantasy of an affluent urban playground.
Perhaps more significantly, these are places where his characters find their tribes, where they surround themselves with loving and supportive friends, savvy confidants who are akin to the kind of families one might choose. Star’s characters could be contending with troublesome lovers, problematic parents or difficult bosses, but, to borrow from the famed Friends theme song, their pals will be there for them. So, along with the gloss and glitter of these fictional worlds comes the fulfilling warmth of connection. It’s a pretty irresistible package, especially if you pair it with a dry martini or festive pink cosmopolitan, as Star frequently does.
In Uncoupled, Neil Patrick Harris, right, plays newly single real-estate agent Michael Lawson, whose tight friendship circle includes art-gallery owner Stanley (Brooks Ashmanskas).Credit:Sarah Shatz/Netflix
In 2020, with the world in the early throes of pandemic panic, writer-producer Star, whose background as a series creator is with Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place along with a number of less successful offerings (Miss Match, The $treet, Central Park West), gave us the frothy, postcard-pretty confection Emily in Paris, which was widely embraced with enthusiasm along with a healthy dose of scepticism. Its superficiality and cliches are apparent: the cute, clueless American heroine (Lily Collins), the chic, arrogant French, whose capital is portrayed as if by an upmarket tour operator.
Yet it was a tonic for its times: as people were fearful, sick and housebound, here was a festive bon-bon offering optimism and romance. Emily finds her people and her place. Her indomitable, sunny spirit earns grudging respect in her initially hostile workplace, her generous nature helps her to make friends, and, of course, to find l’amour in the City of Love. The show’s charms help to soften the thud of its hammy cliches.
More recently has come the romantic comedy Uncoupled (Netflix), a polished production which looks like the show that its openly gay showrunner was destined to make and has executed with his customary pizzazz. It has much in common with Sex and the City, but instead of a handful of gal pals, at its heart is a group of devoted gay men and a sassy single mum.
The eight-part season is anchored by the peppy charisma of Neil Patrick Harris (A Series of Unfortunate Events, How I Met Your Mother and, long ago, Doogie Howser MD) as New York real-estate agent Michael Lawson. For 17 years, he’s been happily involved in a monogamous relationship with Colin (Tuc Watkins) until, on the eve of Colin’s 50th birthday celebrations, things run off the rails in a way that Michael couldn’t have anticipated. The rest of the season focuses on him trying to regain his equilibrium and to understand why his relationship unravelled as it did.
Darren Star, left, and the gal pals at the heart of his hit series Sex and the City.Credit:AP, Supplied
Around Michael, Star builds a friendship group that parallels the one initially constructed around Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) in SATC. There’s his partner at work, close friend and trusted confidante, the feisty, sharp-tongued Suzanne (Tisha Campbell); sweet, smart, perpetually single art-gallery owner Stanley (Brooks Ashmanskas), who seems to spend his gym time gossiping and draped over the equipment rather than actually using it; and smoothly confident, proudly promiscuous TV weatherman Billy (Emerson Brooks).
As with Carrie’s clique, it’s a mixed bunch and each character has distinctive qualities. Again like the initial SATC foursome, it’s a tightly knit and candid group that meets regularly in restaurants and at social events, although in Uncoupled, there’s also a gay ski weekend and a big gay wedding.
As a shrewd added bonus, Michael’s job gives the series licence to gawk at great apartments, one of them a multimillion-dollar penthouse owned by the brilliantly bitter divorcee Claire (Marcia Gay Harden), a plum property that Michael and Suzanne hope to secure. So in addition to its gimlet-eyed evocation of Manhattan’s gay social scene, Uncoupled offers a nice dash of Luxe Listings and the opportunity to perv into places that those of us in the 99 per cent are unlikely to set foot inside, let alone own.
Wyatt (Gonzalo Aburto de la Fuente), Billy (Emerson Brooks) and Colin (Tuc Watkins) in Uncoupled, which portrays the sometimes brutal bitchiness of the gay social scene.Credit:Sarah Shatz/Netflix
As with many of Star’s shows, the dialogue, richly sprinkled with pop culture references and comments on social mores, zings along nicely. While relishing the romantic entanglements, fashion, upbeat energy and unabashed sex talk of SATC in its early days, some female viewers didn’t feel that it reflected the way that they might talk to their friends, that perhaps it represented the way in which a smart male writer might imagine that women talk among themselves. Here, though, that snap, crackle and candour fits perfectly.
Beyond its appealingly shiny surfaces, Uncoupled has heart, even as it portrays the sometimes brutal bitchiness of the gay social scene and the accompanying anxiety about being old and alone, a worry Michael shares with Claire.
The final episode dangles several juicy cliff-hangers and leaves me hoping to see more of Michael and his friends.
* Stan is owned by Nine, the owner of this masthead.
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