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The next Sex and the City: Stan's Love Life is the new rom-com series everyone's talking about.

 

New York City is home to a lot of things. From endless museums and restaurants to fashion and entertainment, the city is often described as the cultural capital of the entire world.

But more than anything, the Big Apple is home to some of the best romantic comedies of all time.

Stan’s new series Love Life – billed as a “fresh take on a romantic comedy anthology series” – is the latest to join a long list of romantic comedies filmed in New York City.

Watch the trailer for Love Life, available exclusively on Stan, below. Post continues after video.

Like Sex and the City before it, Love Life follows the story of Darby Carter (played by Anna Kendrick, who also serves as executive producer), a young woman working in the art museum world, who is determined to find a stable, long-term relationship.

When we first meet Darby, we learn that she carries some pretty heavy emotional baggage. At four years old, her parents divorced, meaning that she spent most of her childhood years being carted between her two parents and their new families.

In her early twenties, Darby leaves home, as she moves into the kind of over-sized, impeccably clean New York City apartment that only ever appears on screen.

Living with her roommates Sara (Zoe Chao), Mallory (Sasha Compere), and Jim (The Bold Type’s Peter Vack), viewers watch Darby over almost a decade of her life – from her underemployed youth to her more mature adulthood.

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Each 30-minute episode of the 10-episode series is told through the relationship with one significant person in Darby’s life.

The series begins in 2012, when Darby meets a witty political reporter named Augie (Jin Ha) at a late-night karaoke birthday party.

Despite their relationship taking place over a single 30-minute episode, each episode in the series manages to cover a lot of ground. In the premiere episode, Darby and Augie manage to go through almost all of the stages of early dating – from hooking up to “why isn’t he texting me?” to routine sleepovers, and so on.

As the series continues – and Kendrick’s character continues to grow a little older and wiser – each episode follows a similar anthology structure.

Listen to the latest episode of The Spill, Mamamia’s daily entertainment podcast. Post continues below.

Darby meets a new guy, they fall in love (or even just have a short fling), and along the way, Darby faces a number of romantic mistakes. Sometimes, a few months pass between episodes, while other times, a few years pass.

Throughout the series, many of the relationships that Darby faces follow well-known rom-com relationship tropes. There’s the sophisticated older man, the obviously-wrong-for-you-guy, the high school fling, the flaky bad boy, and so on.

In fact, every man in the series seems oddly… familiar. For viewers, you’ll either have dated one, or you’ve watched from afar as your friend did.

While the series has been likened to Sex and the City and The Bold Type thanks to its central themes and NYC setting, Love Life lacks the supporting character development seen in the two series.

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Unlike Sex and the City and The Bold Type, Love Life doesn’t delve into much of Darby’s life outside her endless quest for love.

While the men she meets are given attention throughout the season, we see little of Darby’s outside world, including her close friendship with her roommates.

Generally, her single quest in life seems to be to find love in what the narrator Lesley Manville describes as a “carefully constructed fantasy that getting married was some sort of proof, once and for all, that she was lovable”.

Despite what the series lacks in supporting character development, one of the strengths of the series undoubtedly lies in Anna Kendrick’s portrayal of Darby.

love life stan
Image: Supplied/Stan.
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Love Life is the first full-length scripted TV series to star the Academy Award-nominated actress, and Kendrick manages to anchor the show with her almost effortless performance.

Throughout the series, the actress comes across as both charming and funny when she's not trying to be, making the audience root for her despite her obvious (and frequent) missteps in her romantic life.

While playing the same character over the space of a decade or so, Kendrick manages to portray a 20-something bangs-sporting college graduate Darby, and a more mature, adult Darby with complete ease.

Directed by Paul Feig (Bridesmaids), Love Life is the kind of bite-sized series that's easy to watch in a single sitting.

Over 10 episodes at just 30 minutes each, the series is packed full of humour and heart, making it incredibly watchable.

In good news, the series will also be returning for a second season.

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While the series will be once again set in New York City, the second season will focus on a brand new character's journey — one that explores what happens when your find out years into a marriage that it's not the right fit for you.

The upcoming series will also feature characters from the first season, including Darby (Anna Kendrick).

All episodes of Love Life are available to watch on Stan now. Season Two of the series will premiere exclusively on Stan.

Feature Image: Supplied/Stan.


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