(Warning: This post contains spoilers for HBO Max’s “Love Life” Season 2 premiere.)
“Love Life” opened its second season with a gut-punch of an episode that introduced us to “The Good Place” alum William Jackson Harper’s Marcus Watkins. Marcus is 30-something Black book editor who is married to Emily (Maya Kazan), a white woman, and becomes infatuated with Mia Hines (Jessica Williams), a Black woman whom he meets at the wedding of Season 1 lead Darby Carter (Anna Kendrick).
Noting the races of Marcus, his wife, and the woman he begins crushing on and even almost cheats on his wife with during the “Love Life” premiere, is important, as the episode ends with Emily finding text messages between Mia and Marcus that show him joking about pictures of “ugly” white babies and bonding as they see how much they have in common, and how little his white spouse understands him.