A love triangle. Two high school sweethearts reunited. Big city girl falls in love with a handsome rugged small-town guy.
These are all cliche plots that we cannot get enough of. After all, who doesn’t love a cheesy rom-com? I know I do.
Over the summer, the TV show “The Summer I Turned Pretty” was all over TikTok. It is a show based on a book trilogy written by Jenny Han. In the show, the protagonist, Belly, finds herself stuck in a love triangle with Conrad and Jeremiah. These two boys are brothers, and Belly grew up going to their mom’s beach house.
The majority of the TikToks about the show were calling the show cheesy and cringe. However, users admitted that they still watched the show because they found it entertaining and heartwarming at times. As someone who read the book trilogy and then watched the show, I can understand why the teenagers’ romance was portrayed in this way.
Another example of cringe-acting is the movie series “After.” The movies are based on the tumultuous relationship between Tessa and Hardin. Similar to “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” these movies are based on a book series. The “After” movies are considered guilty pleasure movies. The acting in them is cringe, and I often found myself feeling secondhand embarrassment from some scenes, yet the movies’ drama has a certain appeal to fans.
The most popular and robust example of cheesy plots and movie cliches has to be Hallmark movies. There is a myriad of Hallmark movies out there, and new ones are released every year. The most well-known Hallmark movies are those that pop up around the holidays. These movies are known for their lack of depth and cheesy plots.
If we know these TV shows and movies are cheesy and sometimes very cringe-worthy, why do we continue to watch them? Why are they still being made?
The comfort of a familiar plot appeals to us. We don’t have to stress about what’s going to happen next because we’ve seen this storyline before.
The guy gets the girl in the end, and they live happily ever after.
The familiarity of these cliches is what keeps us coming back for more. We don’t have to stress about the complexities in the show or movie, but instead, we can find some escape from reality in the predictable tales.
In order to enjoy these shows, we might have to endure some cringeworthy drama, but sometimes that’s an important part of the storyline too. A show like “The Summer I Turned Pretty” is a teenage drama. I don’t know about you, but my teenage years contained some pretty cringe moments. Having moments like that in a teen drama is what makes it relatable. We should expect some awkwardness in teen romance because it’s something we have all seen or experienced in real life.
Next time you find yourself cringing at a cheesy one-liner or rolling your eyes at the predictability of a plot, remember that life can be cheesy and awkward at times. Enjoy the entertainment for its simplicity and heartwarming moments.