How Much Rom in the Rom-Com?

[onyxlynx]

Three from the Atlantic's Romantic Comedy beat:

• A two year old article referencing a New Yorker piece and taking the "alternate universe" premise to heart (slideshow);
• Christopher Orr asks "Why are romantic comedies so bad?" (with historic overview and responding video);

  Among the most fundamental obligations of romantic comedy is that there must be an obstacle to nuptial bliss for the budding couple to overcome. And, put simply, such obstacles are getting harder and harder to come by. They used to lie thick on the ground: parental disapproval, difference in social class, a promise made to another. But society has spent decades busily uprooting any impediment to the marriage of true minds. Love is increasingly presumed—perhaps in Hollywood most of all—to transcend class, profession, faith, age, race, gender, and (on occasion) marital status.

• Blame Hollywood's lack of imagination for crummy rom-coms.  (Partly a response to the preceding article.)