I love a UK-based romance (not for nothing have I seen Notting Hill an upsetting number of times), and that’s exactly what the new Netflix rom-com My Oxford Year promises to deliver, with its focus on the attraction between a brand-new Oxonian from Queens, New York, and her extremely British professor crush. Let’s dive in and see how this one rates on the Great Rom-Com-o-Meter, shall we?
- Ooh, a row of classic paperbacks! How Oxford!
- And a Cornell degree?
- The neatness of the suitcase this girl is packing is really disenchanting me to her rom-com-protagonist likability.
- Aw, OK, she’s doing a postgrad degree at Oxford and her Spanish-speaking family is very proud. We’re so back.
- The girl’s name is Anna, FYI.
- Did Caroline Calloway somehow inspire this movie?
- I know this isn’t another biopic about William and Kate meeting at university, but the Britishness (and the sight of Anna’s carefully coiffed brunette locks) is throwing me.
- Wow, dorms in the UK are nice. Where’s the waterlogged twin XL mattress and wall covered in paint chipped from years’ worth of Radiohead posters being hung?
- Oh no, Anna got splashed!
- Nothing some fish and chips won’t cure.
- Surely most Americans have heard of…cod, right?
- Who’s this handsome guy with the mean-seeming redhead?
- Is “mushy peas” really something you can order in England?
- We simply love a guy who has to hide from women he’s dated in public, don’t we, girls?
- Oh, shit, this is the guy who splashed Anna with his car.
- Aw, I want to run around the Oxford campus in a little ribbon tie! How quaint!
- Wait, the hot-ish (or hot-coded, at least) guy from the fish and chips shop is teaching Anna’s class?
- They’re reading Edna St. Vincent Millay at Oxford?
- The vibes are on.
- I like the couch in Male Protagonist’s office.
- What the hell is his name?
- Also, OMG, the Knives Out knit!
- I’m bored. Sorry.
- Oh, wait, maybe the redhead isn’t mean?
- It’s so hard to tell with Brits!
- I, personally, think it’s hot when men drunkenly rail against American empire, but that’s just me.
- Wait, never mind, he’s racist.
- Oh, I hate his ass!
- Good for Anna for dumping water on his crotch.
- I hope true love can convince this girlie not to take a job at Goldman Sachs.
- Okay, Male Protagonist’s name is Jamie, and he’s a secret musician?
- And Anna’s making him perform in public!
- How quirkiana!
- Ooh, are they having doner kebab?
- First kiss time!
- Fancy dress party!
- Okay, I do not care for this Male Rival’s face.
- I know this little Millay-related outing is supposed to be very thoughtful and dreamy, but again, I am bored.
- All right, here we go, rainy romance in England. Finally!
- In a luxury car, no less.
- I want sticky toffee pudding—or, indeed, whatever it is Anna and Jamie are sharing.
- That wasn’t a euphemism about their romance; I literally just want their British dessert.
- Ooh, I like this sparkly minidress.
- Is the lighting of this movie extremely weird, or is it my TV?
- It’s not Oxford if you’re not inexplicably rowing.
- Remember the Bridget Jones rowing scene of a cig-puffing Daniel Cleaver falling in the water?
- Now I just want to rewatch Bridget Jones.
- Or, as Jessica from Too Much calls it, “British Jones.” (“SHE’S BRITISH!”)
- A recent college grad with an actual house his aunt left him? Lock it down, Anna!
- Okay, the Boat Race does look fun.
- Oh, shit, Jamie has some sort of illness?
- And he’s yelling at Anna to get out of his sickroom!
- What in the spooky Jane Eyre reveal?
- Ah, biking while crying. Did it for most of my 20s. Not fun.
- Oh no, Jamie lost his brother! And now he has the same genetic disease his brother had!
- I didn’t realize we were getting all Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants with it.
- Okay, I should not have thought about Bailey’s death in that movie.
- I’m crying.
- I’m back.
- Rain, tears, kissing, etc., you get the picture.
- Okay, this yellow dress is really giving How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, in the best way.
- “I’m gonna get drunk and go on a fucking Ferris wheel.” I love Jamie’s mom!
- Gay subplot!
- I really do love the phrase “chin wag,” and Anna is right that it could easily be mistaken for jaw surgery.
- Oh no, Jamie collapsed!
- Ugh, I wish I had easy access to virtually every European vacation spot like my lucky UK friends do.
- Then again, we Americans have Buc-ees.
- I want a silk driving headscarf, though I’m not sure it hits the same in a filthy Honda Fit as it does in a vintage convertible.
- Casual home-castle reveal!
- Croquet!
- Is Jamie sort of giving a young Tom Cruise?
- “Giorgio Armani trained as a doctor.” Thanks for the fashion-history inspo, gay bestie!
- Yay, Goldman Sachs who?
- It’s graduation day! Somehow!
- Or do Oxford students just get a little outfit in order to celebrate regular last days of class?
- Wait, does Jamie…die?
- And Anna…takes his job?
- And serves his traditional first-day-of-class cake?
- Well, I did not expect that ending.