Grant
With the recent news of Love Life’s renewal, it’s strangely comforting to know this isn’t the last we’ll see of HBO Max’s romantic drama. Love Life certainly didn’t start off in the best way, but by the end this has certainly grown into something pretty decent. This honest portrayal of love’s ups and downs between teen years and adulthood has been captured well and the supporting characters each have a compelling enough arc to keep you rooting for them. The season finale of Love Life begins two years after the pregnancy test, with Darby and Augie on speaking terms and juggling parental responsibilities. The arrival of her child Theo has both sharpened and dulled her senses and as she feeds her son, she checks the mail and receives an invitation for a wedding – Sara Yang’s wedding. After leaving her son with Claudia for the weekend, Darby heads into church and watches Sara’s beautiful ceremony as she’s wed to her partner Angelo. Afterward, she meets both Grant and Angelo. The former happens to be a suave, divorced British man whom Darby hits it off with. As a New Year wedding, the group celebrate the year rolling over, as Darby and Grant start to get to know each other. The party draws near an end, things get late, and Darby leaves with Grant to have a drink elsewhere. Before she leaves the reception though, Darby leaves a lovely, heartfelt message for Sara telling her how proud she is of her. While Grant heads out for her, Darby falls asleep; a deep slumber she so desperately needed after so many sleepless nights with Theo. Grant leaves his number for her and a lovely message about being glad she managed to sleep. Back home, Augie stays in Darby’s apartment to try and help her son Theo sleep. After a stressful night, they manage to get him to drift off for 5 hours by self-soothing. While out shopping, Darby bumps into Grant again and the two immediately pick up where they left off. Only, this time it’s different and more realistic than before as he walks with her while she’s pushing Theo in his buggy. As the episode closes out, Darby thinks over her choices in life as the camera pans out at the art gallery. Even if there wasn’t a second season, Love Life’s ending is satisfying enough to round out this tale of ups and downs. It hasn’t always been smooth sailing but the ending certainly does well to reflect on the journey these characters have taken over the weeks. HBO’s decision to drop 3 or 4 episodes at a time is something that benefits this sort of binge-worthy title and the different chapters have done well to capture the emotional states of love. It’s not perfect and a few of the chapters have failed to really hit the heights of some stand-out gems late on, but there’s enough here to enjoy and look forward to that second season on the horizon.
