‘Modern Love’: Come For The Stories, Stay for the TV Series and Future Merch

Ah, modern love. It is, to put it mildly, a mess: Dating apps abound while communication skills do not. It began as a New York Times column that debuted on Halloween in 2004, became a podcast, and is now a TV show that Amazon will soon bring to a laptop screen near you. The New York Times, in conjunction with WBUR Cityspace, held a preview in Boston on Oct. 6 to showcase one of the eight episodes to be available. Each episode is about 30 minutes long — the one previewed, “Rallying to Keep the Game Alive,” stars Tina Fey and John Slattery as Ann and Denis Leary. Ann Leary submitted the essay upon which the episode is loosely based — very loosely, as she said during the panel discussion following the episode. If the rest of the season will be like this episode, audiences will be lucky: The cinematography is excellent, and the metaphors are abundant.

What metaphors, you ask? A key feature of “Rallying to Keep the Game Alive” is a repeated tennis match that winds up anchoring the couple together and patching things up, at least for the duration of the episode. At the start, they are novices and wear dark, mismatched colors, while by the end both are wearing white and playing the game according to the rules.

While some of the lines are a tad cliché — “I hate who I am with you now” — and the symbolism is plainly obvious, this episode, and hopefully the rest of the season, has important things to say about love. They may not be new, but that’s really how love works: At our core, we’re still dealing with the same feelings, ideas, and difficulties that our predecessors grappled with at one point too. It’s just that now, the format is different — podcasts, online columns, and TV shows, anyone? — and the audience is perhaps wider.

The discussion after the 28-minute episode focused largely on production of the show and how it came to be. Translating an essay to the small screen is not necessarily the same thing as adapting a work of fiction; there’s less descriptive prose, more narratorial interiority, and, of course, the fact that the original text deals with real, living people who may end up watching the episode themselves. As Leary explained to Daniel Jones, editor of the column, seeing the episode for the second time was a strange experience.

For those familiar with the column, perhaps watching will be strange for them, too: There’s something unique about the format of an essay, which can zoom in and out of the narrator’s point of view, focus on the interiority of another character, become prose-like, and meditate on the self. It’s non-fiction but creative, and some of the genre’s beauty comes from the reader’s ability to fill in the gaps. As a TV show, however, there aren’t necessarily any gaps to fill, since the director and costume designer have taken care of many of the details. That’s not to say that the TV adaptation of “Modern Love” won’t be a success, but some of the joy of the written version has dissipated.

Of course, for those who will end up loving the show and can’t get enough (‘Tiny Love Stories,” 100-word mini love tales that are an off-shoot of “Modern Love,” is incredibly addictive), there will be, at one point, merchandise for those who want to wear their love publicly, featuring removable tattoos, clothes, and pajamas.

If you’re taking notes or desperate for love advice — and thought this episode would have some concrete takeaways — Jones and Leary had some to offer at the end of the discussion: Some keys to marriage include having a good sense of humor, being as kind to your partner as you are to others, and playing tennis with them — not against them. Problem solved?

—Staff writer Cassandra Luca can be reached at cassandra.luca@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @cassandraluca_