To All The Boys I've Loved Before (2018, d. Susan Johnson - Netflix)
To All The Boys I've Loved Before... PS I Still Love You (2020, d. Michael Fimognari - Netflix)
Never Have I Ever (2020, 10 Episodes - Netflix)
If Netflix is consistently nailing one genre, it's not the documentary (those have been anywhere from amazing to problematic) but rather the rom com. What's more is Netflix's rom com slate is all about allowing people of all different religions, ethnicities, shapes and sizes take the romantic lead spotlight. It's like the journey of feeling awkward or an outsider is somehow universally relatable. Of course, most of these rom coms are in the shape of the American experience, and I bet if I branched out a bit I surely would find more from other regions, but I guess it's the (North) American experience that I most relate to and want to explore different sides of.
To All The Boys... explores the nightmare scenario of one's innermost thoughts being shared publicly when the private, unsent letters teenager Lara Jean (Lana Condor) wrote to each of her massive crushes are accidentally sent by her younger sister. Popular, sporty Peter (Netflix fave and Mark Ruffalo clone Noah Centineo) was the recipient of a letter written a few years earlier, and asks Lara Jean if she will fake date him in order to make his ex-girlfriend jealous. She thought she'd moved past her crush, but finds herself more than charmed. But things are complicated since her neighbour and best friend Josh was the recipients of the most recently written letter and she can't face him, since she doesn't really know what (or who) she wants.
The film is a very charming, classically John Hughes inspired fable of teenaged wooing, based on the novel series by Jennie Han. That it happens to center around an Asian American lead doesn't change its emotional universality, but Lara Jean's ethnicity doesn't much come into play other than a food reference here or there, so it's not providing much of a distinct perspective on the genre. While John Corbett (Northern Exposure, Sex and the City) plays her single father, it's not clear if Lara Jean is his biological daughter or stepdaughter...and it doesn't really matter to the overall story (or even really seem to matter to the identity of the character).
The centerpiece is the love square with Lara Jean emotionally involved with both Josh and Peter, and Peter falling for Lara Jean while trying to win back his ex (and Josh's circling back). That the leads both have decisions to make about who they want to be with doubly invests the audience, and the fact that Peter isn't the typical vainglorious meathead jock, and as much a nice guy as Josh, makes it an even harder choice for who to root for. There really is the possibility of it going either way (even though the Lara Jean/Peter pairing is the main focus,it's never a certainty). The cast is universally good to great, with Condor proving an exceptionally endearing romantic lead, and Centineo emerging into romantic leading man status with this picture.
The first To All The Boys... ends with a pseudo-cliffhanger. The film to that point had dealt with four of the five boys Lara Jean had sent letters to: Josh, Peter, her gay friend Lucas, and one bounced letter. In the post credits, the recipient of the fifth letter, John Ambrose, shows up on Lara Jean's doorstep unannounced. It's almost like it was just a cute joke, and that the filmmakers weren't at all certain about setting up a sequel, as they immediately recast John Ambrose for the second film.
The construct of ...P.S. I Still Love You is one of my hated tropes, that people can't be in a happy relationship and that all it takes is one little thing to create intense friction between a couple. Lara Jean and Peter are in a happy relationship, but is it getting stale? Is Peter too different from her for they to have a meaningful relationship? Does the re-emergence of John Ambrose mean she doesn't love Peter as much as she though she did?
You know, teenagers overthink this shit. I know I did as a teenager as my volumes of chicken-scratched journals can attest, but at the same time, it's a trope that happens in almost all romantic vehicles, that one lie, or withheld truth, or omission, or deception, or deviant feeling is an immediate grenade between a couple. It's horribly cliche but even worse it trains (let's face it) mostly young women who what this stuff that relationships are so fragile.
With ...P.S. though, part of the whole story is not just Lara Jean's doubts, but actually being in the presence of John Ambrose who is, on paper, far more her speed, far more her ideal match, because they're so much more alike. And that leads to attraction, and frustration when Peter is acting like he's *gasp* still his own person while in a relationship. (Also, what exactly happened to her best friend, Josh, who completely disappeared in this one, like he never existed at all).
