I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t counting the days and waiting for June 19th, not because it was my birthday but because OWN’s newest show was set to premiere.
I’m already obsessed with Mara Brock Akil because… Girlfriends. But when you consider the many other amazing shows on her resume then add her talented husband Salim Akil to the mix, it’s no wonder I was waiting for “Love Is __” at the door!
The show loosely follows the early days of the Akils’ relationship and is already inspiring folks after just one episode. Just look up the tweets… Folks are saying they believe in love again and all that good stuff. I think I’m in love with the show for an entirely different reason but we’ll get into that in just a moment. Let’s start with a super quick recap real quick:
The show begins when a man and woman meet in a cafe and chat briefly about their dreams of making it in Hollywood but the actual love story starts a year later after the woman has had an extreme glow up.
Nuri is a beautiful TV-writer who’s successful, just bought a house and is entertaining three different men at the same dang time just because she can. She’s worked hard to make the dream she talked about in the cafe a reality and won’t settle for a scrub by any means. She wants a man who’s equally yoked and verbalizes that on multiple occasions. She reminds me of so many women, the ones who work hard and make ish happen but feel pressure to “settle” romantically.
The man from the cafe, on the other hand, is 33-year-old Yasir. He went back home to the Bay and seemingly waited a year to chase that dream he spoke of. He’s now jobless and living with a woman who could be considered his girlfriend but she’s more like a convenient roommate who’d be romantically interested and more supportive if he only had income coming in. It’s obvious from the jump that they’re not compatible but that’s mainly because she’s tired of financially supporting a grown man while he chases a dream that she thinks is impossible. You know what they say, romance without finance is a nuisance…
When Nuri and Yasir happen to run into one another on Melrose, he’s confident as can be and invites her to a concert that his girlfriend/roommate didn’t want to go to. He even goes as far as to give her his phone number. To the phone that rings in the place he’s staying in for free with another woman. Whooo chile, he’s bold! Long story short, after consulting with a friend Nuri calls Yasir and invites him out to turn down his concert invitation in person and it doesn’t work out like she thought it would. Instead, they spend hours together in the same cafe they originally met in and kiss at the end of the night.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t tell you about the one part of last night’s show that had me side-eyeing my television screen. At the end of Nuri and Yasir’s chill session, he asks her what she’d say if they’d already been dating for a year and she says “I’d say I love you.” Next thing you hear is Yasir saying “I love you, too… So let’s cut the bulls—t and get on with living this life together.”
Come on now, that was fast… I gotta know how true to life that part was!
One theme I took from the show is that in love, there’s bound to be some collateral damage and/or people caught in the crossfire. Yasir is likely going to hurt Ruby, the woman he’s living with. If she feels used and disrespected, she won’t be wrong. And it seems like Nuri already hurt one of her boy toys when she made it clear that she wasn’t looking for love from him. Also, the show depicts the fact that love is not always going to look how you want it to. Nuri is about to fall in love with a man with no money, no job, no place to stay and did I hear that he has a kid at the end too?
This is getting good….
Overall, the show gives you 90’s vibes through and through. From the fashion to”Living Single” being shown on the television to the music selections. So much thought went into telling this love story and I can’t wait to keep watching. Shout out to OWN for continuing to give us content that we can see ourselves in. I swear I love Auntie Oprah Winfrey and her network.