Togetherness

After the first season I have to say that this series has a strong acting foundation in its actresses. Melanie Lynskey shows everything she can, and there is stuff to be shown. And Amanda Peet will probably be sexy even when she is a hundred years old. The rest is sort of supplementary and since the humor operates on a wing and a prayer and the main thing addressed here is life itself, I don’t know if I find a reason to watch this series further. Probably not. (07.01.2017)

Season 1 – 90% – HBO is accustomed to dealing with the most ordinary human concerns, and after a few minutes with this quartet, it's impossible not to think of other related pieces from the same network, such as Looking and even more so of Girls. And yet Togetherness takes it a step further because it doesn't rely on an attractive setting. It explores relationships from the perspective of a stable marriage and middle age boundaries and addresses a situation in which two people want to be together and objectively everything is fine – and yet something is wrong somewhere. And to make matters worse, it is something that can't even be named. The writing duo of Mark and Jay Duplass has obviously experienced their fair share, and in their rendering, every partnered dialogue is pure gold, in which you can't help but search for answers to the various questions that plague anyone who takes relationships seriously. The open-minded viewer will reach an understanding that the more experienced may not find surprising. That some things can be resolved, some things will work themselves out, and with some things you can bend over backward, but the problem remains and quietly swells to unbearable proportions. In this endeavor, I root the most for Michelle, played by the beautiful and desirable Melanie Lynskey. When I see how much she wants to keep everything together in the family, even when it isn't easy, especially with someone like Tina giving her advice, I have to wish her familial happiness even more than the others involved. But that doesn't mean I wasn't rooting for Brett and Alex as well, who are the right partners in chaos, and I honestly experienced with them their dissatisfaction with the current situations. And unless we factor in Mary Steenburgen's overblown storyline, there is no competition in the genre of short dramedy. So thanks for this eight-episode series that showed that an unforgettable thing can be created even in minimal space. If this unique atmosphere continues, my decision about this series is clear, and I will recommend it at every opportunity until it becomes tiresome. Season 2 – 90% – Stories of sad realizations about relationships you thought could never surprise you again, in a bad way. Journeys that bring back the sadness of childhood adventures and adolescence that time swept away and that will never return, even if you would trade everything for just a few minutes of them. And a feeling that the Duplass brothers have created melancholy in its purest form. Maybe Brett and Alex are sometimes a bit too foolish, maybe Tina couldn't fully grow on me even in a more acceptable form. But the best stories are sometimes written by life itself. Therefore, the cancellation after only two years is the most painful blow in a long time. The ending, which the creators themselves considered the end of an era, is unfortunately final, but perhaps that's why I can bear it with a smile, albeit a heavily tearful one. (09.02.2016)