Credit: Netflix

There is something oddly fascinating about an off-season rom-com, which explains the anticipation around Voicemails for Isabelle. But now that the wait is over with the watch, where exactly can you find the same mix of emotional depth, light-hearted comedy, and butterflies? Well, also on Netflix.

The romantic comedy follows Jill, a young woman coping with the death of her sister, Isabelle, by dropping voicemails about her chaotic life in San Francisco. But unbeknownst to her, when Isabelle’s number is reassigned to an elusive realtor in Austin, Texas, instead of deleting those voicemails, he makes it a habit of listening to them, gradually falling in love with her without ever having seen her.

While Voicemails for Isabelle cashes in on the wrong-number trope to breathe life into a charming new love story, packed with ups and downs that will leave you throwing popcorn at your screens, the Netflix corridor is also not short on rom-coms that share threads of similarities, making the search rather easy.

And what narrows down the search all the more is the rom-com sweetheart, Zoey Dutch, who stars opposite Nick Robinson. But in case you don’t know where to start, here are three rom-coms on Netflix to watch after Voicemails for Isabelle.

Three Netflix rom-coms to binge after Voicemails for Isabelle

Sleepless in Seattle (Nora Ephron, 1993)

The follow-up marathon on Netflix reroutes us back to an early 1990s rom-com classic, Sleepless in Seattle, which leans heavily into the long-distance longing aspect at the heart of Voicemails for Isabelle. Both stories have protagonists grappling with the heartbreaking loss of their loved ones – her sister for Jill and his wife for Sam Baldwin, who moves to Seattle from Chicago with his son, Jonah.

When Jonah calls in to a talk-radio program to find his father a new wife, Sam begrudgingly gets on the line to discuss his feelings, unknowingly making a reporter in Baltimore, Annie Reed, fall for him. The problem is that Annie is engaged, and despite being unsure where things could go, she ends up writing a letter to Sam, asking him to meet her at the iconic Empire State Building on the day of love, Valentine’s Day.

Set It Up (Claire Scanlon, 2018)

Also starring Zoey Deutch, Set It Up is a quintessential modern workplace rom-com that almost captures the same witty, fast-paced, unexpected chemistry that makes Voicemails for Isabelle so appealing. The story follows two overworked, underpaid executive assistants working in New York City, who are equally exhausted with their gruelling work schedules as they are frustrated with their workaholic, demanding bosses.

After a chance run-in, as they share their workplace problems, it dawns upon Harper and Charlie that if their bosses start dating, it might make them go easy on themselves and their assistants. So, they hatch an elaborate plan, and things actually work out initially. But with one bond going right, another blossoming relationship, unfortunately, hits a rough patch when the truth about the setup is accidentally revealed, forcing all characters to re-evaluate their lives and confront their real feelings, especially Harper and Charlie.

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (Susan Johnson, 2018)

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is a cult favourite and fits perfectly into the rom-com roster you would crave for after Voicemails for Isabelle, as it closely mirrors the private-messages-gone-public trope to bring an accidental love story. The 2018 rom-com follows Lara Jean, an incredibly shy, reserved teenager whose secret letters to her five childhood crushes are accidentally mailed.

Although she wrote them only as a way to get her feelings out, one of the names actually belongs to her older sister’s ex-boyfriend, Josh, who happens to be the boy next door. As a result, in order to avoid drama with Josh, Lara decides to fake a relationship with popular jock, Peter Kavinsky, inadvertently falling in love with him and turning their fake romance into a real one.