Mickey And Gus Aren’t F*ck Ups In ‘Love’ – They’re Just Millennials

In the first episode of Netflix comedy Love, Gillian Jacobs’ Mickey stands on stage at an LA rental space turned spiritual retreat for the night, and delivers one of the series’ finest monologues.
“Hi guys, sorry I’m on Ambien, so…You said earlier that if you ask for love, the world will send you love back. But I’ve been asking and asking, and I haven’t gotten fucking anything. Hoping and waiting and wishing and wanting love. Hoping for love has fucking ruined my life. You’re right, Eric, I am a fuck up. I’m really sorry. But I refuse to believe that all those dipshits I went to high school with who are married now and putting pictures on Facebook every day of their kids in little headbands have figured it all out. Right, that’s gotta be bullshit? That can’t be the deal, that can’t be it.”
And while Mickey remains fairly in touch with her feelings, even when she is masking them to the outside world, it’s one of the more honest moments of the show. And this show is packed with honest moments.
Except for one thing. Mickey, and to somewhat of a lesser degree, Gus (Paul Rust), believe they are fuck ups. They think they are totally alone in the world and the only one of their kind and their problems are uniquely theirs. I don’t want to be the one to break it to them, because they might not bother to believe me, but, nope. They aren’t fuck ups. In fact, perhaps surprisingly to them, they have their lives together pretty well, and certainly better than many of their closest peers. Their number one problem is that they are a millennials.

These two, in their early 30’s, suffer from an infliction that the internet likes to diagnose as “old millennials.” They’ve got the millennial date of birth and traits to match, while not wanting to admit that they do, which is just the grumpy characteristic all us old millennials have inherited from the generation before us. But I calls it like I sees it, and these two are definitely old millennials.
Let’s start with Gus. This dude loves to believe he’s socially awkward, and to a degree he is. Creating movie theme songs with your friends on the reg? While the subject is nerdy, the fact that you can fill up your living room each time with a group of like-minded pals, immediately disqualifies you from even using the word “awkward.” Oh, and that living room? He’s got a decent job as an on-set tutor for child actors that pays him enough money to live on his own, no roommates necessary. Sure, he’s just moved out of the place he was sharing with his long-term girlfriend. Yeah, he had a long-term girlfriend! Is this guy secretly a Hemsworth? I mean, have you even heard of a cooler guy?
Ok fine, we don’t need to go calling him “cool” just yet. But he is certainly hip. He arranges for a whole dinner date and trip to the Magic Castle to impress Mickey. That takes some real planning and thinking ahead. Gus isn’t the kind guy that expects you to Netflix and chill on the first night. And can we just talk for a second about how he confessed his feelings to Mickey? In episode 5 “The Date”, after spending a horrendous date with Mickey’s roommate Bertie (Claudia O’Doherty), Gus totally ‘fesses up to his feelings for Mickey. And not even over text or by fav’ing a bunch of her Tweets, but in person!

“Mickey, you know I like you,” he starts. “I don’t have a lot of dignity but I have enough dignity to say, like, hey, I don’t like being pawned off on another girl. I’m not just like some nice guy who’s always gonna be around for you to fuck with. I’m not dumb, I know what this is. I get it, you’re not interested it’s cool. We can just say it’s cool, pleasure to meet you.”
This was a brave ass way for this dude to handle that situation, and a rather astute observation on his point. Most would lurk or stalk online but either not pick up on her signals, or not have the balls to be totally upfront with a woman they considered out of their league.
Mickey responds with the ultimate millennial move, unexpectedly kissing Gus with no warning. And it’s not a bad thing! Gus asks himself the question we were all thinking, “What the fuck was that?” And the answer is: Mickey getting her shit together.

This woman realizes she’s standing in front of a good dude, a type she should certainly try hanging out with more often. She apologizes to her ex Eric for being a “fuck up”, but no, she’s not. They just weren’t a match. Millennials LOVE blaming a failed relationship on themselves and where they’re at in their life. But this chick has got a pretty decent job as a producer at a satellite radio company (perhaps the most millennial job to ever exist, and I would know because I’ve done it) and a really nice place to live. She’s got some intimacy and substance issues, so she thinks that makes her a fuck up, but the fact that she acknowledges those issues and works to both control and correct them, does not make her a fuck up. It makes her young adult who is scared about officially being considered an adult in the world.
Mickey and Gus have issues, yes, and due to the exact time they entered the Earth, this makes them believe they are ultra flawed, more so than their peers. Sadly for them, that is not the case. Millennials are the first generation to live their issues out loud. No previous generation has talked about handling substances and mental health and workplace behaviors in the ways that we have. So it might seem like uncharted territory, but millions of people before us have dealt with those same exact conundrums and it worked out just fine, for the most part.
The end of season 1 finds each of them getting overzealous about different aspects of their life. Gus chases the credit he believes he deserves for coming up with a storyline for the drama TV show he works on, while backing up a little bit from Mickey due to another flow of female attention that comes his way. Meanwhile, Mickey backs away from her job in order to not make a messy situation even messier. The same cannot be said for her relationship with Gus. Feeling him pulling away a bit, she shows up on his set, in a last-last resort move that comes dangerously close to seeing the duo lose what means the most to them in that moment (his job, her relationship).
Back at the gas station where it all began, with a little bit of honesty and empathy and a lot of hope, Gus and Mickey prove their millennial status once and for all, by presumably moving forward with their relationship, millennial warts and all. In that moment, they’re each finding the courage to put their seemingly gigantic personal inadequacies aside in order to show the other person that their baggage isn’t so bad, and won’t stop them from being together. Millennials: blowing their own flaws out of proportion while remaining unswayed and happily accepting others’ imperfections for what they are.
[Watch Love on Netflix]