Love still features some big laughs, but so much of its humor comes from knowing the relatable beats of what it’s like to be in a relationship. As season three begins, Mickey and Gus are now the sort of insufferable super couple that they’ve mocked in the past. They feel invincible. This final year explores new relationship territory for the pair, such as road trips, helping your significant other heal when they’re on the mend, going to a wedding together, and figuring out who your real friends are as you begin to grow up.

Tension in the show no longer comes from worrying whether Mickey and Gus will break out into some fight or if something will go wrong, but rather how the two of them get along with everyone else. At the same time, it’s also satisfying to see that Gus and Mickey know how to defuse an argument when they do tiptoe up to one and that they’re able to avoid mistakes that tripped them up in the past. And when one does slip through the cracks, they don’t crumble like they used to do. That’s the good thing about relationships. Even when you hit a bunch of gutterballs, your other half can still knock out a bunch of strikes and even things out.

It’s almost eerie how happy and sweet Mickey and Gus are now, and while it might give the audience a bit of whiplash, it feels like a comfort the show has earned. It might be a little annoying to see these two operate in “true love” mode, but the show wants to nauseate you to that degree. This arguably is a slightly less challenging version of the show, but it’s one that still feels authentic to its mission statement. It’s deeply cathartic to just watch Gus and Mickey go on a healing spree to try and help those around them while they attempt to keep their own shit together and not have everything fall apart.

This season of the show is also important because it puts into perspective the fact that Mickey and Gus have only known each other for six months. Love makes the effort to point out that this time period is the alleged “sweet spot” in a relationship, but it also implies that it’s about to be make or break time.

All of this means even more when Mickey and Gus’ previous relationships are also put into consideration, and the audience realizes that they’ve been through all of these emotional beats before. Love also wisely plays Gus and Mickey’s relatively short relationship in juxtaposition to marriages that have been strong for decades and other more established bonds. It helps illustrate that no two relationships are identical and everyone moves at a different pace, regardless of how long they’ve been together.