Tag: Rom-Coms

This married couple writes romance novels together

Writing is hard — and so is marriage! Combining the two would be a particular challenge not for the faint of heart, but that’s exactly what Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka regularly do. 

The married co-authors (and former high-school sweethearts) have written 7 novels together. Their newest title is the adult romance “Do I Know You?” (Berkley). It’s the story of Eliza and Graham, a wedded couple in a marital rut who hope that a getaway to a romantic resort will reignite a matrimonial spark.   

But when a hotel screw-up and a mistaken guest confuse Eliza and Graham as complete strangers, the unhappy couple see an opportunity. They spend the week as singles, pretending to meet for the first time and again experiencing the ups and downs of dating one another. It’s a chance to see if they remember why they once fell in love. 

The novel was inspired — what isn’t these days!?! — by COVID-19, with Wibberley and Siegemund-Broka spending the first years of their own marriage trapped in Coronavirus quarantine.  


The couple’s latest novel was inspired by COVID-19.

Austin says, “We were 2 married people cooped up in a house together. The spark for the book was a couple who knew each other too well and had to learn to break out of that … something intimately inspired by spending the first years of our marriage stuck in isolation.”  

Wibberley and Siegemund-Broka love working together, but the writing process is not without its struggles. While “Do I Know You” has alternating chapters told from the perspectives of Emily and Graham, the married co-authors write every word of their books in tandem.   

“We don’t trade off who writes what. We write it together in the same room, speaking to each other,” Austin explains. 

“Every sentence, which is why there’s always conflict!” Emily laughs. 

It’s exactly as hard as it sounds, they say. 

“We write books together, which is very difficult. It’s great, we love sharing everything, but the work is the #1 source of conflict in our marriage,” Emily says. 

Austin shrugs.  “It’s a very difficult endeavor, and it looks like fights plenty of the time.”  

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Stream It or Skip It?

It’s sad to say that in many cultures, it’s still considered scandalous when women enjoy anime, video games, and eating delicious food. Those are things for “other” people. For “ugly” girls who’ll never find romance. These antiquated ways of thinking are embarrassing enough, but imagine being forced to give up the things you actually enjoy doing as a woman because some irritating little fairy needs you to help raise the birth rate in Japan. It sounds disgusting, but that’s the situation in Romantic Killer. It’s supposed to be funny, a way to turn rom-com clichés on their head, but it ends up falling more than a little flat. It’s also quite creepy when you really think about it.

Opening Shot: A young woman stands in the doorway of her home clutching a bag of snacks and a box containing a video game. She rubs the box all over her face affectionately and recounts her childhood spending time playing games with male friends and eating plenty of snacks, talking about how she’s always eschewed relationships.

The Gist: Anzu Hoshino (Deneen Melody) is a high school girl who absolutely loves gaming. Strike that. It’s kind of her life. She also loves chocolate, snacks, and her cat. She prefers staying home and playing games instead of finding romance in the real world, and she isn’t about to give all that up at random to go out on a date.

But a magical fairy named Riri (Courtney Lin) is trying to change all that. One day, Anzu plays the wrong game — and she finds her favorite hobbies, cat, and snacks taken away so she can live life as if she were in a dating sim game. Riri comes to Anzu straight out of her TV, warning the high schooler of Japan’s declining birth rate, and how she’s been selected as part of an “experience” to help improve things.

The fairy race Riri belongs to can’t run a business without the innocent hearts of additional children in the world. Riri’s plan goes like this: By forcing people who the fairies believe will be “forever single” to find love, the birth rate will skyrocket and things will get back to business as usual. With that, Anzu is forced to live in a world straight out of a shoujo manga. Sure, there’ll be plenty of “hot guys” and all that as well as situations you only see in romantic anime, but Anzu doesn’t want that. So she’ll fight tooth and nail against it to the bitter end.

Source: Netflix

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? You’ll undoubtedly have visions of Don’t Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro, or even Teasing Master Takagi-san, both romantic comedies with decidedly pushy characters and some frustratingly unlikable personalities vying for your attention.

Our Take: On one hand, Romantic Killer is meant to be parodic to a fault and satirical. However, it has a bizarre premise that fails anyone looking for any scrap of feminist ideals. While it’s obviously trying to make light of stereotypes from time to time and doesn’t paint Riri in a positive light, it’s hard to get into a story where the entire goal for this fairy is to ensure a high school girl enters a relationship and eventually gets pregnant so the fairy race can benefit. It’s a little strange, right?

If the premise hasn’t set you off the series by now, the way everything plays out just might. Anzu steels herself against falling in love to defy the fairy who’s forcibly changed her life, but that isn’t how things play out. Almost immediately, the seemingly perfect (and totally hot) Kazuki Tsukasa (Jason Griffith) appears in her life, with all the perfect conditions in place for them to fall for one another.

Riri keeps trying to force the two together in so many cliche and pained ways, and while Anzu is adamant that she won’t fall for these tricks, we all know what’s going to happen. The writing’s on the wall: the pair are going to get together, and this is going to be a painfully slow descent into shoujo manga tropes. Except the heroine has to throw away the things she enjoyed in her life to do so, for…reasons?

Sex and Skin: None in this episode, but the story’s implications, despite being parodic, are frankly quite strange and may not be appropriate for younger viewers.

Parting Shot: Having taken shelter in the rain in a playground, Anzu wears one sandal and one Croc while waiting out the storm. As the rain pours and she sits beneath an oversized slide, Kazuki walks up to her carrying an umbrella and a bag from the convenience store. The pair stare at each other for a beat.

