By Diana

I was the ripe age of nineteen when Two Weeks Notice came out. Alas, I was still too cool for school for rom-coms then and it didn’t make it into my DVD player until the riper age of 33. It turns out my 19-year-old instincts were correct, but my 33-year-old maturity gives me the confidence to dislike this movie, while simultaneously keeping it in a special place in my heart.

In 2016, Two Weeks Notice was the subject of the first episode of my podcast, Happily Ever Aftermath. My then friend (and now podcast co-host) Polina and I decided to watch romantic comedies and crap on their ridiculousness. We wanted to know why people fell in love so quickly and also guess if the characters’ relationships survived beyond the film based on what we saw.

It seemed like the perfect first movie. Neither of us had seen it, the trailer told us exactly where we were going and where we would end up. The title gave away how long it would take. Sandra Bullock. We were ready to go. 

On the surface, the plot and love story were exactly what we wanted to destroy. Lawyer Lucy and billionaire George brought together by the wackiest of circumstances. She has to jump through a series of hoops if she wants to save the community center. Why does that sound familiar?

Naturally, these two polar opposites will find their way to love and we brought out our magnifying glasses so we could screenshot the moment. I wish I was kidding, but we spent at least ten minutes dissecting a meal they had together. From a filmmaking standpoint it was beautifully choreographed. As a podcast conversation, it was not great content. 

If you go look for this episode, you will not find it. It is now an unaired pilot buried in my hard drive (and in the cloud). Sure, there are stumbles and awkwardness that show our amateur status, but there was a deeper reason we withheld it.

We had no clue Trump was in this movie. Apparently now, he is first billed according to Google. 

We naively rolled our eyes and laughed when he appeared. That was summer 2016. We didn’t start releasing episodes until spring 2017. There was a lot of debate. I didn’t want to burn an episode. I also didn’t want to alienate listeners with pre-election content post election. Looking back, it was the right call and I have no regrets.

While this cameo was a shock to the system, I maintain that even if he was replaced by generic real estate rival for Hugh Grant, you still shouldn’t waste your time with this movie. It is a time capsule of early 2000s that is unremarkable. That is a huge flaw. The two leads are not likable. I do not care about them or their happiness. I’m not above enjoying a movie with really rich people being so sad, but I have a vast catalog of choices. Plus, don’t insult my sense of humor by giving a character diarrhea and have them search for a bathroom while playing, “Taking Care of Business.”

Ugg, this is also why we quickly reevaluated our focus. There are more talented people covering romantic comedies in a more entertaining way (cough…. Cutaways). We pivoted away from unfunny, angry ranting to reminiscing about movies that shaped the way we view love and romantic relationships. Even better, we are no longer shackled to a genre. We cover the more conventional titles like My Fair Lady and Pretty in Pink, but don’t have to shy away from movies like Newsies and The Lost Boys. 

All that being said, thank you, Two Weeks Notice, for a spectacular fail. You were prefect fodder to abuse and you helped us see there was a more fun podcast for us to make.

Diana likes to talk about movies more than watching them and is grateful to have Happily Ever Aftermath to channel that weirdness. You can follow her on Twitter @HEAMCast and @DeeRoSko. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and adorable nine year old puppy.