Romantic comedies will always be a popular genre. They’re fun, exciting, dramatic, and eventually result in a happy ending. Whether it be on the screen or in the books, they are widely appreciated.
The rise of the romcom empire is often attributed to 1989’s When Harry Met Sally, known as a classic to this day due to its status as the blueprint of the rom com genre. In turn, this sparked a public desire for more films of this type, and Hollywood invested accordingly in these kinds of big-budget romantic comedies throughout the 90s and 2000s. At the same time, the Hallmark Channel officially launched in the early 2000s, producing lower budget holiday films popular for their recycled plot lines, predictability, and cheesiness. Nevertheless, they remain appreciated, despite our mockery, for their heartwarming and happy endings.
However, in recent years, many argue rom coms have been declining in quality, and I believe Wattpad and social media to be influential factors.Wattpad’s launch in 2006 initially intended to provide access to ebooks through mobile devices, but the app’s popularity began to rise around 2011 when it gained one million users as it was paired with the invention of the iPhone. This allowed anyone to read, write, and publish stories in an instantly accessible manner. In 2014, many film channel companies began producing adaptations of Wattpad novels, turning them into series and movies.
Though these adaptations were appreciated at the start, this did not last very long. Reading and watching a film are two very different experiences, and perhaps adapting certain stories into visual media simply ruined the magical, distant quality of them. Maybe viewers realized how ridiculous some of these stories were, or felt like their representations on screen were trying too hard to push a reality that does not exist. On the other hand, reading and imagining your own world for the characters is more enticing, especially because as the reader you position yourself as the narrator/main character. Some examples of these are The Kissing Booth and After, for whom the audiences that enjoyed the books did not like the movies.
Even though these Wattpad films received a lot of backlash, one could argue that they are just like cheesy Hallmark movies: those who enjoy these films enjoy them for their nonsensical and asinine plots. And yet, Wattpad movies are not necessarily held to the same comforting, amusing regard as Hallmark movies are.
Alongside this, social media, and our phones in general, have weaseled their way into our idea of culture and social survival. With our unlimited access to other people’s lives and opinions, as well as streaming services and podcasts, we tend to be overexposed to everything at once. When there is immediate negative feedback on a film, there is naturally less incentive for audiences to go see it, and perhaps a decline in the enjoyment of such reused tropes and plotlines. The focus on “authenticity” and constant comparison brought forth by social media might also push audiences away from more classic tropes, as they portray unrealistic expectations of love and romance that people cannot relate to, making idealised rom com scenarios less digestible.
However, these Wattpad movies don’t constitute the whole of the rom com genre. In fact, there are many more recent romantic comedies that are good: Set It Up (2018), La La Land (2016), Crazy Rich Asians (2018), Palm Springs (2020), Plus One (2019), Rye Lane (2023), and the list goes on. How these films differ from Wattpad movies is that the characters have a personality aside from only seeking love, and the obstacles they encounter are convincing and relevant. The characters are complex, goal-driven, and authentic in their emotions and actions, both good and bad, and usually grow and change over the course of the movie. Furthermore, there is greater acknowledgement of the lack of diversity in romantic comedies, and it is important for such a strong genre to share stories from different perspectives that deviate from the heterosexual white ones. Therefore, can we really say rom coms are declining in quality? On one hand, yes, time and money are invested in romantic comedies bound for public backlash because of their bad plots, unlikable characters, etc (such as the After films). The rom com genre is not perceived as a ‘serious’ one, leaving less takers for such roles, and thus less good-quality romantic comedies. However, our cultural ideas of romance, gender roles, and love are ever changing. When we look back at some cult classic rom coms, despite our love for them, there are some questionable aspects: rigid ideas of what femininity and masculinity should look like, unrealistic beauty standards and expectations, offensive jokes, and white-centred perspectives.
I believe social media has ruined our idea of romance, and perhaps it will grow too difficult to relate to the light-hearted, glamorised love stories of the 90s and 2000s knowing that our generation does not really function this way and probably never will.
Although rom coms will always remain close to our hearts, it is interesting to see how much the genre has evolved and how much its significance grows parallel to our shifting ideas of culture and social media. From the cheesy romances to the more grounded ones, there will always be an appreciation for a sensitive, heartwarming love story.