Something weird is happening on Netflix. No, we’re not talking about the inexplicable trend of everyone in the world binging Suits. We’re talking about a made-for-Netflix romantic comedy that is actually pretty good.
This unicorn of peppy dialogue and stolen glances is none other than Love at First Sight, based on Jennifer E. Smith’s literary smash The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight. Not only are critics actually fond of it — talking about going against statistics — but audiences have sent it to the very top of the Netflix charts, which typically doesn’t happen unless word of mouth is extremely positive.
Sure, it’s easy to convince fans of rom-coms to watch new ones since they tend to enjoy themselves as long as the movie checks the requisite boxes. However, these films tend to skip the zeitgeist and are typically gone from memory a day or two after consumption.
Fans turn them on for comfort, to satisfy that itch to sit in their pajamas eating ice cream from the tub and yelling at a heroine torn between two lovers that she shouldn’t forget to save her father’s landscaping business, or whatever. But fans rarely celebrate direct-to-streaming rom-coms to the level that drives viewing numbers this big.
Per Netflix’s Global Top 10 for film and TV, Love at First Sight was the most-watched entry in the top 10, scoring 21,400,000 hours viewed across the week of Sept. 11 through 17.
The actual number of views currently stands at 14,100,00, leaving second place (You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah) in the dust with only 4,300,000. Granted, Bat Mitzvah has been streaming for four weeks, but look at that lead!
Plus, there’s the critical score for Love at First Sight to consider. Critics usually relish the opportunity to write a scathing review of a lighthearted romance, but a 76 percent on Rotten Tomatoes with endorsements from the AP and The Guardian? That’s more than many theatrical rom-coms have earned.
So if you’re a fan of will-they-won’t-they-oh-wait-come-on-of-course-they-will, consider joining the rest of us and giving Love at First Sight a try.
We guarantee you’ll like it better than Hallmark’s An Autumn Romance, also known as A Winter Romance, Colors of Love, and Tycoon’s Kiss. That movie has four different titles for the various streamers that host it, but the only reason the writers could drum up for the heroine becoming interested in Chad Michael Murray is because he owns… books. With competition like that, Love at First Sight should have no problem building its audience at a steady pace.
