First of all, hopeless romansick is a term I made myself. It’s a combination of hopeless romantic and being so sick of being one. It is tiring to become a hopeless romantic for me personally. Therefore, I called it romansick because sick is tiring. Don’t you think? I’ve googled the phrase hopeless romansick and didn’t find any link to urban dictionary. So, if one day you’ll see this term there, you know where it’s from.
Now, Modern Love. It is a TV series. What I didn’t expect from this series, it’s actually an anthology. One story, one episode. Yet, in the end — I’m going to spill spoilers so — each of the episodes are correlated. I’m going to rewatch it again perhaps to understand the timeline, which episode comes first, and so on and so on.
If I could rank my personal favourite from best to okay — I don’t want to say worst because for me none of them are — it starts with episode 2 followed by 3, 1, 8, 4, 7, 5, and 6. This order is very personal and I don’t expect people to agree with this.
The main factor about episode 2 that makes me like it so much is because how relatable it is to me. I had a relationship that started to be a thing after we went to a zoo. And yes, we also stared at primates back then. Although the storyline is unlike this one — I currently don’t have any lover and he’s not an app developer — it gives me a nostalgic feeling about how things used to be. Besides, if I were interviewed by a journalist and asked have I ever been in love, I surely would tell this story like Joshua did.
Episode 3 has the unexpected plot twist for me. This episode kind of giving me the vibe of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend series with all the music and the dancing. I was so frustrated watching this one because it’s so depressing how a could be becomes something that could not (at the moment). The thing that makes me like this episode is Lexi’s colleague at work, Sylvia, who turned down a meeting for Lexi. She is willing to understand Lexi. She is giving Lexi a time to explain and to be present, because she know Lexi may not be as available as this in the next hour.
The first episode is a tear-jerker. It is annoying at first. Guzmin is a character that is very sweet but tough. Seeing how he treats Maggie kind of makes me think of how an older brother or a father being cold to his younger sister or his daughter’s lover. I, myself, am the only child so I can’t relate to the older brother cold and toughness towards younger sister. But my dad, he is cold and tough towards my guy friends. I can feel how annoyed Maggie is in the story. Sometimes I even don’t want my friends — both men and women — to meet my parents just because I am afraid of their judgments.
The rest of the episodes serves different kind of love that may not be portrayed a lot in televisions or movies. A story of surrogate and the parents, an elder romance, an (almost) one night stand gone wrong, a woman with father issue, and an almost divorced married couple. This series is an anthology but it is better to watch it in order rather than shuffling the order.
In food tasting, there’s a term called aftertaste. It is the remaining taste on the tongue after the food is being swallowed. Now, after I finish watching Modern Love surely the feeling of longing lingers. I want what they have, if only I could be them, if only someone loves me that much. It is never disappointing to discover that someone loves you, or at least give you extra care or attention. Maybe Guzmin was quite creepy at first, but it is actually understandable. He has been there for years and so does Maggie. This relationship can also be your relationship with the barista of a cafe you always go to for a date. They have seen you with different potential lovers, yet they don’t have a say. You never know how much they observe your fake laugh, or when you leave the cafe first to make sure the date leave also but you end up coming back to the cafe because you have the next date. Maybe Rob and Yasmine’s relationship is also too fast, but what about Before Sunrise? That is one of the fast relationship too. Both happened in less than a day. There’s a lot more that can be discussed about this series.
As an early 20s woman that is single or self-partnered, this series hits me quite hard. I should put love in my list again. I haven’t thought about being in love (again) for a while now. I mean, I want to. Seeing my friends going here and there together with their lovers. Watching movies, going to music gigs, commuting together, attending each other’s family events, etc. Those are the things I know I could do, but can’t, because I am — unfortunately — single. Nowadays, people may prefer using dating application and such to find partners, but I still can’t see it as an option. I am such an old school when it comes to love finding. Thank you to all the romantic comedy movies I watched in my teenage years, you have give me very high expectation and total non-sense. I don’t regret watching the movies because it was nice to have discussions with my other friends as well as fangirling the men on it. But now, I guess it affects the way I expect how love will come to find me, instead of me finding love itself.
Being a hopeless romantic is very tiring. I’m sick of constantly longing for someone after watching well-written love stories. But if I stop longing, the chance for me to actually find love will also drop. I don’t want that.
This is my prayer for myself an all the other hopeless romansicks out there, hang on. We will someday get what we desire — and deserve for sure.
