Adam Demos Is Netflix’s New Resident Hot Guy

A Perfect Pairing, a new Netflix romance that began streaming today, offers viewers a light-hearted fantasy that hinges on one important factor: Adam Demos being hot. It’s a tried and true strategy that has worked for Netflix before, after all. Demos is also the hot fantasy in the streamer’s drama series, Sex/Life, which finds a suburban mom being pursued by her smokin’ ex-boyfriend, and Falling Inn Love, which finds Christina Milian fixing up an inn in New Zealand with the help of a sexy contractor-slash-firefighter. Now, with Demos sweeping Victoria Justice off her feet as a rugged cowboy in A Perfect Pairing, it feels like the Australian actor has comfortably settled into his role as Netflix’s resident “hot guy.”

Demos, who is 36, wasn’t always in the acting world. He used to work odd jobs in construction—in demolition, a roofing company, and the Port Kembla steelworks—before he took a beginning acting course in Sydney without telling his friends, he said in an interview with the Australian magazine Now To Love. After small roles in Australia, he eventually broke into Hollywood when he landed a main role on Marti Noxon’s critically-acclaimed Lifetime/Hulu meta-drama, UnREAL. But he really found his stride as Jake Taylor in Netlfix’s Falling Inn Love, an adorably grumpy, down-to-earth contractor who is reluctantly charmed by the high-maintenance Christina Milian after she blows up her life, moves to New Zealand, and inherits a bed and breakfast.

It’s a remarkably similar premise to A Perfect Pairing, which stars Justice as Lola, a high-powered wine executive who quits her job to start her own wine distribution business. In order to secure a client, she flies to Australia to meet with a winemaker and ends up working on a sheep farm to prove her worth (just go with it). That’s where she meets Max, the beefy station manager whose not afraid to get down and dirty in the mud, yet somehow never ruins his perfectly-styled golden locks. It’s the perfect fantasy for a certain type of adult professional: Tell off your abusive boss, quit your job, start your own company, move to Australia, and meet a gorgeous, hunky guy who falls in love with you. In all three of his Netflix projects, Demos is the physical embodiment of this escape-your-life daydream.

Demos isn’t Netflix’s first resident hot guy, but he does feel like the first of this specific brand of hot guy. The other obvious example is Noah Centineo, who made millions fall in love with him as the charming, nice, and yes, hot, popular Peter Kavinsky in To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. Netflix was quick to snatch Centineo up for a handful of far less charming Peter Kavinsky knockoffs in Netflix originals like Sierra Burgess Is a Loser and The Perfect Date, Swiped, and, of course, the To All the Boys sequels.

But Centineo, who is 26, is a teen fantasy; a “What if the most popular kid in high school fell for me?” thought experiment. Demos—with his broad shoulders, his rippling abs, and his scruffy beard—is for adults. Both Falling Inn Love and A Perfect Pairing feature scenes where Demos sheds his shirt while doing manual labor in the hot sun, because he is a man with an honest job who looks damn good while doing it. This is not your busy husband—the one you settled for, the one who looks bored when you talk about your day—this is a man who will support your dreams while maintaining his eight-pack. This is a fantasy for grown-ups.

Demos has yet to announce any more upcoming movies with Netflix, but I have a feeling it won’t be long until we’re watching another American woman abscond to an English-speaking foreign country to fall in love with him. Why mess with what works?