Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Uncoupled’ On Netflix, Where Neil Patrick Harris Is A Man Starting Over After Being Dumped By His Longtime Partner

We’re unabashed fans of Neil Patrick Harris, ever since he came back to peoples consciousnesses as a tweaked version of himself in Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle and cemented during his nine years as Barney Stinson on How I Met Your Mother. His presence in a project often elevates it, because of his ability to seamlessly marry the funny and emotional. In a new Netflix series, NPH plays a middle-aged man who finds himself suddenly single after a 17-year relationship.

UNCOUPLED: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A New York apartment. Two men are in bed together; one is wishing the other a happy birthday after some morning nookie. “I think I just got you and your year off to a great start,” Michael Lawson (Neil Patrick Harris) tells his partner, Colin McKenna (Tuc Watkins).

The Gist: It’s Colin’s 50th birthday, and while Michael says that they’re just going to have a quiet dinner out, Michael is really planning a surprise party. While he’s showing an apartment with his business partner Suzanne Prentiss (Tisha Campbell), he gets word that some items have gone missing from his apartment. Right before they enter the party, Colin drops a bomb: After being together with Michael for 17 years, he’s decided to move out.

Michael is stunned, of course, and he tries his hardest to not let the news affect him, but he tells Colin during a toast that he doesn’t know what he’d do without him. Colin refuses to explain before he leaves for the night.

Of course, Michael wants to fight for their relationship to continue, but he also sees the stark reality of being a gay man in his 40s in New York; he just has no idea how he’s going to start over as a single person. His buddies don’t help: Billy Burns (Emerson Brooks), a weatherman, dates younger guys who see him on TV, and Stanley James (Brooks Ashmanskas), an art dealer, doesn’t even remember the last time he got laid. Stanley bitterly tells Michael that Grindr “is nothing but bottoms, and tops who are also bottoms.”

Colin proposes couples’ therapy, but first Michael has to go see Claire Lewis (Marcia Gay Harden), whom he met at a dinner the night before; her stunning penthouse is going on the market because her longtime husband left her. He sees himself in her story, but gets her all riled up as she talks about it. The session with the therapist seems to go well as far as Michael is concerned, but he did most of the talking. Colin lets him know the next day, in no uncertain terms, that this isn’t just a phase.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? It’s not a stretch to say that Uncoupled is a male version of Sex And The City (or at the very least And Just Like That…). Given that Darren Starr is one of the show’s creators (along with Modern Family’s Jeffrey Richman), the comparison is pretty spot on.

Our Take: There was this gnawing feeling we got while watching Uncoupled. We didn’t hate it by any means; it can be very funny in parts, clever in others. NPH, is fantastic of course, which we see in the scene where he can barely hold back his emotions as Michael directs a veiled plea to Colin during his birthday toast. The show’s cast is stellar. But the show feels like its less than the sum of its parts, with a lot of aspects that feel sorely underdeveloped.

Let’s start with Colin, a handsome investment banker who looks great in his custom suit. He’s uncomfortable about turning 50, and he wants space from his relationship with Michael. That’s all we really know about him, and through the first two episodes, we don’t learn all that much much. We get very little information about why Michael and Colin were drawn to each other at all. Heck, Claire gives us more info about her failed marriage in one scene than we get from Michael about him and Colin.

We’re not sure if that lack of information is designed to get us to focus on Michael and the trials and tribulations of being a single, middle-aged gay man in New York, but Colin’s presence as an empty vessel that Michael can dump his feelings into was frustrating.

It doesn’t help that Billy and Stanley feel like characters we’ve seen before, ones that seem very familiar to both Starr’s and Richman’s most prominent shows. Again, they both have their moments, but they’re there to be a Greek chorus for Michael’s complaining about Colin, and there doesn’t seem to be much of a chance that Billy will be more than a lover of “shallow twinks” and Stanley will be more than just a bitter old queen.

Campbell’s character has a bit more depth, and it’s great to see her in a role that’s much more dynamic than a mom or wife at this stage of her career. But, again, she’s just a sounding board at this point.

Maybe that’s why we’re having difficulty with Uncoupled. It’s a very likeable show, but the nagging feeling that it’s a showcase for NPH, with an assist from Harden, won’t go away. If that’s what you’re watching it for, you won’t be disappointed. But if you’re looking for a show with an ensemble of multi-dimensional characters surrounding Harris, you’re going to be as frustrated as we were.

Sex and Skin: Aside from that opening shot of Michael and Colin in bed, there’s nothing in the first two episodes. We’re figuring that there will be some more skin as the season goes along, but it could all be more talk than anything else.

Parting Shot: Michael gets a call from Suzanne; she knows where Colin is living and who he’s living with.

Sleeper Star: We say this a lot, but we almost want to see a show about Marsha Gay Harden’s character Claire Lewis. She’s always a regal presence in whatever show she’s in, but here we love seeing that regal presence lose her shit repeatedly over the fact that her fat husband left her.

Most Pilot-y Line: “How in the fuck did you get up here? You’re supposed to be announced!” yells Claire to Suzanne, who’s late to her and Michael’s appointment.

Our Call: STREAM IT. While there’s a lot about Uncoupled that’s frustratingly shallow, Harris’ performance and the show’s frequent funny moments are more than enough to keep us watching.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.