Every February 14th, I notice two distinct personalities arising. There are those that gush over flowers and chocolate and overpriced steak dinners in candlelight, and then there are those anti-Valentine’s day people that would rather veer away from social media to avoid all the marriage proposal announcements on their news feed. Both of these personalities seem cliched, but I like to believe that I’m somewhere in the middle. While I don’t like being reminded of my everlasting membership in The Lonely Hearts Club, I do enjoy spending time with my lovely friends/family and watching a good ol’ Rom-Com. Plus, the sales on chocolate are unbelievable this time of year.
A fan of romance or not, I come bearing you with a new show to watch, one that will really pull on your heartstrings: Lovesick. I know, love is the last thing you want to think about but this show is so true to all the aspects of it: falling head over heels, enduring heartbreak, the awkward milestones. But this British comedy portrays it in the most unconventional way.
The storyline follows Dylan, a hopeless romantic, who just found out he has chlamydia. He embarks on a journey to notify all of his previous sexual partners of his illness and to encourage them to get tested as well. Running into your exes is awkward enough, but telling them you’ve got chlamydia has got to be a thousand times more weird. Even though this show’s plot is based on a sexual disease, it is very light-hearted and fun. And we owe that to Dylan’s two best friends Luke and Evie.
I think the craft of this show is what sets it apart from all the others. The cinematography is beautiful first of all, and those stills of England only entice my wanderlust. The show has some great music (some of my personal faves of are in it), and the interactions between the characters are quite comical. But the thing I love the most is how the show really plays with time, each episode being a different one of Dylan’s exes and showing how each relationship disintegrated. It bounces back and forth from the present to years or months in the past. It’s very intriguing to see how the characters first meet and how they evolve through their different relationships.
Now the purpose of this article is to get you to watch it and strongly request a season three just like I am at this moment. I know there are people who hate starting new shows because they just drag on, but fear not! Lovesick only has two season, the first containing six episodes and the second eight. And each episode is about 20 minutes long. It’s easy to breeze through, but it’s even easier to fall in love with it.
Even though this show is meant to be a comedy (it’s original title was Scrotal Recall, for crying out loud), it’s very bittersweet. There are a couple of heartbreaking moments, but the show definitely makes up for it with it’s humor and intermingling plots. Lovesick has really made me appreciate love, all forms of it. Romantic love, love of friends, love of family, love of life. It sounds cheesy, but love is what makes us human at the end of the day. And I definitely think that that is something worth celebrating.
