Love Hard | 2021 | TV-MA | – 3.3.5

Why is “Love Hard” rated TV-MA? The TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board rating indicates that “this program is specifically designed to be viewed by adults and therefore may be unsuitable for children under 17.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a couple of kissing scenes, discussions of online dating, women wearing skimpy outfits, a bare-chested man, an allergic reaction to alcohol causing facial swelling and unconsciousness, rock-climbing sequences with a participant being very frightened, many arguments, and 2 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

---

A Los Angeles dating advice columnist (Nina Dobrev) falls in love with an online dating app match-up (Jimmy O. Yang) and flies thousands of miles to surprise him for Christmas. When she arrives, she finds out that she has been duped, but the man promises to set her up with her real-life crush (Darren Barnet); she now has to pretend to be the match-up’s holiday girlfriend in order to make it happen. Also with Matty Finochio, James Saito and Harry Shum Jr. Directed by Jernan Jimenez. [Running Time: 1:46]

Love Hard SEX/NUDITY 3

 – A man and a woman embrace and kiss for several seconds in one scene and briefly in another scene.
► A woman sits with a man she is dating in his home and the man’s wife walks in, surprising the first woman, and the scene ends. In a voice-over, a woman says that she has had a string of disaster dates. A woman tells her family that she is pregnant and they congratulate her. A woman tells a man, “Screw Steve” and the man replies, “I did.” A man tells a woman that they are now girlfriends. A woman says that “Baby It’s Cold Outside” is a date rape/sexual assault song and mentions Rohypnol the date rape drug.
► A woman sways fast to music in a bar while wearing a thin top and her bosom bounces up and down. A woman at a bar wears a miniskirt that ends at her mid-thighs and has a slit nearly to the top of one leg; she snaps her hips side to side, shakes her buttocks toward the camera, rubs the chest of a man and pulls her skirt up a few inches further, and then screams and runs from the building (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details). A woman wears a miniskirt in a couple of scenes. A woman wears a mid-thigh length T-shirt and no trousers or skirt. A cell phone photo shows a bare-chested man (his bare chest and abdomen are shown). We see a woman in a bubble bath and her bare shoulders and arms are shown.

Love Hard VIOLENCE/GORE 3

 – A woman in a bar chugs two double shots of clear liquor, begins coughing, her face swells and becomes covered with a dark red rash in an allergic reaction, and she screams at herself in a mirror; she lurches outside and collapses on a snowy sidewalk and when she awakens and she looks fine, and we see her on an exam table in a veterinary clinic and we hear that the vet administered an EpiPen to her.
► A woman new to wall climbing screams when she is three feet off the floor, and when she is eight feet off the floor. A woman climbs a very tall rock wall and is frightened, but climbs with a guide-rope attached to her waist and collapses on the top; a man climbs to the top, sets her on her feet, and gently pushes her over the side, and she sails straight down to land on her feet.
► A man and a woman argue, and the woman hits the man on the arm with a Baby Jesus lawn figure. A man and a woman argue briefly in two scenes. A woman argues with a man for several seconds in a scene. Two women argue briefly. A preteen boy on a bicycle rides after a running man and woman while shouting at them.
► We hear in different scenes that a man’s mother, a woman’s mother, a man’s father, and a man’s dog died (no causes are mentioned). We hear that an older man fell off a roof and broke an arm, but recovered. A man and a woman sit in wheelchairs in a retirement home, a woman uses a walker, a man uses a cane, and another man is unconscious in a bed in the background with an IV line attached to one arm.

Love Hard LANGUAGE 5

 – At least 2 F-words and its derivatives, 12 sexual references, 8 scatological terms, 11 anatomical terms, 11 mild obscenities, 23 instances of name-calling (crazy, insane, dumb, idiot, weird, psychopath, psycho, narcissist, hypocrite, scam, jerk, snoop, compulsive liar, millennial Tourette’s, tinder tool, Chucky), exclamations (darn, shoot, freaking, frigging, I swear, eww, gee, whoa, whoo, whew), 3 religious profanities (GD), 36 religious exclamations (e.g. oh my God, oh God, thank God, God hates me, for God’s sake, it’s a sign from God, Jesus, sweet Baby Jesus, Jesus Christ, Holy [scatological term deleted], Saint Nick, Santa, 5 Christmas carols). | profanity glossary |

Love Hard SUBSTANCE USE

 – A woman smokes a marijuana cigarette to get high before going bobsledding, and a man says that he and a friend used to smoke marijuana in the friend’s basement during their high school years. A woman drinks two glasses of wine and pours more wine into a fast food drink cup and when her phone rings she says it’s her AA sponsor and the scene ends, a glass of wine is shown on a table in a home, two glasses of wine clink together, a woman sips wine while in a bubble bath, a woman chugs a glass of wine at a party and men and women listen to a toast (no one drinks), a man holds an empty wine glass and burps loudly, a woman at a bar drinks two Appletinis and slurs her words, two men sit at a bar with four empty beer bottles, a woman at a bar drinks a short glass of alcohol and coughs, a man has five crushed energy drink cans on the floor of his car, and a man chugs a can of energy drink at home.

Love Hard DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Dating apps, risk taking, online safety, relationships, romantic love, blended families, sibling rivalry, deception, honesty, admitting mistakes, fear, giving and accepting emotional support, self-confidence, same sex relationships, being obsessed with Christmas, Mormons.

Love Hard MESSAGE

 – Be careful when using online dating apps. Once you are sure you’re safe, be honest in an online relationship.