Blog #2: Set It Up

Netflix's Rom-Com Set it Up Needs to Step It Up

Movie Poster

Two overworked assistants, two lonely bosses, and plenty of romance. Charlie and Harper concoct an elaborate scheme to get more time off of work. The plan? Set up their equally picky bosses Rick and Kirsten! But as Charlie and Harper are working together for the common goal of freedom, they end up falling in love with each other. What could go wrong? Apparently, a lot.

Although the movie makes subtle jabs at the cliches found in romantic comedies, it's hardly different from others.

The Meet-Cute

As Harper herself said, "We need a meet-cute. Like, every great romance has a meet-cute."

Rick and Kirsten at a Yankees game

Rick and Kirsten's meet-cute is, simply put, a disaster. Placing their bosses in an elevator, the assistants bribe someone to stop/crash the elevator. However, when another person enters the elevator, the controls stop working! Forced to watch a claustrophobic mail-carrier panic in the elevator, causing Rick and Kirsten to argue over how to handle the situation, the meet-cute is deemed an unromantic catastrophe.

 After a failed attempt to spark flirtation between the two, Charlie and Harper resort to manipulating the Kiss Cam at a Yankees game. This proves to be an equally frustrating situation since their bosses refuse to kiss each other, much to the dismay of their assistants
and the entire stadium crowd.

Although, these instances are framed as the opposite of the stereotypical meet-cute where fate pushes the couple together instead of tired assistants, the movie's second couple (Charlie and Harper) are victim to fate.

Harper and Charlie's first meeting, dividing the dinner order.

Charlie and Harper first meet in the lobby of their office building, both rushing to deliver dinner to their respective bosses, Rick and Kirsten. After arguing over food and explaining the severity of the situation they reach a compromise, which later sparks a friendship between them. Throughout the movie, their relationship slowly becomes romantic.

The Gay Best Friend

Even in 2018, it seems that rom-coms can't escape the use of a gay man as a protagonist's best friend. Meet Duncan, Charlie's best friend and roommate. While Set It Up doesn't exactly follow this cliche, placing Duncan as the male lead's best friend instead of the female lead's, Duncan is still a side character who exists only to provide much-needed romantic advice and make comments about his sexuality.

Charlie (left) receiving advice from Duncan (right)

Duncan appears in approximately 6-7 scenes, as expected for a side-character, but the overwhelming point of these scenes is just to re-enforce stereotypes about gay men. "Not all gay men are about sex all the time," Duncan explains after Charlie asks him if he has a guest over. Charlie's assumption is actually correct, proved seconds later as someone walks out of Duncan's room. Despite such a proclamation being Duncan's first line in the movie, for the majority of his scenes he is frequently presented in sexual situations: At Suze's (Charlie's girlfriend's) pool party Duncan is sitting eye-level to the crotches of men in swim-wear. He makes multiple comments about it yet receives no response from any character, main or otherwise. Later, Charlie and Harper go to the apartment to eat pizza. Charlie quickly runs out of the door and refuses to let Harper in because, "Duncan's playing Third Eye Blind in there, that means he's got a guy over. We can't go through there."

Duncan's second role is that of a "love guru," as he mentions to Charlie that Suze and him never talk and therefore are not a good couple. This advice prompts Charlie to realize the connection he lacks with his girlfriend and instead finds in Harper.

The Airport Scene 

SPOILERS BELOW! Skip the following section to avoid spoilers.

Charlie at the airport

Another scene Set It Up flips on its head is the 'airport scene', this scene plays on what the audience would expect after the male lead runs through the airport. Instead of running to reconcile with the female lead, Charlie runs to catch Rick and Kirsten before they leave for a vacation. Why? To break them up, of course!

After discovering that Rick was cheating on Kirsten, despite them being engaged, Charlie and Harper get into an argument. Harper believes that they should tell the truth, especially since Kirsten seems to actually like Rick. Charlie disagrees, claiming that Rick cheating/lying shouldn't matter since the entire relationship was fabricated by them (Charlie and Harper).

Eventually, Charlie realizes his mistake and runs to break off the relationship, also using the situation to quit his job as well. This scene pokes fun at the romantic movie classic, as many background characters shout that Kirsten should leave with Charlie instead of Rick, with the assumption that they are actually caught in the middle of a reconciliation--not a breakup.

The Gender Problem

While Set It Up attempts to modernize rom-coms to the millennial/Gen-Z viewer, exampled by Harper's use of the hook-up app Tinder, it falls flat in many ways, most prominently in its presentation of gender. A multitude of interactions between the characters often reference one of these two concepts: fragile/toxic masculinity and women in the workplace. Conversations about these two topics are more common these days and, more often than not, current media is expected to contribute meaningfully to these discussions. Obviously, Set It Up is a romantic comedy first and may not necessarily be providing social commentary. However, even if it was, this movie still has a multitude of problematic scenes and lines.

Masculinity

Charlie convincing Rick to call Kirsten back

The majority of the scenes exhibiting behavior related to fragile/toxic masculinity feature Rick. Although they are relatively subtle, they are still important to the overall conversation of gender treatment within Set It Up.

Firstly, the most common insult used against men in this movie relates to the size of their penis. While yelling at an intern in passing, Rick calls him a "pencil-dick" before promptly firing him. The unnamed intern defends himself to Charlie; "Pencils can vary in length and girth, so joke's on him." 

