Adoption
Episode 7 of Modern Love begins with gay couple Andy and Tobin sitting down and discussing IVF treatment, intent on raising a child of their own. Realizing it’s not feasible, they instead look at adoption. With a final option on the table, they meet eccentric Karla and speak about their life to her and how they first met. This ultimately leads Karla to tell them she’s homeless and intentionally moves around a lot to avoid being tied down to one place. She’s pretty eccentric and clearly has a few screws loose but she decides to take them up on their offer after picking up her dog Homer whose tied up outside. We then jump forward to see a very pregnant Karla moving in, thank to Andy’s hastiness. Tobin isn’t best pleased though, however he tries to brave through nonetheless. However, it’s not long before Karla’s eccentricity gets the better of him. Even worse, Homer gets their dog pregnant despite her initially saying her dog has been neutured. The final straw comes in the form of Karla inviting in a homeless stranger to their house, Mick. Their fight gets so heated he runs her out the house after some harsh words about her lifestyle. Tobin follows after her though and admits how he really feels. The truth is he’s terrified of being a parent but his honesty is enough for her to come home. As everything appears to have settled down, Karla enters their bedroom and tells them sex with Mick may have induced her. They rush to the hospital and Karla gives birth to a healthy baby girl. Although Andy is too squeamish to stay, Tobin remains by her side. After a heartfelt talk, he heads in and sees his daughter for the first time. As he talks to her about her life, we skip forward in time to see her name is June and as Tobin and Andy tuck her in to bed, they seem to have a happy family life. With some strong themes about family and society as a whole, Modern Love continues to deliver the goods with another strong episode. Despite the questionable inclusion of Ed Sheeren, the rest of the drama plays out nicely across the 30 minutes. There’s a good use of humour with the dogs too and the ending is suitably heartwarming. There’s an overarching narrative here about labels and the early ideas around a gay couple adopting but being met with road-blocks left, right and centre is suitably topical as well. Still, the episode itself is another good one in this tumultuous anthology and certainly offers enough to make it one of the stronger episodes of the season.
