With a hearty slate of new, original romantic comedies available to couch surfers everywhere, Netflix has helped make the summer of 2018 the summer of rom-coms. The streaming service’s latest offering, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, has proven to be a hit. and there’s talk of a sequel to another genre-defining flick from one of the stars himself.
Taye Diggs, currently promoting his upcoming CW drama series All American, talked about his recent Netflix effort, Set It Up. The film, which evoked The Parent Trap, starred Zoey Deutch and Glen Powell as employees who set up their evil bosses, Taye and Lucy Liu, in an attempt to get out from under their oppressive thumbs. The movie has proven to be a critical success and audiences are curious to find out what happens next.
Taye told PEOPLE that “I had no idea that the movie would do as well [as it did],” and, as for the possibility of a sequel, he said that, “I’m a huge fan of romantic comedies and I’m all for doing more. I’m looking forward to working more with the creators of Set It Up and with Netflix. I had a really, really great time.”
Kayleigh Donaldson wrote a great think piece on Pajiba about the resurgence of the rom-com, pointing out that Netflix may have jumped on the rom-com revival because they “are inexpensive to produce, don’t need massive stars in the major roles, and can be made to appeal to a variety of age groups.” They are also welcome in this day and age:
Rom-coms make people happy and right now we want to be happy. We want love stories with guaranteed happy endings; we want to see good looking people fall in love across various barriers; we want love stories to be more inclusive; we want positivity and we want feminine coded narratives to get as much attention as anything featuring explosions or guns.
I have yet to see Set It Up. I’m not a big fan of rom-coms and, besides, my Netflix queue is backlogged with unwatched episodes of OITNB and Kimmy Schmidt left to watch. And, every time I want to dig into the queue, I find something new to watch that takes precedence, like last night when Hurricane Bianca 2: From Russia with Hate showed up as a new release. I adore Bianca Del Rio and if you’re a Drag Race fan, I’d definitely recommend it. It’s cute and I want Rachel Dratch to be my BFF, stat. But I do have to agree that a good rom-com is like the warm hug we could all use right about now, and I’m all for more Taye Diggs on my screen.
Photos: Getty, WENN and screenshots from Netflix
I do not get the hype around this movie. It was stupefyingly dumb.
Good to know, I was about to add it to my queue, lol. Although something tells me I probably wouldn’t have gotten to it anyway. I’m having a hard time escaping with anything these days.
I’m just here for Taye, he’ll always be Winston to me who helped Stella get her groove back. Yum!
Lucy Liu and Taye Diggs were clearly having a great time. Glen Powell should be a bigger star than he is. Other than that it was just pretty quiet fluff, and was great to watch after watching to all the boys I’ve Loved Before. I always always always loved rum cons, so I’m happy that it seems to be having a solid Revival now.
I agree with Alissa. It was cute, but not great. And I just love Lucy Liu and Glen Powell. Taye is good too.
I actually really liked it and wouldn’t mind seeing a sequel. It made me more open to the idea of watching netflix original movies. I was pretty resistent to the idea of Netflix movies before, but now, notsomuch.
I loved it! We need more rom coms in our life 🙂
I haven’t seen the Set it Up movie but I’m totally enjoying Ozark on Netflix. Netflix is the bomb, quality “TV” without the commercials.
At first glance I read it as “Taye Digg is up for a SET IT OFF sequel” and was all like “Wait…What? Was he in the first movie? No… don’t think so, but Blair Underwood was… ooooh Blair Underwood… will HE be in that movie as well? Oh, this is not about Set it off… bummer.”
Hard Pass for me Love Lucy Liu but avoid anything with Taye Diggs in it if I can help it
Glen Powell, oh my. More Glen Powell please!
The movie was okay…doesn’t need a sequel, but I would love to see more of Lucy Liu. Her career never fully took off even with a couple hit movies. She’s so beautiful and I love her no-nonsense/tough roles.
It wasn’t anything groundbreaking but it was cute and light and a fun watch with a bottle of wine. Glen is suuuper cute so I would watch him in a sequel.
What on earth would be in the sequel?!
I thought it was an endearing movie. No masterpiece, sure, but few movies are.
I’m all up for more rom-coms – they’re good escapism and, just like Celebitchy (lol), can be smart escapism, too. I find the general disdain for them to be partly rooted in mysogyny (compare and contrast with attitudes to ‘action’ or superhero movies).
Omg I loved this movie, I dont know, i thought Zoey Deutch and Glen Powell were so likeable and it was so well-cast, it’s such a feel good movie, I unabashedly love the chemistry between the leads. I thought they were endearing. I didnt think it was stupefyingly dumb, it’s not a cinematic masterpiece but it was awesome.
I thought the movie was fun, and I love Taye Diggs, but his character was violent and explosive. It was creepy Lucy Liu’s character stayed with a guy she had just started dating after his outbursts. What kind of message does that send? Just thought it was a weird (and unresolved) issue with the film.
Good point! I was not rooting for his character at all due to the destruction and violence, versus Lucy Liu’s character just being mean.