Later when Charlie attempts to "subtly" convince Rick to call Kirsten back he claims that "dating has changed so much these days. You used to wait three days before calling back. Now, the longer you wait, women think that...your penis is small." In both instances, the reference to somehow "inadequate" genitalia is used to imply ineptitude (in the intern's case) and cowardice (in the case of Rick not calling Kirsten). These comments add very little to the plot (Charlie could have easily found another excuse for Rick to contact Kirsten again) and serve as the basis of jokes and misconceptions that must be fixed for the sake of the character's masculine identity.

 

Femininity

Kirsten in the hallway outside her office. Note the word wall.

Like the above mentioned scenes, these scenes are often subtle and short. These clips often reinforce stereotypical ideas about women and romance but are far more numerous than any scene that represents fragile masculinity.

Kirsten is undeniably the boss, she's at the top of her game and she runs her own sports website successfully. As a female sports reporter, Kirsten is most likely viewed as an "anomaly" of sorts for taking an interest in a typically "male" interest. Like her boss, Harper is also a super fan of sports, which Charlie comments on at the Yankees Game Set Up, after taking a picture of her in Yankees themed clothing to supposedly add to the Tinder profile he's making for her: "Guys like girls who are into sports." Harper replies that "Guys do not like girls who are into sports. They like girls in tight jerseys who they can correct..." adding that said women wouldn't know what they're talking about. It's unclear exactly what Harper meant, whether she was implying that "she's not like other girls" or not, however it's clear that her comment was defensive. This scene is interesting to note as it succeeds Charlie and Harper's comments about Kirsten.

Kirsten and Rick announcing the news about their relationship.

When discussing how to make Kirsten "desirable" to Rick, Charlie advises that Harper's boss should be represented as a "really good deal," comparing her to a business contract. Harper then suggests mentioning Kirsten's work ethic because "...she treats her website like her baby." Charlie responds with "Probably because she can't have any." Harper agrees.

Multiple times throughout the movie, Kirsten is named as Harper's hero and role model and is clearly established as a successful woman. However, when presented with the chance to defend Charlie's sexist comment Harper does not defend her boss in the same way she defended herself at the Yankees' game. Despite being an incredibly successful businesswoman, Kirsten is still expected to be a mother first. These comments reinforce the idea that women must choose between the "female sphere" or the "male sphere" (working outside of the home). If Kirsten had kids she would be expected to leave work and become a full-time mother, regardless of her passion of being a reporter. This scene is not the only time Kirsten is expected to conform to Rick's ideas for women, or the only time Kirsten's importance is defined by ability to conform to typical ideas about women.

Charlie and Harper discussing their plans

When Rick casually mentions to Charlie that he despises body hair on a woman, and would likely feel sick and break up with her because of it, it's up to Harper to get Kirsten waxed. Harper then "reminds" Kirsten about a non-existent waxing appointment, framing the hair-removal as Kirsten's idea instead of Rick's. Later in the movie when Rick and Kirsten are together, Kirsten asks Harper to "uncancel" her invitations to a multitude of baby showers and engagement parties from estranged female friends. Her reasoning? Kirsten will "...finally be able to talk about something they're interested in."

Harper also expresses a seemingly problematic idea about women and love when Charlies suggests she plays hard to get with Golf Guy, Harper's Tinder hookup turned 2-week boyfriend whose name we never learn. "Play hard to get? That's like evolutionarily impossible. What guy would date a girl who's like 'Go get me food and maybe there'll be a cave for you when you get back or maybe not.' [Harper uses cavemen as a reference]. Men should want women who are going to keep the coziest, warmest caves. Men need shelter."

Throughout this movie, anything concerning love, romance, and family is subtly presented as the job of a woman. Rick is described, by Kirsten, as having mansplained Korean barbecue to her, even though he claimed that the cuisine was his favorite. After Kirsten realized he had, in fact, never eaten Korean barbecue she attempted to explain the situation to him, resulting in Rick refusing to listen or apologize after offending her. Rick is not expected to apologize when Kirsten wants him to but Kirsten must have absolutely no body hair for Rick. 

Kirsten is critiqued for not having any kids. However, Rick is actually a father! There are no comments made about his the fact that he spends more time at work than as a father. It's expected of Kirsten to sacrifice her passion for kids that she seems to not want.

Conclusion

Sneaking into Charlie's apartment. Note the fairy lights.

Although Set It Up is a modern romantic comedy, released in 2018, it still seems incredibly old-fashioned. While it may attempt to, or pretend to, rewrite the romantic comedy, this movie still keeps a majority of the cliches found in the genre such as: the accidental slow dance, romantic (and unrealistic) New York at night time, the camera pan out for the final scene, etc. 

However, my greatest critique of this movie is its message. Although Rick and Kirsten do not work out (thankfully!), it is only because Charlie and Harper discover that Rick is cheating on her. That is the instance where Charlie and Harper realize they do not want Kirsten marrying Rick. The many, many, sexist ideals Kirsten is forced to conform to, often at Rick's request, are not seen as offensive or as deal-breakers. They're normal.

Secondly, commenting on a person's genitalia to "threaten" their masculinity is also extremely problematic. Yet, no one mentions these public comments in the movie. They're also normalized. 

Netflix's Set It Up may be one of the many praised modern romantic comedies on the service but after a closer examination it fails to live up to expectations of a "new generation" of rom-coms. In a time where conversations about gender, sex, and sexuality are becoming especially prevalent, modern romances should at least attempt to catch up. If not now then when?