





Netflix's feel-good holiday comedy Single All the Way explores a familiar trope: hardworking digital marketer Peter (Michael Urie) convinces his best friend, Nick (Philemon Chambers), to pose as his boyfriend on a trip home to New Hampshire for Christmas — until they discover they share real romantic feelings. We’ve seen it before: Two people pretend to date, only to realize they are meant to be. It’s corny! It’s cheesy! It’s everything we want out of a rom-com! So, if you’re like us and just need to chase that feel-good high, we've rounded up a list of other movies currently streaming on Netflix that skillfully execute the fake dating trope. Not to spoil the endings, but we think you know (and love) how these will turn out.

You want fake dating? You will get fake dating in this 2020 Netflix original, which stars Emma Roberts and Luke Bracey as strangers who agree to be each other's platonic plus-ones for any and all holiday functions throughout the year. The only problem? The more time they spend together, the more they realize they might actually be perfect for each other.

This fake dating story adds catfishing — and some holiday spirit — to the mix. In Love Hard, Nina Dobrev plays Natalie, a dating columnist who can’t seem to find her person until she meets Josh (Jimmy O. Yang) online. He is seemingly perfect — charming and into all the same things as her — but he’s not exactly honest. When Natalie flies to upstate New York to surprise Josh, she discovers her long-distance beau was using photos of his old friend Tag (Darren Barnet) on his dating profile. High jinks ensue as Natalie and Josh pretend to date for his family, and Natalie and Tag begin to date while she conceals her relationship with Josh. Any guesses as to how this disaster story ends?

Lara Jean Covey (Lana Condor) has a habit of writing passionate letters to her crushes, then sealing the letters in envelopes and locking them in her closet. But thanks to her meddling little sister, the letters actually get mailed — well, it's kind of a long story, and maybe her sister did her a favor. She and one recipient, Peter Kavinsky (Noah Centineo), connect over her letter confessional. Peter enlists Lara Jean to pretend to date him in order to make his ex-girlfriend Gen (Emilija Baranac) jealous. Turns out, there are a few sparks between this fake couple — or at least enough to elicit a trilogy of movies about their relationship!

Noah Centineo apparently loves the faux-mance trope, because in yet another Netflix film that is a take on the Cyrano de Bergerac story, he embarks on another fake relationship (although his character doesn’t actually know it’s fake). As the titular character, Stranger Things' Shannon Purser plays Sierra Burgess, an unpopular high school student who secretly starts texting the hot quarterback from a rival school (Centineo). He thinks she's cheerleader Veronica (Kristine Froseth), and — well, you know how the rest goes.

For Centineo’s final fake dating act, the faux-mance aficionado stars as enterprising high school senior Brooks, who starts a business as a professional plus-one for local classmates. Brooks ends up scheming with his client Celia (Laura Marano) to stage a fake relationship in order to make their respective crushes jealous, only for both of them to discover that maybe their crushes aren’t the ones after all.

Maggie (Natalie Hall) and Jack (Evan Williams) are local radio hosts and longtime friends who somehow are unlucky in love — probably because their close friendship puts off potential romantic partners. But when they’re up for a promotion, they pretend to date in order to entice listeners (and appease their own families) in the hopes of getting their show nationally syndicated.

When high school senior Bianca (Mae Whitman) learns that she is the so-called DUFF of her friend group, the "designated ugly fat friend" (yes, yikes, it is addressed), she makes a pact with her popular neighbor and childhood friend Wesley (Robbie Amell) to tutor each other. She'll help him with his science grade so that he doesn't lose his college football scholarship, and he'll help her increase her popularity. Their fake relationship quickly evolves into one with complex feelings, jealousy and revoking the term DUFF (thankfully) altogether.





















































































