Showtime saves Neil Patrick Harris' Netflix series Uncoupled for a second season
The series was canceled after its first season at Netflix last month
Netflix and Showtime appear to have done some kind of bizarre dead show swap this weekend, trading series that each was done with, but which the other apparently saw continuing merit in. Not long after it was revealed that Netflix would be taking over custody of Andrew Scott’s upcoming Talented Mr. Ripley show (which had been in development at Showtime for years at this point), Deadline reports that Showtime has now picked up one of Netflix’s own discarded series: The Neil Patrick Harris break-up dramedy Uncoupled, which Netflix announced that it was canceling back in mid-January.
Uncoupled ran for a single season on Netflix, tracing the rapidly collapsing (and then tentatively rebuilding) life of Harris’ character Michael, after he suddenly finds himself dumped by Colin (Tuc Watkins), his long-time partner. The series, created by Darren Star and Jeffrey Richman, explores the difficulties of dating as a 40-something gay man in New York, the perils of navigating around an ex, and the general chaos that erupts in Michael’s life as his various friends try to get him back on his feet.
Showtime’s acquisition of Uncoupled makes a certain sense, at least; although Starr remains in business at Netflix (Emily In Paris is still going strong), Uncoupled was produced in part at MTV Entertainment Studios, part of the wider umbrella of Paramount properties, of which Showtime is also a part. (Something made abundantly clear recently, when Paramount announced that it was shoving the whole Showtime brand into Paramount+.) In fact, as Deadline notes, this is actually the second time MTV looked to make the move for the show, the first coming before the series was officially killed at Netflix. So there are definitely some family ties to draw on; meanwhile, Uncoupled drew decent reviews, and ended on a cliffhanger, so there’s presumably at least some hope that viewers will jump ship for Showtime to see what happens next between Michael and Colin when the show returns.