“Love” is back. Having ended season 1 with a meet-cute at a gas station, there was always the fear that the long-awaited coupled-up bliss marks the end of all tension in the series and it will be a downhill slide from there on. The list of couples whose life after the passionate long-awaited kiss which seals the deal destroys the underlying pattern of the show is too long (starting with Maddie Hayes and David Addison Jr if you wish up to Mindy Lahiri and Danny Castellano). But Mickey and Gus are not one of ‘”those” couples.

"Love" always rode on the same wave as "Girls" but always had more heart and was more about the detail than critique and politics. The subdued and less sensationalist storylines and characters who are at least willing to admit to their faults were always the strength and appeal of the series.  This sense of unconditional love towards the characters never seizes in the second season either. These are people who make mistakes but never let go of the idea of being able to improve or to deserve a warm embrace of love. However, that does not mean that the journey there is easy or boring. Judd Apatow manages to capture the essence of the hard work of getting to know someone ­without ever undermining the enormity of the task. The road to a relationship is definitely exciting and filled with mishaps but that is nothing compared to what comes after the curtains close on the realisation that let’s give it a go. Both Gus and Mickey have their own ways of doing things and their own burden to bear. Fitting utter disregard for anything together with extreme caring is not an easy task. Instead of sliding on the will-they-won’t-they tension from the first season, the second one manages to create its own new type of relationship tension, which is a very rare species.
It’s the little things that make the second season of “Love” an unmissable adventure on the plains of emotion. Gus and Mickey go on numerous dates where they are encountered with ghosts present and past before the relationship is put through a premature test of handling long distance. The unflinching honesty with which all these events are covered does not lean towards the grotesque but instead creates great devotion towards the characters. You root for them with all of your heart not despite but because of their very human flaws. The dates, conversations and events are small in gesture but big in heart, the mundanely beautiful is what makes it magical. And of course the hope, the undying unflinching all-encompassing hope that love is accessible to all non-romantics out there if you want it to, regardless of all the problems, quirks and obstacles.  
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