Real Life With Married People Explores Couch-Bound Coupledom

You get mixed messages from movies and TV sometimes. So many dramas and comedies are framed around the pursuit of romance, only to fade out once the relationship is consummated. Meanwhile, the stories about those already in relationships are mostly about how much that sucks. This is because stories about happy people in relationships without any problems are terribly dull. But there has to be some sort of middle ground, where reality can be combined with genuinely funny comedy. There is, in Real Life with Married People.

Launched two weeks ago, the independently produced Real Life focuses on an unnamed husband and wife, played by real-life spouses Celia Finkelstein and Destin Berthelot, as devoted partners who just seem to get on each other’s nerves. You know, the way it happens when you spend just a little too much time with someone else. Like most proud Americans, the pair spend their time on their couch watching TV and hanging out, and the series finds its voice in exaggerating the back-and-forth that occurs in modern marriage.

Real Life isn’t ambitious as web series go, but it’s got a lot of charm, as well as quality production values and solid direction by Deanna Russo (who’s got an impressive resume as an actress, most recently appearing as the female lead on NBC’s Knight Rider remake). The tight pacing never lets a joke play too long, and the simple set-up and framework allow the interplay between Finkelstein and Berthelot to unfold naturally, however bitter it might get.

The one danger Real Life faces is losing the audience’s sympathy. While both people are clearly dysfunctional in their own ways, three episodes in it’s a little easier to side with Berthelot’s character. I may be biased, however, as I agree strongly with his views on peanut butter Easter eggs, as elaborated upon in Episode 3, but Berthelot so far seems like the more reasonable of the pair, while Finkelstein falls into shrew territory just a little too often. The show’s primary challenge going forward will be maintaining the delicate balance between the two characters, so we understand exactly why they stay together. The alternative would see the show become like one of those bickering-family sitcoms, where you just wish somebody would get a divorce or a shotgun and end the characters’ misery. And no one wants that.