She's a recovering alcoholic/love/sex addict, he's a co-dependent with boundary issues. They are Mickey and Gus, two dysfunctional thirty-somethings, played by Gillian Jacobs and Love co-creator Paul Rust, respectively.

Love charts their meet-cute that blossoms into a troubled, potentially radioactive courtship, with season one ending (after episode upon episode of tumult and mixed-signals) at the gas station where they first met and sharing a passionate kiss. It was a strange note to end on, as Mickey just told Gus that she needed a break from him in order to focus on herself. So that ending was supposed to be, what, romantic? It was difficult to know exactly what the intention was, especially for a series that has one foot in the real world and the other in rom-com fairy land. How season 2 was going to proceed from there would settle once and for all the question of whether Love was about something more than a Manic Pixie wank off.

So unsurprisingly, Season 2 begins from that confusing moment, with Mickey pulling away from Gus with a “What did I just tell you?!” kind of anger and confusion. Love is aware of both the traumatic and gently funny pratfalls of getting close to someone, and won't shy away from it.

In fact that's the show's lifeblood: nerve-wracking awkwardness and well-intentioned romantic gestures that come off as manipulative and pathetic. That and the chaotic fluxes of Mickey and Gus' dynamic, which is always fascinating and, against all odds, charming, even when it's not unlike the helpless horror of watching a car pile-up. Jacobs and Rust are appealing leads who share a palpable chemistry that visibly enlivens them and seems to serve as an anaesthetic that dulls the pain in their lives. It's a powerful thing.

But it can be too powerful. Inevitably, in their volatile hands, that chemistry blows up in their faces, leaving them as depressive wrecks who far too easily retreat into their most destructive habits. You only hope that they find each other again because together is when they seem happiest. But then you remember they're actually quite terrible for each other. It's challenging stuff.