‘Uncoupled’ Is For Anyone Who Has Ever Been Blindsided By Love

The new NetflixNFLX
rom-com series Uncoupled is about the aftermath of heartbreak, and who can’t relate to that? If love has ever thrown you for a loop, you know that gut-wrenching feeling.

For Michael Lawson (Neil Patrick Harris), a successful real estate agent, life was perfect until his partner Colin McKenna (Tuc Watkins) left him after 17 years of what he thought was blissful togetherness. What makes things worse is that Colin unexpectedly moves out on the eve of his 50th birthday, leaving Michael blindsided and confused about why things suddenly fell apart.

He has to adjust to his new reality after losing the man he thought was his soulmate, a situation many people find themselves in. Still, for Michael, this is incredibly challenging. He’s heartbroken and confused and has to navigate dating again as a single gay man in his mid-forties in New York City.

The eight-episode series, which premieres on July 29, comes from Emmy Award-winning co-creators Darren Star and Jeffrey Richman. Star is well-known for classic hits, including Sex and the City and the recent Netflix series Emily in Paris. Richman’s resume includes such classics as Modern Family and Frasier.

Star and Richman’s mutual agent, Jay Sures, urged the duo to collaborate on a project. Star explained that the two were excited to create a romantic comedy with a gay lead that would appeal to a broad audience. They decided to center the story around the breakup of a long-term relationship. “The idea of a gay man unexpectedly finding himself single again after so many years felt like a fresh and relatable world to explore.”

Richman explained that both knew of long-term gay relationships where one of the partners secretly plotted to leave. “The idea of processing that trauma and recovery seemed really interesting and fresh and a great jumping-off point for a newly single gay man of a certain age.”

Though the angst of sudden singleness is a universally relatable topic, Star says this show has a unique take on heartbreak. “It’s new because it’s about a gay man, but hopefully, the emotions will resonate with everybody. I felt like we are at the point where the audience is ready to embrace a romantic comedy with a gay leading man. At its heart, this is a story about a man dealing with his emotions. I feel like we rarely see men of any kind fully experience their emotions on screen. It’s not about being gay or straight. I felt there was an opportunity to do something in that space that feels very fresh, in the same way that Sex and the City was very fresh when I wrote about single women in their thirties dealing with relationships and empowerment and being single and owning their sexuality. Uncoupled isn’t meant to represent gay men everywhere; it’s not everybody’s story, but the emotions are universal. We saw a story we knew very well, but that hadn’t been told before.”

By a certain age, Star adds, most people have experienced a breakup, and most people have been on both sides as the one leaving and one left behind. It was important to both that their leading man was an out gay actor of a certain age. Star explains how this was imperative because the show gives such an honest look into being gay, single, and vulnerable.

For Harris, who also serves as an executive producer on the series, the notion of playing someone his age and sexuality in an emotional yet evocative way intrigued him. “When I read the script for the first episode, I found it very moving and kind of surreal because it felt like a ‘sliding doors’ version of my life, a potential alternate version.”

Harris has been with his husband David Burtka for 18 years, and Michael and his partner have been together for 17 years on the show, and the script made him wonder what might have been had his life taken a similar turn.

And though he wondered if this story might only appeal to gay men of a certain age who have gone through a similar breakup, Harris trusted Star and Richman that this was a story about the universal relatability of heartbreak whether it’s happened to you or you’re afraid that it might.

Rounding out the cast are Tisha Campbell, Brooks Ashmanskas, Emerson Brooks and the consistently brilliant Marcia Gay Harden. Andrew Fleming, Zoe Cassavetes and Peter Lauer direct.