Simone Ashley, who proved she was a rising star in Season 2 of Bridgerton, stars in an Amazon romantic comedy with tons of culture and representation, but perhaps not as much humor and charm to properly support Ashley. The film centers around an unmarried woman, for reasons truly unbeknownst to me, makes a bargain with her close family and friends that each one of them can set her up on a blind date, and afterward, she will marry one of them. So, we have to traverse a series of predictably bad dates before Ashley has a self awareness moment about what ( or who) she wants in her life. Even when it seems like a date is going well, it won’t.
the obvious choice is to go the bad date route. the better choice would have been to instead have her presented with almost too perfect men, repeatedly, making her have a variety and gaggle of choices to choose from. You can still have your ending, but perhaps the choice of self discovery is more rewarding when not marred by pervasive failure? The audio description here was OK. It didn’t quite hit me the way i wanted it to, or expected it, and I did want more from it. For example, after her first date that happens at this rich guy’s house, there are things you feel not being described. She comments on his staff, but you don’t know who or how many they are, even though the joke appears to be that he has many servants. I just think this track could have used a second pass it never got, and I always wonder who quality checked, or if it even was, and were they concerned with the choices?
It is a pretty basic, somewhat passable streaming comedy. It isn’t something to be deeply remembered, but I do want more for Simone Ashley in the future, and I hope this film doesn’t hold her back.
Fresh: Final Grade: C+, Audio Description: C+
