Partnership Spotlight: Tough Love Web Series
Television has seen its fair share of millennial stories set to the harsh backdrop of New York City: from the infamously petty Girls on HBO, to Comedy Central’s quirk-tastic Broad City, and the more recent and introspective Search Party on TBS, just to name a few. Touted as the most selfish generation to date, these programs highlight the dangers of privilege and a lack of self-awareness thought to be prevalent in this digital age. Starring predominately white actors and showcasing overwhelmingly upper-middle-class lifestyles, a trivial picture is painted of the so-called hardships of this modern age.
Enter Tough Love; another millennial tv-showcase, yet notably different from its monied peers. The Youtube-based web series focuses on the loves and lives of six friends attempting to navigate relationships, careers, and New York City simultaneously. On this description alone, it would be an oversight not to make the obvious comparison to NBC’s cult-classic “Friends,” but Tough Love does away with some fundamental Friends traits: the unabashed privilege, the “live studio audience”-style laugh track, and overwhelming whiteness. In fact, Tough Love features a full cast of black actors and an overwhelmingly black production team.
This was, unsurprisingly, a critical reason for Tough Love’s creation. Co-creator Roni Davis was disillusioned by the already limited TV options depicting the lives of young black people. She says she saw, “a lot of arguing, a lot of ‘baby mama’, ‘baby daddy’ drama, and, it’s like, that’s not what I see on a regular basis.” Roni and co-creator (and now husband) Caleb Davis set out to create a series that more closely mirrored the “tough love” they and their friends experienced in real life.
Tough Love presents a raw and poignant take on how the rules of relationships are being rewritten and expanded in our digital age, not shying away from the true-to-life dramas of being a 20-something in the 2010’s while also not turning them into a spectacle for entertainment alone. The show hinges on the relationships and history the six friends have developed and nurtured, or sometimes, neglected. Tough Love is less a show of what enters their lives but moreso about who enters their lives. With the show’s creators putting such emphasis on relationships anchoring both the show and young adulthood, it was an easy decision for Airtime — an app aiming to bring people together in the present moment — to support a show that largely looks to accomplish the same thing. And with key social dramas moving from real-life conversations and events to phone screens and social media apps, it made perfect sense for this group of friends to use Airtime as their go-to place to react to what happened only moments ago.
In addition to using Airtime in the premiere episode of season three, the Tough Love production team depends on their own groupchat Room in Airtime to align on music choices, film cuts, and more as the show continues to gain more traction into its third season. The season three premiere has over 50,000 views on Youtube after its release only two weeks ago, and will undoubtedly continue to grow.
Here at Airtime, we are proud to be able to support artists and teams that are striving to bring work into this world that pushes boundaries previously untouched. Working with Tough Love has been anything but tough, and we look forward to seeing what else this dynamic team has in store.
— Madeline Ambrose, Airtime’s Marketing Lead
Follow along with Tough Love on Instagram and Twitter, and be on the lookout for new episodes premiering every other Tuesday at 9:30PM EST on YouTube.
Have a project you want to collaborate with Airtime on? We’re always looking for creators and collaborators to partner with — email madeline@airtime.com to chat further.
