The Obsessive Viewer

• Director: Trish Sie
• Writer: Whit Anderson
• Cast: Gina Rodriguez, Damon Wayans Jr, Tom Ellis, Augustus Prew, Joel Courtney, Lisa Koshy, and Ego Nwodim

For sportswriter Mack (Gina Rodriguez) and her tight knit group of friends, the best way to unwind after a long day working in a struggling industry is to hit the bars and run various “plays” on patrons in the hopes of securing a one night stand. When one such conquest ends with her developing feelings, she sets out to orchestrate things so that her one night stand (Tom Ellis) can become a long-term romantic partner. Of course, things get more complicated when feelings get tangled up in all the deceit and puppeteering.

With this core premise, Players is something of a throwback to the mid aughts when How I Met Your Mother rose to prominence with Neil Patrick Harris’ turn as Barney Stinson, a deceptive and manipulative yet endearing pickup artist. But in the decade since How I Met Your Mother concluded its run on CBS, the notion of a character running manipulative tactics to coerce people to sleep with them seems a bit antiquated, to say the least. In fact, Hulu’s successor series How I Met Your Father jettisoned the womanizing character archetype in favor of an overall less problematic ensemble. You would think a movie in the 2020s that very much picks up the baton from HIMYM would have something more meaningful to say about how characters like Barney Stinson would function today onscreen. But that’s unfortunately not something that Players seems very interested in.

It’s not that this brand of romantic comedy persona can’t exist in the modern, post MeToo era. It’s just that movies and shows need to be smart about it and cognizant of the traits and behaviors they’re showcasing. And therein lies the major problem with Players. It simply doesn’t do anything with its “player” premise aside from use it as a vessel for elaborate schemes to manipulate characters and push the narrative forward. There’s an absurdly weak justification for the characters’ actions early on as Mack explains that her and her friends’ marks want to be lied to and know they’re being manipulated whenever they run one of their “plays.” Aside from the flawed logic, it’s barely an acknowledgement that the movie knows what the characters are doing is bad or, at the least, morally questionable.

It’s disappointing that the film doesn’t reckon with the morality of the deception the characters engage in because that’s merely the jumping off point for the more elaborate deception. Once Mack successfully hooks up with renowned writer Nick (Tom Ellis), she suddenly develops feelings toward him. Instead of just asking him out (as suggested by someone in the film and immediately dismissed), Mack essentially orchestrates an elaborate heist of information. Her friends monitor Nick’s movements, his social calendar, and get intel on anyone they see him out with who could pose a romantic threat to Mack’s prospects of a relationship with Nick.

In a word, it’s gross. And it really does nothing to endear us to Mack as a character nor to her friends. Augustus Prew, Joel Courtney, and Damon Wayans Jr. share the responsibility of playing cliché romcom friends, with Wayans Jr. being given the added role of potential love interest for Mack. Damon Wayans Jr. has proven himself to be a strong comedic actor with great charisma that’s sadly missing from Players. His character (Adam) is written as pretty uncharismatic, but when he’s allowed more chemistry with Mack, some of the more charming Wayans Jr. comedic energy is allowed to come out. Unfortunately those moments are few and far between.

A large swath of Players covers the elaborate relationship heist the group puts together to match Mack with Nick. However, there is a pivot about 2/3s through the film where the plot settles into a mismatched relationship drama of sorts. It’s an overall welcome change up as the scheming plot thread was wearing thin almost as soon as it was introduced. But the film’s biggest weakness is that while it does an okay job exploring the incompatibility between characters, it treats that disconnect as somewhat of a surprise.

Given the film’s weak premise and flirtation with unethical tactics to get characters what they desire through manipulation, you’d think it would be a no-brainer why the characters aren’t compatible. But the movie doesn’t bother addressing the clear moral issues in its premise. Instead, it reverts to romantic comedy tropes and clichés to bring things together in the end in a boring and uncreative finale. Thus completely ignoring the much meatier and interesting idea of characters learning that manipulation to get what you want isn’t a good thing.

With strong romantic comedies like Set It Up and Always Be My Maybe (along with a seemingly endless supply of teen romantic comedies as well), Netflix has seemingly cornered the market on romantic comedies in the streaming era. Unfortunately, Players won’t reach the upper echelon of Netflix’s romcom output due to a severely flawed premise and an outright avoidance of any meaningful character growth.

Players is currently streaming on Netflix.

About the Writer: Matt Hurt is the creator of ObsessiveViewer.com. He also created, hosts, and produces The Obsessive Viewer, Anthology, and Tower Junkies podcasts. He is a member of the Indiana Film Journalists Association.