The Love Hypothesis

💚 We betrayed the verticals. We went horizontal. Tiffany is on tour, so Jieun decided to abandon the brand entirely and review Amazon’s ‘The Love Hypothesis’. BookTok girlies, come hither. Based on Ali Hazelwood’s bestselling romance novel, ‘The Love Hypothesis’ follows Olive Smith (Lili Reinhardt), a Stanford PhD student who is trying to convince her best friend Anh (Rachel Marsh) that she has finally moved on from her crush, Jeremy (Nicholas Duvernay). Her solution? Impulsively kiss the first man she sees. Unfortunately, that man is Dr. Adam Carlson, the famously grumpy, intimidating professor everyone calls Dr. Evil (Tom Bateman). For the Title IX of it all, Adam has a proposal: fake date him. What follows is basically catnip for the vertical drama brain. Fake dating. Forced proximity. Academic rivalry. Sexual tension. A ridiculously attractive grumpy professor who is secretly a giant softie. A woman making increasingly questionable romantic decisions. We’re home. We’re talking all things Lily Reinhart and Tom Bateman, from their chemistry and banter to the sunscreen scene, Adam’s surprisingly adorable awkwardness, and that voice. Especially that voice. Tom Bateman may have officially entered the TDTM thirst roster. But we also get into the big question: how does the movie hold up if you actually loved the book? Jieun has read a LOT of Ali Hazelwood, so naturally there are lots of opinions. We break down some of the biggest adaptation changes, including Olive’s STEM career and scientific agency, the changes to her conference storyline, Anh’s character and representation, and the very important issue of Adam’s yearning. Because one of the things that makes the book work is that Adam has been quietly pining for Olive for much longer than she realizes, and the movie changes that dynamic significantly. We also talk about why Olive somehow feels considerably less broke-broke in the movie despite still having expired contact lenses, why the movie’s pacing makes the final act feel rushed, and whether this story might actually have worked better as a limited series. Give us eight episodes. 4 of them just yearning pls. 4 of them is science Olive. Free women in STEM. And because apparently we cannot go anywhere without finding ourselves in the middle of internet drama, we also get into BookTok, romance authors, and the strange phenomenon of the vertical drama cinematic universe following us absolutely everywhere. So yes, this week we went horizontal. But honestly? The DNA is still extremely vertical. 🎙️ ‘The Love Hypothesis’ is the latest episode of Talk Drama To Me, out now wherever you listen to podcasts.