On its face, Relationship Goals is a classic romcom, calibrated for viewers of a certain generation. The perennially resplendent Kelly Rowland is Leah, a boss babe morning TV producer in line to replace her retiring boss (the omnipresent Matt Walsh) as showrunner. Just as she’s poised to break the glass ceiling, the network higher-ups stick her in a bake-off with Jarrett, a ringer from her romantic past played with devil charm by Method Man. The promise of one of Destiny’s Children playing the will they/won’t they game with the hunk of the Wu-Tang Clan could well prove too strong a lure to stop the scores who grew up on their music from clicking on the Prime Video thumbnail just out of nostalgic curiosity.
It’s a tractor beam made stronger by director Linda Mendoza’s extraordinarily fast pace. I mean, those 90 minutes just breeze by. Relationship Goals’s three-headed writer team – led by Michael Elliott, whose credits include Queen Latifah’s Just Wright and Beyoncé’s Carmen hip-hopera – are bracingly efficient with their paint-by-numbers set-up. Leah’s besties – Treese, the tragically single makeup girl (Flamin’ Hot’s Annie Gonzalez); Brenda, the wistful morning anchor (A Black Lady Sketch Show’s Robin Thede), Roland, the omniscient assistant (Pose’s Ryan Jamaal Swain) – helpfully fast-talk through backstory points and punctuate scenes with snappy one-liners and winks at the audience. (Brenda titles her emergency engagement plan: Project Put a Ring on It.) Only Dennis Haysbert slows things down as Leah’s grieving father, but not enough to be a drag.
