Neil Patrick Harris Headlines Gay Comedy, ‘Uncoupled’
thegavoice.comBased on his success with “Sex and the City,” some people might assume Darren Star’s new Netflix comedy, “Uncoupled,” would be a gay version of that.
In actuality, it has its own vibe and sensibility. Neil Patrick Harris stars as Michael, a mid-40s gay man in New York who finds himself single when his longtime partner Colin (Tuc Watkins) leaves him.
The series also stars Brooks Ashmanskas, Emerson Brooks, Tisha Campbell and Marcia Gay Harden. Star and Jeffrey Richman, who created and wrote the series, had been talking about working on a project and were drawn to the idea of doing a romantic comedy about a gay man, specifically centered around a breakup. “We both know stories about people in long-term relationships being left after many years,” Star said. “In this case, it’s about a man who is blindsided by his partner — that was our jumping off point.” “Uncoupled” wasn’t written specifically for Harris. “We wrote this show and thought about who could play this role and Neil was the number one choice that came up for us and possibly the only person who could make it work in the way we imagined,” Star said.
It was important for both men to cast an out gay actor, according to Richman. In the show, Michael has to relearn dating basics. “He’s been away from dating and away from that [kind of] technology for 20 years,” Richman said. “If the last time you went on a date was when you were 28 years old, it’s a different thing.
