I love romantic comedies (rom coms) but OMD there are things within the genre that just annoy me or mildly irritate me.

Why is the female protagonist uptight?

Why is it that most of the time the female protagonist is uptight? I mean she’ll be a boss which I like and she’ll be working hard but her personality will be cold and standoffish.

You may say she’s like that because to survive in a professional field you have to have thick skin and be organised. This is true but I have met professional women and yes they hold it down at work but outside of work they’re not uptight. If anything they party harder than anyone else.

It’s not just the lack of partying and relaxing, it’s the personality. Like Sandra Bullock in The Proposal. I love that film but Sandra’s character’s personality type is so common in rom coms that it’s annoying. I wouldn’t mind if it was just one movie or two but no it’s in almost all of them!

When is someone going to make a movie with a character like, Peg Silver from the book The Girlfriend Curse? Can we get a non conventional protagonist?

If you know of any good rom coms without the traditional uptight lead please direct me to them.

Always going for the “nice guy”

Sometimes the guy isn’t even that nice, he’s what society views as “nice”.

I’d like a story where the guy is flawed and the woman is flawed and they both grow together.

And I don’t mean a bad boy. I just mean a guy, a real guy, he’s not overly bad and he’s not overly good, like in Love Jones. Love Jones got it right!

Why do they always go for the extremes. I’d like a realistic guy. I feel like if we had more guys like that in rom coms it’d be better for the teenagers watching. They’d have better expectations.

The cheese

I just don’t like cheese. There is no deep meaning, it’s just cringey. They could say what they needed to say without being cheesy.

This is a genuine pet peeve, I just fast forward at those parts.

Why do they rush?

I know a movie should only be so long but there are useful tools like captions for example. Or you could SpongeBob it and do a “2 months later” type of thing.

They don’t have to get together right away is what I’m saying. Take your time.

More ethnic diversity!!!!!

I would like so much more ethnic diversity! I’d like to see an Asian rom com hit the mainstream media, a black rom com, a latinx rom com, an interracial rom com, all sorts. Why are they always so white?

I mean they do tend to have the ethnic minority best friend but boo! I want them to be the lead for a change! Make a rom com with Chloe Bennet! Or John Cho! Or Lucy Liu! Or Arden Cho! Or Brian Tee! And what about a rom com with a Latina lead like Gina Rodriguez or a Latino lead?

There are so many ethnic minority actors and actresses just ready for the roles.

So those are some of my pet peeves. I do like rom coms in general but they can stand to improve.

That is all,

tah rah!