In lieu of a podcast episode this week, I wanted to write a blog about a genre of Romantic Comedies that simply does not get the love and attention that it deserves. Breakup Coms.

The movies where the protagonist is dealing with a detrimental breakup, maybe they find love at the end, maybe they get closer with their friends, maybe they become wildly successful in their career. Whatever it may be, the breakup is the catalyst for the movie, creating a wonderful and painful reminder that love isn’t always perfect.

I was initially going to talk about Someone Great on the podcast this week, and it’s the movie that prompted this. That and Legally Blonde the Musical. Two STELLAR representations of Breakup Coms.

Someone Great, staring LaKeith Stanfield and Gina Rodriguez, shows Gina dealing with the end of a 9 year relationship the very next day. It’s a story of female friendship and grief. It’s honestly such a superb movie that I forget that it’s just a Netflix original. My favorite part is how ride or die her best friends are, they simply do whatever Gina’s character needs and then some. It ends in a wild night out and the promise that they’ll stay friends forever.

Legally Blonde the Fucking Musical. I mean, we all know and love Legally Blonde, but the musical is truly one of the best movie to musical adaptations of all time. First off, the music SLAPS, not a single fucking skip. Secondly, I think it almost tells the story of Elle’s heartbreak and want for Warner better than the movie does. While the movie makes it clear that she goes to Harvard to win Warner back, the overarching theme of the musical is that Elle will do anything for Elle, including trying to change herself. But obviously, in the end she doesn’t and ends up with the careers, a new mans, and new friends. Simply fucking STELLAR.

A lot of romantic comedies focus on what you can achieve when you find love, but I think movies like Legally Blonde and Someone Great show us that even if we break up with the love of our life, we can still be winners at the end of the day. And one of the overarching themes of movies like this is the power of female friendship. The sisterhood that is you and your closest friends. As someone who has quite literally the best friends a girl could ask for, seeing powerful adult female relationships makes me so fucking happy. The female trio in Someone Great is a white woman, a black woman, and a latina woman, and as someone who has that exact fucking friend group, I felt SEEN.

As much as I love the feeling of wanting to fall in love at the end of Rom Coms, the combination of sadness and happiness at the end of breakup coms is such a good fucking feeling. Good is probably not the right word for it, but I enjoy that feeling every once in while. Sad movies can sometimes be too sad, but a good ole breakup com? It ends somewhat happy, and it’s funny, so it’s a fucking win when you need to get the tears out, but also don’t want to be overly emo.