Gillian Jacobs on the co-dependent romance of ‘Love’ Season 2

At the close of Netflix comedy “Love” Season 1, Gillian Jacobs’ character Mickey tells her sorta boyfriend Gus (co-creator Paul Rust) that she’s a sex and love addict. He responds by kissing her. Welcome to Gus and Mickey’s messy, fumbling romance.

The pair, although sweet on each other, already saw personality clashes: Mickey, volatile and self-destructive; Gus, repressed and controlling. Season 2, out Friday, ups the ante, exploring the complexity of dating when one partner has a sex and love addiction — and the other might have codependency issues.

Spoiler: it won’t go easy. (The Season 2 trailer shows Mickey confessing to her roommate, “I told Gus I didn’t want to date for a year, and then we had sex in my car. Is that bad?”)

On a phone call from L.A., Jacobs articulates this season’s central dilemma: “Is it two people realizing, ‘We’re imperfect, but we have a real connection, so we’re going to work through these issues?’ Or is it, ‘Here are all the red flags and we’re going to choose to ignore them and maybe that will bite us in the butt later.’”

The 34-year-old “Community” alumna talks about whether the odd couple will ever find happiness and how IRL she’s more of a Gus than a Mickey.

Do you feel akin to Mickey at all?

While I don’t think I’ve ever been as outwardly a mess as Mickey, I think I’ve felt a lot of those same feelings as Mickey — that I was my own worst enemy, or put myself in a pickle in my life and it was my fault. I always try to keep more of a veneer of having it together. [Laughs] I’m more like Gus, more tightly repressed and trying to seem like everything’s fine.

Sex and love addiction is one of the lesser known of the 12-step programs. What research did you do into that community?

I attended some meetings and read a book that was all about sex and love addiction. It’s interesting, when we were shooting one of those S.L.A.A. [Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous] meetings, the extras in the scene were like, “Is this real? Is this even a thing?” And we were like, “Yes, it’s real.” At the end of the scene, one woman was like, “I think I need to go.” Even though it’s a lesser known 12-step program, when you start to read about it, a lot of the issues that people face are incredibly relatable.

What do you think Mickey and Gus’ connection is?

They find each other really appealing. [Laughs] For Mickey, on the surface, Gus is this very stable person, but I think she kind of likes that he’s not as perfect as he tries to seem. And for Gus, Mickey is someone who’s less afraid to break all the rules, but he can also feel like he’s taking care of her.

The question is: if they ever find happiness, will we want to keep watching?

Well, I don’t think we’re there yet! [Laughs] Maybe that’s Season 5. [Ed. note: the show is already greenlit for a third season.] I like how in the show there’s not an external villain. It’s two people getting in each other’s way or misunderstanding each other, but you don’t see someone meddling with them. Life does have a way of intervening and sometimes I think that can really bring conflict to the surface — an outside circumstance that makes you think about the tension between you two that you’ve maybe been pushing under the rug.

Are you hinting that there’s going to be something like that in Season 2?

I don’t know what I’m even saying at this point, I’m just blabbering! [Laughs] Watch and find out.