Life in New York City can be intimidating — the rats, the noise, the CitiBike riders who don’t know they’re not supposed to be on the sidewalks. But the hardest parts of living in New York can be narrowed down to two things: finding an apartment and finding a date. Entire lives (or at least nights) have been built and destroyed on Tinder and Zillow. Braving these gauntlets, then, takes true mettle — something that Uncoupled’s Michael (Neil Patrick Harris) is going to have to figure out whether or not he has. When NYC realtor Michael’s partner of 17 years suddenly dumps him, he’s left struggling to stay afloat in the endless ocean of the modern dating world — where, yes, there are plenty of sharks. Naturally, dramedy ensues.
Michael’s plight is one that Harris, who’s been married since 2014, does not envy. When we caught up with the Uncoupled star on the red carpet for the show’s premiere, he let out a guttural sigh at the very idea of having to attempt online dating. “What is Tinder? That’s the straight one?” he asks Tudum.
Among the show’s cast and crew, Harris is not alone in his feelings about the dating scene. For Uncoupled co-creator Jeffrey Richman, the series is an opportunity to depict the plight of the middle-aged newly single, including a few he knows personally. “The idea that the person that you trust most in the world could actually just tell you that the relationship is over, and vanish after almost two decades together,” Richman says. “That happened to people I know. it happened to people that Darren [Star, the show’s other co-creator] knows. The epic betrayal and recovery of that was what was interesting to us.”
For others, it’s finding that other perfect NYC match that really rankles. Brooks Ashmanskas — who plays Stanley, a pretentious art dealer and friend of Michael’s — regales Tudum with the story of an apartment viewing gone very, very wrong. “I remember I walked in and while the woman said, ‘and here's a beautiful eat-in kitchen,’ a huge rat came from out of the garbage can area and just walked across the counter,” he says. “I was like, I think I’m gonna keep looking around.”
Tisha Campbell, who plays Michael’s realtor colleague and similarly single friend Suzanne, understood the romantic struggles depicted in the show all too well. “I can relate to it, because I too was in, like, a 20-something year relationship that is no longer and it's uncomfortable,” she says. “Especially in the beginning, you go through all of these crazy ups and downs and devastations, but you start to understand that you have to navigate through friendships that you've gained.”
While the question of whether or not Michael will be able to get back on his feet is one that only Uncoupled can answer, Harris gives us reason to be optimistic about learning how to find love in the real world — or at least on the apps. “First line [of my Tinder bio] would probably be ‘Just broken up with…..not sure what I'm supposed to do…anxious for suggestions….physically,’” he says. “And no emojis. Fuck emojis.” See? He got the hang of it really quickly.
