RomComs are my go-to movie genre after I’ve exhausted every horror movie in my library or I’ve watched something particularly disturbing and want to catch a break.
Okay, so not every horror movie is my cup of tea. I cannot stand disturbing themes that concentrate too much on gore.
So yes, romcoms…I grew up watching them, after all. It was one of the genres I was allowed to watch as a teen.
The 90s had some great romcoms with original stories, character development, interesting side characters and so on. I did like the theme of unsuspecting people meeting up, deciding to pretend to be a couple for some reason or another and then find out they have a lot in common and fall in love.
I really did enjoy those stories and those movies. Two decades later, and romcoms are stuck on the same premise. The stories are rehashed only with different settings and of characters of different ethnicities.
Don’t get me wrong, they are still a tad enjoyable, but they are also repetitive and unoriginal and hardly worth a second watch. Why?
When the movies in the 90s did it, they kept the characters innocent and by that I mean that while they lied to their friends and whomever they were trying to get back (usually an ex), they weren’t lying to their families. And oh yes, social media didn’t make it easier to do background checks.
Also, the build-up between the characters was great. The story was paced properly, allowing characters to grown and interact with each other.
Now in the 2020s, with pretty much everyone being on social media, lying about one’s background is no longer an option. If you are making it on your own in a creative field, whether you like it or not, you have to be on social media to promote yourself.
So it is highly inconceivable that the person they are with is surprised to learn that the guy she thought was broke was actually a millionaire. Really?
Careers are important, of course they are. Money makes the world go round and all that. But when you see a romcom that focuses more on the careers of characters rather than the love story that is supposed to be brewing between them, it leaves a sour taste.
Why bother watching someone’s career story when you have your own career to worry about?
What any romantic comedy fan wants to watch is a fantasy come unfold on screen. Two people who would have never met otherwise, come together and find love. These stories generate hope and give promise to those looking for love to continue to search for their soulmates.
But it seems romance is dead in the 2020s. Name one good romcom that came out in the past two years?
Yes, even I have trouble thinking of some good ones. What we do have is Holidate, Wedding Season, etc., all reminiscent of the Wedding Date and You Drive Me Crazy, some of the popular movies with similar themes.
Girl meets boy, has a crush, decides she can’t have him, goes to a nerd and cracks a deal. Turns out the nerd, after a makeover is quite a looker. The girl changes her tune and falls for the revamped nerd. The guy she was chasing finally notices her after she begins to pretend to date the nerd turned hottie. She can have her crush, but now she doesn’t want him anymore.
Oh, and the families in these romcoms are always super supportive of whatever their kids do even though they should be focusing on academics and trying to get into a good college/or focus on their careers.
Who wouldn’t want a chilled out family like that?
That’s what romcoms have been like in the past, and what they will continue to be in the coming years because clearly there are no original stories anymore. Or perhaps the writers don’t believe “true” love is a realistic ideology and when pressurized to work on a romcom, simply rework the stories already written.
Thankfully, many streaming services have plenty of romcoms available from the past few years to quench our appetites for love stories.
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