It's that time of the year again, at least in the universe of streaming services: Everywhere on the Netflix seats you can see Christmas movie-mad viewers flashing, or something. During this time we want to gawk “Indeed ... love” and “Love doesn't need a vacation”, that's the law. But Netflix, on the other hand, has come up with something very nasty: film classics from the run-up to Christmas, which are actually supposed to get us in the mood, can suddenly no longer be streamed at some point from November - until they appear again shortly before Christmas with a lot of fanfare and gingerbread sprinkles, according to the motto: Look what we got you just before Christmas! Aren't we nice ?! (No, let's decide for ourselves when we want to do to Hugh Grant as the shackling Prime Minister, okay, thank you, ciao!)

Johanna Dürrholz

Editor in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Magazin

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This also means that RomCom and Christmas RomCom fans inevitably have to watch Netflix in-house productions for the festival of love during Advent, and that's not always nice.

So, to put it in the words of our colleagues in Vice: We all watched Netflix Christmas films so you didn't have to.

A change is not bad, more Christmas romance is always good, plus a little mulled wine and Advent calendar chocolate and hallelujah, the fourth wave is still the last crap, but we are at least RomCom-drunk.

One worse than the other

Because "actually ... love" is no longer really up-to-date, for example: there is a guy who treats his best friend's new wife rudely and brusquely in public, only to secretly poke her on, like someone who is obsessed with him To film a wedding with zoom and then rely on your pity, only to dust off a sad kiss. Such behavior is now called toxic, the guy was an asshole 20 years ago.

So we cheered up on the new Christmas film classics. "The Christmas Prince", for example, as the name suggests, has all the important elements of a good December Schmonzette: Christmas and therefore also love, prince and also intrigues, at best intrigues at court. And actually (without love!) The film has what it takes to become a classic, it's a little bit stupid, a little romantic, a little heart-warming, clumsy in the right places and overall so lame that you can watch it again every year without hesitation. It's not a good film, there are no good actors either, but all the main characters are blonde, the best friend black, the stylist gay - all items on the cliché list are ticked off. In spite of this, or precisely because of this, the film is such a huge success,that Netflix had two sequels shot, one worse than the other.

No sequels please

The Christmas Prince trilogy is a huge challenge, and yes, we watch it every year and still wish for something better.

Then Netflix made about 17 Christmas films with Vanessa Hudgens in the lead role, which is not a bad idea in and of itself because Hudgens is great, but "Princess Swap 1" is followed by 2 and 3, and the fun is no fun more, just cheap.

Then rather "A Knight Before Christmas", also with Vanessa Hudgens in the lead role and a confused knight who accidentally traveled to her for a few centuries and wonders about radios, but still knows how to use deodorant and a shower, Oh well. Otherwise, the film is quite enchanting, even if its moral is sadly that in the 21st century, a smart man will only turn up for a modern woman if he is a noble knight who has accidentally traveled back in time. We can really only hope that Netflix won't make any sequels of it and screw it up for us too. Please don't.

Then there are oversights like “Christmas in the wild”. And even if Kristin Davis and Rob Lowe are really, really still very beautiful and romance is beyond 40 ?, 50? (Botox makes more accurate assessments difficult), the film is just sad: two white Americans warming up post-colonial clichés about the African wilderness. Merry Christmas!

In the past Advent season we were about to watch the "Grinch" with Jim Carrey again, nothing comes from nothing, then Netflix finally opened its merciful gates - and the old Christmas movie hams were back.

And Christmas is somehow also a festival for traditionalists: A little Cinderella here, a pinch of Little Lord there (including the “Golden Slippers” earwig), then a little Sissi and last but not least, finally, online again (Amen!), the movie we wanted to watch the whole time: "Indeed ... love" with this insane Emma Thompson scene in which she cries to Joni Mitchell and tries to pull herself together at the same time.

You want to see that every year.