Spiraling Not Included

(I know. I don't care.) I know rom-coms aren't realistic. You know rom-coms aren't realistic. The people who make rom-coms definitely know they're not realistic. And yet, here we are—watching and reading the same impossible, illogical, economically baffling love stories over and over again like they're documentaries. Because here's the thing: the unrealistic parts aren't bugs. They're features. So yes, I'm fully aware these things would never happen in real life. But I love them anyway, and I...

(Where fiction meets a farm) A few Christmases ago, I went to Ireland with my mom and sister. Two weeks, two Airbnbs: one on a farm in the countryside and one in Dublin with modern everything and zero sheep. We fell in love with the entire country—the people, the accents, the landscapes that made you want to narrate your own movie trailer. I’d underestimated how Ireland could get under my skin and into my heart. The farm stay was what did me in. It was run by the family’s single son—nothing...

(Rom-coms get a bad rap.) Too predictable, they say. Too light. Too much knitwear and emotional safety. Meanwhile, the same people will watch a prestige drama about a tortured man staring at a wall for eight episodes and call it “character-driven.” Here’s the thing: the cozy life plotline is character-driven. It just doesn’t always need an existential crisis to prove it. There’s something quietly defiant about a story that insists joy is still worth writing about. Not perfect joy — the earned...