by Holly Perry and Rowan Cox
Once upon a time Christmas Romantic Comedies (Rom-Coms) were full of class and comfort. However, in recent years they have been all about the cheesy stereotypes of what should make a “Love Story”.
Streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are the main culprits of dishing out these Hallmark esc tropes. With movies like Hot Frosty, The Merry Gentleman and the tartan ‘classic’ A Merry Scottish Christmas – its hard to escape the annoying yet heartwarming cringe.
These new films follow the same structure of a Christmas love story however they could not be more different to classics like The Holliday, Love Actually and Bridget Jones’ Diary. The quintessential 2000s rom coms that not only shaped the genre but an entire generation.
This Year Netflix have been churning out Christmas romances quicker than we have ever seen before. They began in November with Hot Frosty starring Lacey Chabert (Mean Girls) and Dustin Milligan (Schitt’s Creek) as Kathy Barett and Jack Snowman. A loved-up couple consisting of a widower and a real-life snowman. Jack Frost who? The film received mixed reviews, and many critiques come from the dynamic between the main partnership. One viewer on Google gave the film two stars and said, “The plot is like a wholesome episode of Bluey that somebody stuck a bunch of dirty jokes into”.
Less than two weeks later came ‘raunchy’ The Merry Gentleman. Starring Chad Michael Murray (One Tree Hill) and Britt Robertson (Tomorrowland) as Luke and Ashley who find their romance in a very stereotypical way. She’s a big city girl who needs him for her business saving performance and he’s the country repair man who refuses to fall for her – and takes his top off “way too many times” according to one viewer. The show that comes from this is a mild strip extravaganza that land perfectly with their target audience – woman in their forties.
2023 brought us a hallmark movie that hit close to home – A Merry Scottish Christmas. Starring the same Lucy Chabert (Hot Frosty) and Scott Wolf (Party of Five). This film plays into all the stereotypes about Scotland – tartan, castles and downright awful accents! The story follows estranged siblings Lindsay and Brad Morgan as they travel to Scotland at Christmas to reunite with their mother Jo, where a big family secret is revealed. One review on IMDB claimed that “On the 0-Christmas scale this gets ‘Haggis and Bagpipes’”.
These films represent a new era of Christmas romance. People nowadays want over the top cheesy storylines that allow them to escape from reality. Maybe that’s why we don’t see people raving about good old fashioned wholesome love stories. Bridget Jones’ is probably too relatable for some.