Sleeper Star: Courtney Lin ensures Riri is one of the most irritating characters I’ve seen in an anime series since Madoka Magica’s Kyubey. She’s great at her job, lending Riri this insistent and patronizing personality that quickly grates on the nerves as you question why Riri thinks they have the authority to suddenly do all this to Anzu. That’s a testament to how convincing Lin can be, as she plays Riri fantastically.

Most Pilot-y Line: “We’re here to solve Japan’s extremely serious low birth rate problem,” Riri tells Anzu. There it is, folks. That’s why Anzu has to give up what she enjoys doing so she can…let’s check our notes here…have a child she hasn’t even thought about having.

Our Call: SKIP IT. The first episode won’t convince anyone that Romantic Killer is more than just a reverse harem and the creators’ commentary on what women should be doing with their lives. And despite having read the manga source material, it does tend to add a bit more nuance later on – with Riri having a few changes in store – but you likely won’t want to stick around to see it through. Sure, some of this pilot might elicit a few chuckles, but in the current world climate where women’s bodily autonomy is challenged on a daily basis, the laughs tend to come too slowly to make Romantic Killer a satisfying watch when you really look deeper.

Brittany Vincent has been covering video games and tech for over a decade for publications like G4, Popular Science, Playboy, Variety, IGN, GamesRadar, Polygon, Kotaku, Maxim, GameSpot, and more. When she’s not writing or gaming, she’s collecting retro consoles and tech. Follow her on Twitter: @MolotovCupcake.



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Stream It Or Skip It?

Entergalactic is an animated film (which was initially set up as a series, but Netflix presents it in one 92-minute chunk) that introduces a new album by Scott Mescudi, aka Kid Cudi. Instead of introducing the songs via a bunch of loosely connected videos, though, the album is presented through an animated story that’s a classic romcom.

The Gist: Jabari (voiced by Kid Cudi) has just moved into his dream loft in lower Manhattan, having signed on with a comic publisher who wants him to write a series about his street art character Mr. Rager (Keith David). On his first night moving into his new place, he runs into his ex Carmen (Laura Harrier), who is very interested in seeing him again. After hanging out with his buddies Jimmy (Timothée Chalamet) and Ky (Ty Dolla $ign), he decides to take Carmen up on her offer for a drink. It leads to a drunken night and him waking up in her bed; she thinks things are rekindled but he says he’s not ready for anyone right now.

That is, until he meets Meadow (Jessica Williams), his new next door neighbor. They’ve been having near-miss encounters for a few days, but they lock eyes when her party keeps him up in the middle of the night. She’s also an up-and-coming artist; her photography is scheduled for a big showing at a local art museum. She comes by the next day to take him to lunch to make up for the noise, and they end up having a spectacular day together.

Both are reluctant to get into something with their neighbor, though; Ky is in agreement until he sees Meadow at a party they all happen to be at, and Meadow’s pregnant bestie Karina (Vanessa Hudgens) tells her to listen to her “punan” when it’s on fire for someone. They finally give in and fall for each other over the next few weeks, but things hit a snag when Carmen takes Jabari’s request to stay friends a little too far.

Photo: Netflix

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: We’re not sure the animation in Entergalactic was rotoscoped like it was in the series Undone, but it gives off that vibe, especially because the characters look more or less like the actors who are playing them. But the structure of the film, directed by Fletcher Moules, is pure rom-com, like a modern, hip hop-infused version of When Harry Meet Sally.

Performance Worth Watching: Jessica Williams has been here before, playing the funky, dream girlfriend in the second season of Love Life. It’s a role that she’s good at, because she can combine sensitive, funny, sexy and creative in one performance. Macaulay Culkin has a fun cameo as a weird but interesting guy named Downtown Pat.

Memorable Dialogue: Jabari asks Ky if he wears a helmet when he rides his scooter. “I always wear a helmet,” he replies. “Safety first, bro. How do you think I’ve been able to stay chlamydia free since ’03?” “How old were you in 2003?” asks Jimmy. “Shit… old enough to feel the burn,” says Ky incredulously. It’s the funniest line in the movie.

Sex and Skin: There’s some animated nudity, and we see sex between Jabari and Meadow and in a flashback scene when Ky talks about a neighbor of his.

Our Take: One of the executive producers of Entergalactic is Kenya Barris, and you can see his influence in the film; the comedy is mostly character-driven, and much of it is actually very funny. But it’s balanced well with the dramatic and romantic elements of the story.

What was so surprising about the story was that it was structured like a classic romcom, despite the presence of Kid Cudi’s music and the obvious tilt towards the film being about people who are young, Black, and artistic with some degree of success. We see both people’s situations, along with their friends and/or families. Then there’s the meet-cute, the great first date, the montage that shows the two of them dating and falling for each other, the misunderstanding that could end it all, the separation and longing that misunderstanding generates, and eventually the loving reunion.

In other words, none of the beats of Entergalactic‘s story are a surprise. But the characters are so well thought-out and the humor so ingrained in those characters that it doesn’t matter. One of the things we tend to hate about modern romcoms are leaps of logic, especially when it comes to the obstacles that are thrown in the mix to keep the two main characters from being together.

Here, those beats feel organic for the most part, even the near-misses in the first 20 minutes or so; after all, they’re neighbors who walk in similar social circles. And when romcom beats feel organic, the story is much more satisfying to watch to its inevitable conclusion.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Kid Cudi and Barris do a fine job of making Entergalactic feel like much more than a vehicle for Cudi’s latest music; it’s a hip hop take on a familiar story, but is a satisfying watch despite knowing how it’s going to turn out.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.



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