Netflix – 26 & OVER

After a series of romcom successes last year (To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, Kissing Booth, Set It Up), Netflix is on a roll with some great new movies/shows this year! Have you seen all these new girl gang Netflix Originals??

Not the most groundbreaking, but these movies are coming-of-age tales, romances, comedies, light dramas perfect for when you’re in chill Friday-night-in mode. Here are a few I saw recently with some quick reviews:

Someone Great

Your late 20s in a nutshell. Has a very Nick & Norah feel with that all-in-one-night story. Nothing original but the backdrop of NYC, a concert/gig, relatable characters (a mid-level manager at a marketing agency, a lesbian realtor activist with straight bestfriends, a creative music magazine writer lol), pretty natural social media use, and a really really good soundtrack all paint a great picture. Loooved Gina Rodriguez, Brittany Snow, and Dewanda Wise in this! Great acting, great chemistry. Awesome cameos too (hello Mama Ru). It’s sweet how by the end, the ‘Someone Great’ they’re looking for turns out to be their own best selves rather than a significant other. Cue the awwww’s. Favorite parts: the girls singing to Dreaming Of You in the bodega (who hasn’t done a singalong in public with their girls?); DeWanda coming in just at the “YOU COULDA HAD A BAD BITCH” beat drop; the Brittany Snow character going off “You’re late to work everyday! You go out more on weekdays than on weekends! You’re holding on to something that is gone. You think you’re gonna be young forever? We’re almost 30 years old, it’s not cute anymore!”

Rough Night

This actually had a theatrical release in the US and is not technically a Netflix Original, but it was released for streaming on there just this month so I’m counting it. If idealistic Someone Great is for your 20s, pragmatic Rough Night is for your 30s. Haha. The characters are all well-entrenched in their careers and are so busy with their own lives but have stayed friends since their time at college. They basically go on a familiar girl’s trip/bachelorette to Miami but it gets entertaining because of the wild (read: criminal) turn of events that takes place during the all-nighter plot hahaha. And it’s just perfect when you have, hello, BLACK WIDOW as the lead! Scarlett looks so great here (too great?). I think she was just coming off of Captain America Civil War filming. Tbh, comedy might not be her thing– this felt a little Nanny Diaries-ish. Would much rather see her in intense Match Point type things or, of course, MCU. But good for ScarJo to have time for this hihi. Kate McKinnon steals a lot of the funny scenes, as expected. Watch for some crazy cameos (Modern Family’s Phil Dunphy in a very un-Phil Dunphy role hahaha). Favorite parts: Well, that moment the night took a turn (lol watch first so I don’t spoil); guy grinds up behind Zoe Kravitz in the club- “Frankie do you have a tampon?” [guy leaves] “What day are you on?” “Oh, no, it’s our code if some guy is skeezing us out and we want to be saved.” Lol, relatable?

Wine Country

If the first two are for your 20s & 30s, this one’s for your 50s hahaha. Best to watch with your mom probably. It’s not the most energetic or laugh-out-loud comedy but it’s great ’cause it’s beyond that. Plus the mere fact that you have Amy Poehler (who produced & directed too!), Maya Rudolph, Rachel Dratch, and other SNL veterans (Tina Fey makes a cameo), you’re just gonna wanna watch it. It’s almost like they, as real-life friends and contemporaries, just went “Hey let’s go on a vacation/make a movie.” Hahaha. It’s great that the movie is just in the canon of girl group movies now – how many do you have of women in their 50s?? Favorite parts: all the drinking; every time they harmonize at random lol; Amy Poehler as trip organizer always forcing her itinerary- “Hey guys, can we put our t-shirts on so we can get to the pavilion and take the SUPER FUN DRONE SHOT? [storms off]” and Dratch’s deadpan response- “You guys, I’m gonna go follow her and offer some feedback.”

BONUS: Ibiza

This one actually came out in 2018, but it works in this category. Favorite parts: Richard Madden.

Rachel Green is often written off as your typical pretty, popular queen bee who grew up to be that girl with the same charmed life and an “epic” will-they-won’t-they love story. Like her life was destined to be a rom-com. But if you really think about it, it was more a legitimate coming of age tale ‘cause Rachel basically had the best arc throughout the whole ‘Friends’ run. At a time when sitcoms didn’t really put much focus on anything but jokes & punchlines, her character development was remarkable in the realest, most relatable way.

Often you find flat and/or inconsistent characters on comedy shows. While there was some of that in Friends (there were many plotholes), it was always cool how they managed to move the story forward according to the Six’s life stages at one of the most significant periods of their lives. Maybe this is why it’s experiencing a resurgence right now, what with Netflix getting all the episodes on and everybody still having that millennial/twentysomething fixation. But don’t talk to me if you’re one of those ~woke~ individuals who just find the show insular and problematic — it was a different time! (Say that to the tone of ‘We were on a break!’ haha) Of course there are some things you can’t joke about now. But that’s beside the point. If you’d do the same original pitch for the Friends pilot now, and there hadn’t been a show like it before, it would most probably still get picked up:

This show is about six people in their 20’s who hang out at this coffee house. An after hours insomnia café. It’s about sex, love, relationship, careers… a time in your life when everything is possible, which is really exciting and really scary. It’s about searching for love and commitment and security… and a fear of love and commitment and security. And it’s about friendship, because when you’re young and single and in the city, your friends are your family. – Marta Kauffman & David Crane

So nice, right? Well that pitch could not have been truer for Rachel who really lived it. Spoiled rich daddy’s girl to would-have-been bored rich housewife to trained-for-nothing 20something to minimum-wage coffee shop waitress to big NYC department store assistant buyer to merchandising head at designer fashion house to expat in Paris… All in a span of 10 years! Not bad for someone who was too scared to get cut off at 24. (I mean yes it’s a show but for argument’s sake pls) I’m just all the more pulled in because I’m also in retail and I know only too well the work that comes with merchandising/marketing roles in that world hahaha.

She was actually impressive. Even if you’re not into the so-called corporate ladder, she’s still career/personal growth goals! She matured too, emotionally. Ross might not have been the best decision on the love life front, but she was always cool and sensible, and could stand alone with or without him. She was also a fun, sincere friend to both the guys and girls and, eventually, a devoted, caring mother. She was far from perfect, for sure. At her worst, she was selfish and image-conscious, but she was also well-rounded, vulnerable, and strong. Woman goals, tbh.

And she did it all in style. Her clothes were some of the best things about the show and many of the outfits she wore, especially the workwear, are still very much wearable today! So let me end this fan-post (brought about by a random nth rewatch of Season 6) with some of my favorite Rachel outfits that may or may not be my workday #ootd pegs for the week: