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Netflix knows its viewers need an escape, so it built a rom-com factory
Critics have long declared the romantic comedy dead, as studios have veered toward the raunch-com, à la Bridesmaids and Trainwreck. But the genre has lived on in such TV shows as Crazy Ex- Girlfriend and The Mindy Project. And the genre is thriving on Netflix, which is pumping out rom-coms faster than viewers can say, “I’ll have what she’s having.”
Netflix isn’t making new classics that rival When Harry Met Sally or Mean Girls, so much as rom-coms that hark back to those that are second-tier but still re-watchable. (Think: How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.) But they’re adding characters who are more diverse, ethnically and sexually, with plot lines that are more politically correct than in the John Hughes days of playing sexual harassment, homophobia and rape references for laughs.
Matt Brodlie, director of acquisitions at Netflix, says viewers were watching rom-coms multiple times on its platform. And because the main studios weren’t making many new ones, Netflix saw an opportunity. “We wanted to dive into this space that had been abandoned but was still a desire for people to see,” he says.
Watching a romantic comedy is “a nice escape,” Brodlie says. So Netflix has looked specifically for scripts “that would scratch that same itch.”
We need that escape now, says Susan Johnson, director of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (debuts Aug. 17 on Netflix), who notes the “angsty ” romantic comedies of the 1980s came out of simpler, less divisive times. “Now we want to see something that makes us happy and hopeful.”
Lauren Miller Rogen, writer and director of Like Father (now streaming), notes that as the studio rom-com has changed — relying more on physical comedy than genuine emotion — she’s found them less relatable. “A lot of female characters haven’t felt real or grounded; their emotional journeys haven’t mirrored anything I could relate to,” Miller Rogen says.
Young adult rom-coms are most remarkable for how much high school hasn’t changed in 20 years, despite the fact humiliation and peer pressure now exist on social media and in person. No matter how much you’ve matured, it’s easy to access the memories of being an insecure teenager and the feeling the flimsy alliances of high school matter so much when you’re in the thick of it.
Like such high school rom- and raunch-coms as 10 Things I Hate About You, American Pie and others, this summer’s Netflix titles still revolve around parties, the fickleness of popularity and elaborate schemes to get your crush to like you. But they no longer feature the same strand of straight, white, rich teenager over and over again. The boys are more sensitive and sexuality more fluid. Alex Strangelove opens with a high school-to-animal-kingdom analogy ripped from Mean Girls, but unlike the usual virgin-trying-to-get-laid plot, the protagonist ends up coming out to his girlfriend.
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and Sierra Burgess Is a Loser hinge on fake-dating schemes that resemble 1999’s 10 Things I Hate About You.
But the fact that To All the Boys follows an Asian-American family is a big step forward.
“I’ve never seen an Asian-American girl be the lead of a teen movie,” says Jenny Han, author of the book that preceded the movie.
Netflix rom-coms sometimes call out the aspects of classics that feel out of touch today. For example, in The Kissing Booth, bad boy Noah (Jacob Elordi) gets into a fight with a guy who grabs Elle’s (Joey King ) butt. When Noah says that maybe her skirt was asking for it, Elle snaps back: “Seriously? You wanna go down that road?”
No, Noah doesn’t. And neither do we.
Finding professional success has always figured heavily in the rom-com.
Set It Up and Ibiza both feature protagonists named Harper (Zoey Deutch and Gillian Jacobs, respectively), who have unfulfilling jobs, demanding bosses and non-existent love lives. Until a love-focused caper sets them free. There’s often a caper in a rom-com, frequently one orchestrated by the protagonists’ best friends.
But most rom-coms today aren’t just about finding a man. Claire Scanlon, director of Set It Up, sees this as a key way to continue to modernize the genre. “Never does (Harper) say, ‘I need a boyfriend.’ She wants a kicka-- job,” Scanlon says. “And until she gets the confidence and believes in herself and does the work, she doesn’t deserve to get what she wants .”
Like Father also features a protagonist who toils under the stranglehold of work. In the opening scene, Kristen Bell’s character makes a work call right before stuffing her cellphone in her bouquet and walking down the aisle, where her boss is to officiate. She ends up not getting married and goes on her honeymoon with her absentee father who showed up to the wedding.
The movie isn’t so much about her “finding a man” as it is about reconnecting with the first man in her life — and figuring out how to have a life outside of work.
Now there’s a relatable problem that never gets solved in 105 minutes.