Newlyweds Nev Schulman and Laura Perlongo are offering up dating tips to callers on the new miniseries “We Need to Talk,” on the streaming platform Facebook Watch. So, naturally, they’re relationship experts, right? Eh…
“The thing is, is that we always disagree on almost everything,” Perlongo says. “That’s why I wouldn’t call it an advice show, maybe a bad advice show.”
The 10-episode series, a partnership with issue-driven social platform ATTN, mimics the question-and-answer structure of Schulman’s MTV show “Catfish” with people calling in for help with their dating struggles. The couple, who wed in the Hamptons in July, tackles everything from wondering if it’s the right time to move in together, to figuring out if that Tinder setup is worth a second date.
“Laura and I are totally in love, but very much still figuring things out,” Schulman says. “You know, our unconventional, untraditional timeline of a relationship — dating for seven months, getting pregnant and getting engaged and getting married after our kid was born — we’re doing it all on the fly, figuring it out as we go. The show is essentially us giving everyone permission to not know what they’re doing and to have questions.”
It turns out, Schulman, 32, and Perlongo, 31, both NYC natives (and amNewYork readers, Schulman says), didn’t know right off the bat that their relationship was worth pursuing, either. Well, Laura didn’t, at least.
“When I think about Nev and my first date, I thought he was a little bit weird,” Perlongo says in the series’ first episode.
We asked the couple, parents of 10-month-old Cleo James, to take us back in time with them to June 11, 2015, the day Schulman wouldn’t stop talking at dinner long enough to let Perlongo figure out if she was willing to give him a second date.
“It was kind of a classic New York City day, actually,” Perlongo says. “Nev messaged me on Instagram after I commented something on a motorcycle picture he posted and was like, ‘Do you want to go on a ride? I’ll pick you up today.’ So, he picked me up from work in Hell’s Kitchen and then we drove down the West Side Highway and the Brooklyn Bridge, went to Red Hook and had a nice meal.”
A rainy evening cleared up just in time for them to watch fireworks from a rooftop, making a “pretty magical, epic New York City day,” she adds.
But as far as the content of the date? “I don’t know, I think I was a little bit like, ‘who is this guy?’ I think on a first date I’m always a little bit judgemental and so it was a lovely time, but at the same time he was just like every other guy, right?”
Nev, who remembers the exact time he slipped into Perlongo’s DMs (9:30 a.m.) calls the date “one of the most fun, exciting days” ever, but something else about it still sticks out in his mind.
“She left out some details. In her first message back to me, when I asked her to go for a ride, she told me she would love to but that she wasn’t wearing any underwear so I spent a few hours that day going around and finding the perfect pair to match my motorcycle that I then handed to her upon meeting her. It was definitely a first date for the books,” Schulman recalls.
“I still have that underwear and I love it,” Perlongo chimes in.
The first episode of “We Need to Talk” hit Facebook Watch on Tuesday. New episodes will stream weekly.
