Unlike the season 1 finale, where viewers once again met characters like Anne Hathaway’s Lexi and Dev Patel’s Joshua after their individual episodes, Modern Love’s second season never intertwines the stories of each episode’s main characters. While each character exists solely within their own story, the series’ original goal of showing how people can fall in love in more than one way is done with humour, heart, and heartache. This season, viewers are transported from New York City to Dublin to London, to the distant past of the nineties and a not-so-distant past of 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and into the lives of queer teenage girls, widows, and veterans. The message, however, remains the same: everyone falls in love sometime.
Before grabbing a box of Kleenex and sitting down to binge the new season, here are the true stories that inspired each episode of Modern Love is based on this season.
The True Story Behind “On a Serpentine Road, With The Top Down” (Episode 1)
Doris Iarovici wrote about her struggle with selling her late husband’s vintage car in 2016. The Alfa Romeo was a decades old junker that frequently broke down, cost hundreds to upkeep and was dangerous on the road, but her husband took “reasonable risks” for what he loved and Iarovici debates doing the same with the car. Starring Minnie Driver as Stephanie, the episode, in addition to changing the circumstances that selling the car is discussed, recounts more of her relationship with her late husband instead of her relationship with the car — as a symbol of what they had.Photo: Courtesy of Amazon Studios.
The True Story Behind “The Night Girl Finds a Day Boy” (Episode 2)
Amanda Gefter’s essay on living and dating with delayed sleep phase syndrome was published in 2016. Living and working solely during nighttime hours doesn’t turn off Justin, who Gefter meets on a dating website, and the two learn to live in each other’s worlds for the sake of their relationship. The Modern Love adaptation, starring Zoe Chao as Zoe and Gbenga Akinnagbe as Jordan, dives deeper into her emotional attachment to being nocturnal and the more intimate details of their courtship, but it remains largely faithful to the original story. Photo: Courtesy of Amazon Studios.
The True Story Behind “Strangers on a Train” (Episode 3)
A 2020 submission to the Times’ “Tiny Love Stories” column was this 100-word blurb about two people bonding during a six-hour train ride from Paris to Barcelona. Their promise to meet back in the City of Lights two weeks after their first meet cute, however, is cut short by the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Modern Love episode, starring Kit Harington as Michael and Lucy Boynton as Paula, follows the train from Galway to Dublin and makes the act of falling in love by chance the centre of the story.Photo: Courtesy of Amazon Studios.
The True Story Behind “A Life Plan for Two, Followed By One” (Episode 4)
Marina Shifrin’s ode to falling and remaining in love with her lifelong best friend Kevin was published in 2013. She planned lives together from childhood to adulthood, hopeful it would work out while he continued to fall in love with other women. Modern Love’s take on the essay, starring Dominque Fishback as Lil and Isaac Powell as Vince, didn’t go in-depth with the pining originally depicted by Shifrin — like her teenage crush notebook scribbling and her thinking ahead to their hypothetical wedding — and played down an emotionally driven meeting the two have as adults.Photo: Courtesy of Amazon Studios.
The True Story Behind “Am I…? Maybe This Quiz Will Tell Me” (Episode 5)
Katie Heaney’s personal recounting of discovering her sexuality through online quizzes was published in 2018. What began as a fun way to pass the time in middle school became a years long attempt at crafting her perfect life and running from her queer identity. Modern Love’s take on the essay, starring Lulu Wilson as Katie, keeps the story’s setting in middle school and retools it as a coming of age episode. It also showcases how factors like peer pressure can play a role in stunting personal discovery during the tween years.v
The True Story Behind “In The Waiting Room of Estranged Spouses” (Episode 6)
Benjamin Hertwig’s essay on moving on after his wife’s affair was originally published in 2016. Before a therapy session booked to cope with his marriage’s end, Hertwig bumps into the wife of the man his wife cheated on him with in the waiting room. Modern Love’s take on Hertwig’s post-separation journey, starring Anna Paquin as Isabelle and Garrett Hedlund as Spence, results in the funniest episode of the season and a unique spin on his meeting with the other man’s wife that ends in both laughs and groans.Photo: Courtesy of Amazon Studios.
The True Story Behind “How Do You Remember Me?” (Episode 7)
Actor Andrew Rannells penned the 2017 essay this episode is based on. After running into a former hookup in Manhattan, Rannells recalls their one night together two years earlier and the personal tragedy that followed. And to help bring his story to life, the actor directed the episode. This time, both characters —Marquis Rodriguez as Ben and Zane Pais as Robbie — spot each other on the street and viewers watch two different nights unfold through flashbacks. Despite the characters’ meet cute getting a rewrite, Modern Love sticks to the original story and does so through a dreamy, but heartbreaking lens.Photo: Courtesy of Amazon Studios.
The True Story Behind “A Second Embrace, With Hearts and Eyes Open” (Episode 8)
Mary Elizabeth Williams wrote about falling back in love with her husband years after their amicable divorce in 2014. The couple began dating again after realising they were attracted to each other’s newly embraced maturity, something Modern Love decided against portraying. Instead, the episode, starring Tobias Menzies as Van and Sophie Okonedo as Elizabeth, simply showed them realising they’d always been in love with each other and their life together. Williams’ melanoma diagnosis as another means of reconciliation is also shown on screen and is done so with an incredible amount of heart. Photo: Courtesy of Amazon Studios.
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