Bradley
Episode 2 of Love Life sees us jump forward to 2013, a year after Augie as Darby is stuck in a rut and going through the motions. She drops off her stuff at Bradley’s who is currently going through a divorce with Katie. Together, they begin to connect as they look at artwork and inevitably sleep together. In the morning, Bradley invites Darby back over and they begin dating. Out having dinner together, Bradley’s heavily-pregnant friend Lola joins them and they begin talking about their childhood. Darby begins to panic in the wake of this encounter, believing that Bradley’s friends are all perfect and seting out to try and present herself as a perfect woman. She throws herself into her photography work but she’s told she’s trying too hard by her teacher. This one set-back sees her decide to give up on these goals and instead leap head-first into Bradley’s life instead. Things start to go awry though during a night out when Bradley decides not to hang out with her friends. As we cut forward three months, their relationship hits another snag when Bradley’s Father passes away and he struggles with the grief. Darby also struggles but to connect with his family as she’s left on her own at the wake. Darby is put to work in the kitchen and ignored by Bradley until Kate arrives, which only exacerbates her problems. This leads her down the awkward path of drinking too much and making a scene infront of his whole family. That evening she collects her stuff and heads back home after she and Bradley break up. We then jump forward to the Summer as she buys the photograph taken by her classmate and heads back home, pinning it up on the wall and contemplating what the future holds. With no depth to the supporting characters and two forced encounters with men now, Love Life really doesn’t do itself any favours with its second episode. The idea of Darby getting drunk at Bradley’s Dad’s wake and making a scene, selfishly turning his grief into a negative trait and making it all about herself is not a good look. Regardless of how well-acted these scenes are, Darby is not an easy character to empathise with and the way she’s throwing herself into these relationships doesn’t paint her in a particularly confident or appealing light. Hopefully things improve going forward but episode 2 is definitely the weakest episode so far. Published: 28 May 2020 at 8:06 am on TheReviewGeek.com
