My wife has been on a rom-com binge over the last year or so and something I’ve noticed when I’m vaguely paying attention or walking past is that almost every single rom-com features people who are, at the very least, middle to upper-middle class. These characters all live in gigantic houses/apartments, have beautifully sparkling brand-new cars, take month-long vacations to their beachfront properties… it’s just so unrealistic and out of line with the life that the vast majority of us lead.
I understand some concepts - large rooms are easier to film in, rich people own nice things that set a beautiful scene, it’s not interesting to discuss financial issues all the time etc. but this seems (from my anecdotal perspective) to almost be a rule of the genre.
Some more food for thought:
https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a867107/rom-coms-diversity-wealth-income/
Maybe not real for you, but from my perspective it’s believable. I myself are a blue collar working 6 days a week and with paid of the lower income group, still get the time to date someone for two years few years back. Sure, it doesn’t worked out, but it happened. I can see the same with other blue collar i know.
Also, i feels like the problem here is you focus on how they looks rather than focused on who they are. Rocky is a debt collector that’s friend with Paulie, and Adrian work as a store keeper for a pet shop. Not sure how’s that “idealised” working class.