This article was originally published in Fortune Magazine.
Netflix holiday movies often follow a well-trodden path, laid in place decades before streaming even existed. It typically involves a small town, a city-dwelling fish-out-of-water lead, a love interest that knows Santa, or is a knight, or a snowman, a big fight, a broken heart, a misunderstanding cleared (with some winter magic maybe), a precious kid played by a too-old child actor, and, of course, Santa again.
“There are certain boxes you have to check when you’re writing a Christmas movie,” Marla Sokoloff, writer and actress in The Merry Gentleman, told Fortune.
