photo via Instagram, @dramaqueentv
Now we might never know if Michael took Colin back!
Netflix just announced the cancellation of Uncoupled starring Neil Patrick Harris after just one season. The comedy followed the story of Michael (Harris), a newly single gay man navigating the dating world after being dumped by his husband of almost twenty years. The show created by Darren Star also starred Tuc Watkins, Tisha Campbell, Brooks Ashmanskas, Emerson Brooks, and Marcia Gay Harden.
Hey @netflix – what the hell? #Uncoupled was a great show that absolutely deserved a second season. Please reconsider your terrible decision to cancel it. Please! #LGBTQ pic.twitter.com/duZlqeZTnv
— Paul Ilett (@Paul_Ilett) January 14, 2023
The synopsis of the show, as reported on by Entertainment Weekly over the weekend, centers on “Michael (Harris), a luxury real estate agent who is perfectly content with his life and 17-year relationship with his boyfriend, Colin (Watkins)… until they suddenly break up. Tossed back into the dating pool, Michael must learn to sink or swim — and correctly send dick pics — if he wants to find love again.”
The show drew mixed reviews from the queer community, with many, like me, enjoying it while many others took online to hate on the show. Not every “gay show” can represent everyone in the community, nor should it. We can now add Uncoupled to the growing list of gay shows canceled before their time, like the Queer as Folk reboot on Peacock, also axed after one season.
I’m actually really disappointed and concerned with @netflix canceling #Uncoupled
Tisha Campbell, sex and the city vibes, and gay content that’s not corny. I hate getting invested in shows
— Big Kit (@StevieDwayne) January 14, 2023
Disappointing news. Netflix cancels “Uncoupled” after just one season. pic.twitter.com/41BPgPhPfV
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) January 14, 2023
Last July Instinct reported on NPH’s hunt for the best d*ck pic for his character of Michael. At the time, the Tony award-winning actor said,
“We started looking through photos of people who have taken pics of their dongs in locker rooms. And you had to find the right angle and girth and manscapery. I think we found the right mix. I’m proud of what I’m packing downstairs.”
As a straight guy born in the late 70s I never thought I’d see an openly gay sitcom. #Uncoupled with NPH is a breath of fresh air. I give zero shits about anyone’s preferences, it’s just people dealing with people things.
— Mason the Hermit (@masonbailey) July 31, 2022
I am very upset at @netflix I loved this show and was invested in a Season 2!!!! #Uncoupled https://t.co/Qu24B3EATG
— Kingston Jael (@kingston_jael) January 15, 2023
Netflix have cancelled #Uncoupled are you actually fucking joking?!?!
— Atholl (@AthollMills) January 14, 2023
What about you Instincters? Would you take Colin back? Bummed about Uncoupled being canceled? Sound off in the comments below.
Sources: Entertainment Weekly
The show was somewhat painful to watch…really sick of Hollywood portraying every gay man as some wealthy, affected, self centered, urbanite that lives in the coolest part of town in the hippest apartment with blankets from Hermes and cabinets full of top shelf liquor. Boring!! How about some reality once in a while? Neil Patrick Harris is not my cup of tea and his character certainly didn’t get any sympathy from me.
On the bright side, Tisha Campbell was a delight and I wouldn’t mind her being one of my bestest friends. Her character was totally believable and much more interesting than Harris’. Marsha Gay Harden is a seasoned, talented actress but it seems like her talents were pretty much wasted here, I wonder if she looked at the role as just a “paycheck”?? Who needs Neil Patrick Harris when NETFLIX already has three series with the sizzling Spaniard, Carlos Cuevas….YUM!!! 😉
I liked Sex and the City when it was on and found the movies okay enough to catch the first one as a DVD rental shortly after it came out but it took me a long time to look for the second one and I know I didn’t miss much. It’s not that I’ve outgrown or lost interest in this kind of material or that I want something like Big Eden (which felt, in parts, like a chore to get through the entire thing) or some suburban version of a gay neighborhood, set in the mid west or some such. But the trailers to this, the clips on line just made it feel uninteresting. I really like NPH and I am sorry this was cancelled, but just like I found Q-Force not worth a Netflix subscription (I saw the entire show one weekend while dog sitting for a friend at their house), I’m sure I would have felt the same way about this and just didn’t even want to check it out.
Even though Grace and Frankie is more about the woman and Lily Tomlin gets written as such an annoying character that it takes me forever to get through a season, Netflix is actually capable of doing gay characters and giving them significant time on screen so there’s another problem happening here, but it’s definitely a problem.
I’m sad it got cancelled only because I’ve worked on the edges of Hollywood and I know this means a lot of jobs people lost, and that studios/broadcasters/streamers will be less willing to try/take on gay leads, but I wouldn’t waste my time tweeting about it or doing anything else.
As with most gay shows that get cancelled I’m sad about it. I would have loved a 2nd season. It got mostly good reviews and a 7/10 on IMDB. Well hopefully another great gay show gets made soon.
I despised this show. I couldn’t get past Episode 3. Neil Patrick Harris’ character was such an unlikable piece of dog shit that I could not care less what happened to him or his cartoonish friends. And he was a producer on this show, so he had complete control over his portrayal and the show’s direction. They needed to watch The Comeback for a master class in writing and portraying an unlikeable person with the depth, pain, desperation, and hilarity of Lisa Kudrow’s Valerie Cherish. This was such a disappointment, and I’m sad I have to continue to live in a desert of underproduced gay content. Had Netflix took a stronger hand in making the character stomachable, maybe it might have been watched more and renewed.
It’s a shame a lot of these LGBTQ shows are getting cancelled many of which stars queer actors. I hate that the queer community asks for representation and when we get it we don’t watch it because it doesn’t represent everyone. There are so many different types of queer ppl and we are getting different stories. Uncoupled is not targeted towards me but I enjoyed the show for what it was. A very gay version of SATC.