Ever since Netflix declared the return of the moribund studio romcom with its “Summer of Love” in 2018, the company has churned out a steady stream of formulaic – or, to quote the burn in many a review, “algorithmic” – at-home fare. The genre didn’t so much reboot as mutate for a new streaming home with a now distinctive style: baseline watchable, sheen-y, disposable. I’ve reviewed probably a dozen of them and can only recall a handful. The few that have stuck – To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, Set It Up – have endured in large part because of its stars’ charisma, without which a romcom has little hope. Such was the case with 2019’s Someone Great, a middling movie elevated to memorable by the breezy charm of Gina Rodriguez.
The erstwhile Jane the Virgin star has a natural affinity for the romantic lead: megawatt smile, puppy-dog eyes, caffeinated energy, a preternaturally sunny presence striking the highly prized sweet spot between gorgeous and relatable. She is deservedly the main attraction of Players, a new Netflix romcom released on Valentine’s Day starring Rodriguez as Mack, a Brooklyn-based sports journalist looking to up her playbook of romantic entrapment.
