The 2024 Christmas lineup is heating up over on Netflix. The highly anticipated Chad Michael Murray-led flick The Merry Gentlemen finally made its debut on the streaming service, and the internet is having a lot of fun with it, though critics aren't so sure about the spicy holiday film. Personally, I was looking forward to seeing how they managed to combine the sex appeal of Magic Mike with the holiday wholesomeness expected with these romance movies. Unfortunately, I spent most of its runtime totally distracted by the confusing way it decided to incorporate the Netflix Christmas Cinematic Universe into its story.
For those who are not familiar with it, the Netflix Christmas Cinematic Universe started back in 2018 and is reminiscent of Marvel's cinematic universe. It usually involves characters watching popular Netflix holiday movies in their downtime — like Lacey Chabert’s Hot Frosty character who happened to be watching Lindsay Lohan’s Falling for Christmas. Or those characters pop up or are mentioned in a film — as is familiar with the royal holiday movies the streamer puts out.
Most movies stick with one form of connection since they’re all so interconnected, but The Merry Gentlemen seemed keen on changing even that. While it was fun to see two movies referenced in the Christmas-themed male revue, it doesn’t totally make sense based on what we know about the connected universe.
Ashley Unwinds By Watching A Christmas Prince On Netflix
The first time we see the Netflix Christmas Cinematic Universe at work is when Ashley (Britt Robertson) streams A Christmas Prince at her home in New York after getting fired from her beloved job. Of course, it’s at one of the most romantic moments of the film when Prince Richard asks American magazine journalist Amber Moore to dance with him for the first time.
The whole things happen in the first ten minutes of the film, which might be a new record for how quickly the Netflix Christmas Cinematic Universe gets introduced.
The Princess Switch's Prince And Princess Of Belgravia Have Visited The Rhythm Room
A few minutes later, fans get their second NCCU Easter Egg when Ashley is browsing the walls of photos and newspaper clippings at her family’s beloved music venue, The Rhythm Room.
While most of them go by quickly, the camera spends an extra second or two panning over an article that shows Prince Edward (Sam Palladio) and Princess Stacy (Vanessa Hudgens) posing outside the venue. Of course, this is the beloved commoner-royal couple from Netflix’s hit trilogy The Princess Switch.
But Based On The Existing Netflix Christmas Cinematic Universe, This Doesn't Make Sense
While these two Easter Eggs are fun, it totally messes up what we know about the NCCU. If The Merry Gentlemen wanted to include two connections to other holiday movies, it should have chosen two that aren’t already connected.
After all, every Netflix Christmas movie superfan knows that the royals in A Christmas Prince and The Princess Switch have met several times in each of the various sequels of the respective franchises.
With this in mind, it doesn’t make sense that A Christmas Prince would be a movie in Ashley’s universe while the Prince and Princess of Belgravia are real people who have interacted with Ashley’s family. If anything, they both should have been canon or they both should have been movies.
If Netflix wants to keep the believability of the NCCU alive, they definitely need to get better at selecting which movies connect with each other. Fortunately, most people who tune in for The Merry Gentlemen with their Netflix subscription aren’t going to mind the small inconsistency. However, as an avid NCCU fan, I can't stop thinking about it.
