Netflix’s Revival of The Rom-Com

One reporter’s opinion of how the genre was revitalized through the “Summer of Love”

Netflix has been the hub of the newly revived rom-com genre with successes like To All the Boys Ive Loved Before, Sierra Burgess is a Loser, and Set It Up.

Photo by Ciara Mooney

Netflix has been the hub of the newly revived rom-com genre with successes like “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before”, “Sierra Burgess is a Loser”, and “Set It Up.”

If you have a Netflix account you probably watched, or have seen advertising for, such movies as
Set It Up, To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, and Sierra Burgess is a Loser. These movies all have common themes — they’re all romantic comedies. They were all released in the summer; hence, why Netflix called this summer, “The Summer of Love.’’

As a person that has access to a Netflix account I have seen all of these movies. If you haven’t noticed romantic comedies haven’t been hitting the box office as successfully since the early 2000s and critics have become more critical of the some might say the played out genre. Like every movie genre after the whole popularity then comes the mediocre movies that ruin the whole name of the genre, even though there are numerous of good rom-coms, a couple of bad ones ruined the integrity of the brand of rom-coms.

But this summer Netflix released a few rom-coms that did well with the critic starting with Set It Up in June , then in August they added, To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, and finally Sierra Burgess is a Loser was released earlier this September. Netflix has been focusing on releasing more original content, and putting more effort into that content that they produce.

Each of these rom-coms that Netflix released  have different plots that are unique and that interesting to watch. All of these movies do have the rom-com label but they are not the cliche and cheesy like the label of rom-com might make them seem. But each of these movies are actually watchable and are pretty enjoyable to watch.