Rom-coms are having a moment, from 'Heated Rivalry' to 'Nobody Wants
This' and even Broadway
[February 28, 2026]
By MARK KENNEDY
NEW YORK (AP) — He's British. She's American. He's a wide-eyed optimist.
She's world-weary. He loves Christmas songs. She loathes them.
Naturally, they're perfect for each other.
That classic opposites-attract setup is the basis for the new Broadway
musical “Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York).” It's one of a
clutch of popular new romantic comedies warming hearts this winter
across various media.
There's the HBO Max hockey show and word-of-mouth sensation “Heated
Rivalry” and the Netflix agnostic-falls-for-a-rabbi series “Nobody Wants
This,” while the see-you-next-year movie “People We Meet on Vacation”
has become a huge Netflix hit.
There's also “My Oxford Year,” the upcoming “Reminders of Him” and the
dependable “Bridgerton,” now in Season 4. “Two Strangers (Carry a Cake
Across New York)” lands on Broadway beside the Tony-winning android rom-com
“Maybe Happy Ending.”
“They’re all the same story, really,” says Kit Buchan, who with Jim
Barne wrote the “Two Strangers” musical. “How do two people inextricably
drawn together but separated by an overwhelming obstacle melt into one
another?”
‘There are waves’
Paul Eastwick, a psychology professor at the University of California,
Davis, and author of “Bonded by Evolution,” studies romantic attraction
and says the burst in rom-coms is welcome.
“I definitely get the sense that there are waves and this is the time of
year when we get usually one or two surprise, probably streaming, hits
in this genre,” says Eastwick, who also co-hosts “Love Factually,” a
podcast that uses science to explore the biggest rom-coms.
He says the genre no longer gets the respect it should, recalling that
rom-coms used to be big movie events that garnered awards — like
“Ghost,” the highest-grossing film of 1990, which earned five Oscar
nominations and won two.
“It feels a little marginalized these days in the critic spaces and in
the box-office spaces,” he says. “I hope that people don’t stop making
these because people clearly want them.”
Some in the bumper crop of rom-coms this winter take the formula and
twist it slightly. “Heated Rivalry,” which had an average of 10.6
million viewers per episode in the U.S., makes the lovers same-sex.
“Nobody Wants This,” whose second season garnered 8.6 million views in
its first four days of streaming, explores religious conversion. “People
We Meet on Vacation,” which drew 17.2 million views over its January
launch weekend, flips the gender of the partner who is usually the
wisecracking agent of chaos.
“I think that’s often what makes some of these very compelling is where
you’re able to wink and nod a little bit at the genre and have fun with
it while conforming to people’s expectations at least somewhat,”
Eastwick says.
As sweet as cake
“Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York)” has opposites attract in
the very rom-com-friendly setting of New York, but makes the would-be
lovers quite ordinary. She's a coffee store server and he's a movie
theater sweeper.
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This image released by Netflix shows Adam Brody as Noah, left, and
Kristen Bell as Joanne in a scene from "Nobody Wants This." ( Erin
Simkin/Netflix via AP)
 “Rom-coms tend to be rich white
people with time on their hands. And that’s OK. We love it. We love
watching them,” says Buchan. “‘But what if you’re shut out of that?’
was part of the question that we were asking when we set out to
write it.”
The musical also winks about its adoration of rom-coms. “If this was
a movie,” says the smitten British character, “we’d go ice-skating.”
In another scene, he decides there should be a montage of her coming
in and out of a dressing room in a parade of fabulous outfits.
Later, she does.
The creators are admitted huge fans of rom-coms — their gold
standard is “When Harry Met Sally” — even as they gently skewer the
genre, out of love.
“I think our greatest ambition of all was to write something that
not only parodies and questions the mores of that genre and the
stereotypes, but also slots into that genre in its own way,” says
Buchan.
An elevated rom-com
Director Brett Haley had never made a rom-com before adapting
“People We Meet on Vacation” from Emily Henry's novel. To craft the
film, he reached back to ones he adored, like “Jerry Maguire,” “My
Best Friend’s Wedding” and “When Harry Met Sally.”
“They’re incredibly elevated. You care about the characters, the
writing is impeccable, the performances are impeccable, the
filmmaking is incredible,” he says. “To me, we just sort of lost
some of that elevation. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong, by
the way, with your Hallmark movies or other rom-coms that are a
little fluffier, a little lighter. They’re just sort of meant to be
put on and enjoyed and not taken really art.”
He took his two star-crossed lovers — Emily Bader and Tom Blyth,
playing will-they-or-won't-they friends — and earned the viewer's
trust: “It was all about grounding the comedy, the romance, the
yearning, in reality.”
Haley, too, argues that rom-coms aren't respected by critics these
days. The genre that kicked off with now-classics like “It Happened
One Night” and “Bringing Up Baby” is too easily dismissed in 2026.
“If an action movie is elevated and checks all the boxes, you’ll
find that critics go, ‘Hey, yeah, this did it. This was great,’” he
says. “But when a romance does it and checks the boxes and does
everything right, they go, ‘Oh, we’ve seen this before.’”
Haley says despite the critical reaction to rom-coms, he believes
the average viewer yearns to sit on the couch or go to the theater
and share the experience of falling head over heels.
“It’s especially dark right now. And I think that people want to
believe in love,” he says. “I think there’s real value in a film
that can genuinely make you feel good, even just for an escape for
two hours. There is true worth in that.”
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