Back in the ‘dark ages’ the only way we could see any LGBTQ person on our television screens was if they were manic depressives, seriously unhappy, or dead. Now this Holiday season with every American TV Cable Company insisting on doing their own LGBTQ movie, the pendulum has swung completely the other way.
Stuck in formulaic sentimental rom-coms they all insist on finishing with ‘happy ever after’ endings. Without wishing to sound like the Holiday Grinch (!) these made-for-TV movies are purely the Cable Companies attempts to heteronormalize our lives in a way that they can feel comfortable with our community..
There is nothing wrong with with sitting on the couch after a heavy Christmas lunch watching such lite fare on TV. But these new ‘gay movies; are about as realistic as the actual Santa himself. We shouldn’t be taken in by them especially as that they have the slightest connection to today’s new queer cinema which they should be screening.
Hulu’s Happiest Season came with higher expectations than the others in this field as it is helmed by a gay woman ( Clea DuVall) and stars every one’s favorite lesbian (Kristen Stewart) Whilst Stewart was on good form as always, DuVall, full of the best intentions, just tried to squeeze way too many cliches into this her sophomore film.
This is the story of a Harper (Mackenzie Davis) and Abby (Stewart) a gay couple who are about spend Christmas with Harper’s family for the very first time. Abby has decided that this will be the perfect time to propose to Harper, but she has yet to discover that her future fiancee has not come out to her parents and is still very deeply in the back of. the closet.
Reduced to playing the role of Harper’s orphaned roommate in public, Abby has to put up being ignored by the family, and also watch Harper flirting outrageously with Connor (Jake McDorman) her ex -boyfriend and be positively bitter to Riley (Aubrey Plaza) her ex- girlfriend.
To round .out this comic farce, Harper has two sisters : the mercenary and pretentious Sloane, (Alison Brie) and the hapless Jane (Mary Holland) who has been writing the same novel for ten years. Plus in the family mansion. father Ted (Victor Garber) is running for Town Mayor, aided by local wealthy benefactor (Ana Gasteyer) and then there is the family matriarch (Mary Steenburgen) totally oblivious to what is going on,. She is insisting Christmas will be as traditional as always, even as everything falls apart in front of her very eyes.
The serious side to this all is the whole question of coming out to one’s parents but sadly that scenario is muddied when DuVall insists of combining it with other family problems.
One of the main issues we had with Happiest Season is that is absolutely no physical chemistry between Harper and Abby like there is between Abby and Riley, Harper’s ex. Plus there are too many characters who simply do not have enough screen time to round out their stories satisfactorily.
On the plus side Stewart is pitch perfect, as is Steenburgen as the mother. However the real screen stealer is the hilarious Dan Levi playing Abby’s best gay friend.. He added badly needed humor and reality to the story, and we should have seen much more of him.
