Netflix has dropped the first images and teaser trailer of Neil Patrick Harris in his new, gay-themed comedy series.
As previously reported on Queerty, the Netflix show is about a gay man who thought he had a near-perfect life … until he gets dumped by his long-term partner and finds himself having to navigate single life in New York in his mid-40s.
Related: Neil Patrick Harris and Tuc Watkins to play gay couple who split up in new Netflix series
The show, called Uncoupled, has been created and executive produced by Darren Star (Younger and Emily in Paris) and Modern Family executive producer Jeffrey Richman.
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According to a press release from Netflix yesterday, the eight-part series of half-hour episodes drops on July 29.
Playing the long-term partner who dumps Michael (Harris) will be Tuc Watkins, best known for his role in Desperate Housewives and, more recently, Netflix’s The Boys In The Band. Watkins will play hedge-fund manager Colin.
Related: A photo of Neil Patrick Harris in grey sweatpants is drawing attention
Series regulars will include Tisha Campbell (Dr. Ken), Emerson Brooks (The Last Ship), and Brooks Ashmanskas (The Good Lord Bird). Another recurring role will be taken by Oscar-winner Marcia Gay Harden, who will play a rich socialite going through her own divorce woes.
Check out the teaser trailer below.
Kangol2
I’m planning to watch this because Neil Patrick Harris and Tisha Campbell are in it and it does sound interesting, but why are so many TV shows like this today focused on rich people? What about the vast majority of middle and working-class gay men (and straight and LBTQ people, for that matter) who aren’t hedge funders or doctors or dating or married to them, etc.? Anyways, I plan to give it a try and hope it offers a storyline that even passingly looks like realistic for a 40-something character in today’s New York.
GlobeTrotter
I’ve been asking myself the same question since Sex and the City aired 2 decades ago. As a New Yorker living in Europe, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to tell people, “no, we don’t live in palatial apartments overlooking Central Park”, “no, we don’t sleep all day and spend all night at fancy gallery opening soirées á la Carrie Bradshaw”, “no, we don’t go jogging every morning in Central Park”, and “no, we don’t all have glamorous non-jobs like newspaper columnist – as a matter of fact, most of us work in boring 9-to-5 jobs like retail salespersons, or (horror of horrors!) nursing assistants”.
Imagine how different SATC would have been with Carrie Bradshaw having to get her ass up at 6 every morning, wearing flat shoes or sneakers on the subway to her job as a sales rep.
bachy
Along the same lines, I hope the show is not just about rose bouquets, Armani suits, champagne brunches, engagement parties and engraved wedding invitations– but includes a more realistic view of urban gay life in your 40s.
dbmcvey
Most of the people creating (or greenlighting) these shows are not working class.
SFMike
It’s been unchallenged truth in Hollywood since film began that the public doesn’t want to watch the lives of working-class people as movies are supposed to be an escape. It’s all escapism and promoting the capitalist American dream that become harder and harder for anyone to obtain.
AJAnders
I kind of feel the same way with the overabundance of shows that take place in New York. How about some originality? Gay men do exist outside of New York.
But I’ll still watch.
nm4047
most likely because research shows viewing audience(s) don’t want to watch their every day lives on TV. They want to watch escapist shows about the lives they dream of. Not too much interest in watching someone come home from work via the supermarket to then put together a meal, bath the kids, put them to bed to then sit down and watch reruns on TV or some reality trash TV then nodding off before going to bed for the 5am wakeup alarm.
Heywood Jablowme
There IS a market for working class / downscale sitcoms, but they’re traditionally on ABC. The best current example is Abbott Elementary which is set at an impoverished school in Philadelphia. (It’s a smash, btw – so much for broadcast TV being dead?) It streams on Hulu in case you don’t have ‘rabbit ears’. I haven’t seen the whole series yet, but I’d love to see an openly gay teacher get assigned to Abbott Elementary!
startenout
I have to beg to differ with these people saying “research proves” and “people don’t want” to see middle class, working class or even downright poor families depicted on TV. There are numerous comedies and dramas based on working class lives, and I am talking about historically on TV across generations.
Many of the most enduringly famous comedies were about families struggling to make ends meet from The Honeymooners, I Love Lucy, All in the Family, Good Times and What’s Happening up to Roseanne, Everybody Hates Chris, Malcolm in the Middle, Superstore, One Day At A Time and Abbott Elementary.
The Simpsons is in it’s 4th decade!
There is most certainly an audience for realism in comedy just as there is for extravagance. I mean from Working Girl to Jane the Virgin, who doesn’t like to see the working class girl get ahead and even thrive in moneyed society without losing herself?
lou lou de la falaise
How true, being poor in NYC is a tragedy, not a comedy. They are on SVU.
Cam
Waiting for the right wing troll to come in here under another screename with an invented reason as to why nobody should watch any shows about LGBTQ people.
monty clift
Glad to see Tuc Watkins in this too. Wonderful, handsome man.
humble charlie
I know I’m not in the majority here, but Harris’ charm escapes me. He is a very limited and not very interesting actor. Is it that I find closet-cases more exciting?
bachy
@humble charlie: Frankly I feel the same way– he just doesn’t do it for me. I suspect that NP Harris’ appeal, like Sarah Jessica Parker’s, is based on the fact that most of their fans first encountered them as child actors (NPH in Doogie Howser, MD and SJP in Square Pegs). We watched them grow up and perhaps feel a kind of kinship? In our digital media-saturated society, actors with successful, decades-long television careers are our longest-term “friends.”
IanHunter
I am looking forward to this. Please let it be great.
Wheelerman
I will be watching because I have been a big fan of Tuc Watkins since his days as David Vickers on One Life To Live. I’ve followed his career since, and was fortunate to have seen him in The Boys in the Band on Broadway. His was the only autograph I wanted at the stage door…and I got it! He is a friendly fella, and handsome af. I hope the series is worth the watch. I expect good things from Tuc!
johncp56
I love him,