Due to an underwhelming first season, Netflix canceled the Neil Patrick Harris-led gay rom-com series, titled Uncoupled, in January. Now, a few weeks after its cancellation, television network Showtime, which will soon be rebranded as Paramount+ with Showtime, has picked up the show, with plans to develop at least one more season.
Per Deadline, Showtime believes the show is a perfect fit for one of it’s three primary content categories branded Metro Cultures, which will feature content with "culturally diverse takes," like The L Word and The Chi. The other categories are Powerful Worlds, which will include shows like Homeland and Billions, and Complex Characters, which will feature shows with unconventional heroes like Dexter and Yellowjackets.
According to the report, Uncoupled will be edgier and racier in its new home, which is hardly a surprise given that similar diverse shows like The L Word and The Chi attract some of the platform’s most loyal audiences.
Interestingly, Uncoupled had a great debut week as it landed in fifth position on the Netflix Top 10 television series list. The show also raked in impressive reviews from critics and audiences with 73% and 76% Rotten Tomatoes ratings respectively. Unfortunately, Uncoupled couldn’t sustain its popularity as it disappeared from the Top 10 after only one week.
Uncoupled follows a gay real estate agent, Michael Lawson, in the aftermath of his abrupt breakup with long-term partner Colin McKenna. It chronicles Lawson’s attempts to adjust to being single in his late 40s as well as reentering the Manhattan dating scene, which he finds is much different from what it was 17 years prior.
Set in New York City, Uncoupled stars Harris in the lead role as Lawson. It also stars Tuc Watkins, Tisha Campbell, Marcia Gay Harden, Emerson Brooks, Brooks Ashmanskas, Andre De Shields, Colin Hanlon, and Jai Rodriguez. They play McKenna, Suzanne Prentiss, Claire Lewis, Billy Burns, Stanley James, Jack, Jonathan, and Jonathan respectively.
The romantic comedy show was created by Darren Star and Jeffrey Richman. While Richman is often mentioned in relation to Modern Family, Star is one of MTV Entertainment Studios’ top creators with shows like Sex and the City, Emily in Paris, and Younger as part of its portfolio. Star has an overall deal with Showtime and has been trying to get the platform to pick up the show since last year. While he was unsuccessful at first, fans of the gay rom-com will be glad that his efforts eventually yielded fruit.
By the way, Uncoupled is not the only show that is switching between Showtime and Netflix, as Showtime’s limited miniseries, Ripley, has moved in the opposite direction. The Andrew Scott-led show is slated for release sometime in late 2023 or early 2024, and apparently, conversations for both shows occurred on parallel tracks.
In the meantime, fans can revisit Uncoupled’s first season on Netflix.