This second film is still an enjoyable feature, but if the first film was like primo-80's styled, this is like the middling sequels any 80's film produced. Where the first felt like a legit movie, the sequel felt like the TV spinoff. With a third movie coming this year, one wonders why they didn't try to draw it out into a season or two of television which seems much more Netflix's speed these days.
For example, we have Never Have I Ever, the Mindy Kaling co-created (with Lang Fisher) and produced (with some episodes scripted by) which feels like To All The Boys... but cranked up to 11 and just blowing the teen romcom out of the water for a sustained 10 episodes.
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| Show = much, much better than poster |
Where To All The Boys... didn't really have time to get into Lara Jean's familial story all that much, it's a centerpiece here. Devi is the daughter of immigrant Indian parents. Within the past year her father passed away, following which she lost the use of her legs for unknown (probably psychological, not medical) reasons. Devi is strong-willed, confident, overbearing and suffering from debilitating grief which she's barely processing.
For the start of their junior year (that's "American" for Grade 11, or third year of high school), Devi coaxes her two closest friends Fabiola and Eleanor to pursue boys as hard as their academics (not aware that Fabiola is gay)... to the point that Devi approaches the hottest boy in school, swim stud Paxton Hall-Yoshida, and propositions him for guilt free sex. He accepts but she chickens out... somehow along the way with their awkward encounters he starts accepting her as, at the very least, an acquaintance.
Devi's journey through season 1 of Never Have I Ever takes us inside Indian American culture in a way that hasn't been this richly explored before, highlighting the community and social pressures that are in some ways absurd and in others a source of pride, and still others which just are. It's one of the most marvelous aspects of the show how it does not making fun Indian culture but manages to be respectful, critical and funny about it.
Devi is a hot mess of a character. She is our lead into her world, our focus, and we like her...mostly, but she's constantly getting in her own way, she has a keen sense of how to make a bad situation worse, and she's selfish. For fans of The Mindy Project this is no doubt some of Kaling's heightened sense of her own personality coming out in force... the parts she admires about herself, as well as the things she's not so proud of. Framing around a young woman dealing with intense grief is the genius of the show, as it really hits home how hard it is to resolve that grief over the sudden loss of someone you're so close to (especially as the later episodes point out how Devi's father was the one who got her, and her mother has always been more challenged by her).
But it that's the brilliance, the masterstroke here is tennis legend, and legendary a-hole John McEnroe as the narrator, the defacto inner monologue for Devi. It seems absurd, but by the end of the first episode makes perfect sense, and reveals layers of meaning/parallels as the series goes on. It's honestly a gift that keeps on giving, as McEnroe's insights into the life of a teenage, Indian-America young woman (four things which he is not) are continuously hilarious, as well as the small egocentric asides to his own career he puts in. McEnroe has never been great as a cameo actor elsewhere but he's perfect for narration.
I haven't even really talked about the rom com part of this. The Mindy Project also started as a long-form romcom but eventually just graduated into a delightfully absurd workplace comedy as the actors' personas took over the show, but those first couple seasons made it clear that it's a specific genre Kaling loves to explore. Here again the teen romance angle takes I would say conservatively 40% of the very rich screen time, as Devi contemplates what exactly is happening between her and Paxton while also making a mess of her other relationships with family and friends. Also early on we're introduced to her lifelong nemesis, Ben. They have a delightfully contentious relationship, which you know immediately, given their age, means hormones are going to cause everything to get confused. Like Lara Jean in ...P.S. I Still Love You, you know it's going to come to a decision between the sweet but jocky handsome kid and the nerdy but charming and otherwise sympathetic challenger, but the show wisely weaves away from the romantic entaglements to focus back in on Devi's trauma (while also not ingoring anything else going on).
It's a tremedously charming, hilarious and fun show and not only does the teen rom com genre proud but creates a whole new benchmark in how to make long-form rom com and teen material. As a Kaling fan, this may just be the best thing she's done yet.
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