Netflix Brings The Holiday Rom-Com Series We Desperately Need

‘Dash & Lily,’ a new holiday romantic comedy series, arrives to Netflix on Nov. 10

“2020 is the best year ever,” says absolutely nobody on the planet. As we begin counting down the days until the end of the year that brought us so much distress — starting with the death of Kobe Bryant and progressing to the worst pandemic of our lifetime, political turmoil with the upcoming election, and the realization that racism is alive and well in the country — we can all use something to distract us and remind us that love wins. Netflix, who has been keeping us thoroughly entertained over the last year via their creative, entertaining, and mood-lifting programming, has announced that they are gifting us with a series we didn’t even know we needed but desperately do: a romantic comedy series centered around the holidays, Dash & Lily.

This week, Netflix unveiled the trailer for their new show based on the young adult book series Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares, written by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. The television adaptation, starring Austin Abrams as Dash and

Midori Francis as Lily, is simply called Dash & Lily — and it sounds absolutely perfect. “A whirlwind Holiday romance builds as cynical Dash and optimistic Lily trade dares, dreams, and desires in the notebook they pass back and forth at locations all across New York City, finding they have more in common with each other than they would have expected,” reads the show’s description in an emailed press release.

An added bonus? For anyone who misses New York City, the show is basically a walking tour of it, according to series creator, showrunner, and executive producer Joe Tracz.

“When I read Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares, it felt like New York. It wasn’t just the specificity of the locations (which inspired a pledge in our first script: ‘We’re gonna be sticklers for New York geography’). It was the way the book captured the spirit of the city – the sense of possibility tinged with loneliness, and the way they both seem to magnify around the holidays,” he explains in the release.

Oh, and did we mention it was produced by Nick Jonas?

The show was shot on location in the fall and winter of 2019 — pre pandemic — and features many of the city’s locales before COVID-19 shut them down. “I miss that New York, but I’m grateful to be sharing this story with the world right now,” says Tracz.

Overall, the show sounds innocent, beautiful, and fun-loving, something most of us need right now.

“Our series is a romantic comedy that (like Lily) is unapologetically hopeful, while (like Dash) acknowledging that it’s not always easy to believe. When Dash finds a hidden notebook with a dare from Lily on a bookstore shelf, it pushes both of them outside their bubbles to see the world from someone else’s point of view. And when they do, they fall in love,” Tracz continued.

Dash & Lily airs Nov. 10 on Netflix.