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For a long time, we were in a bit of a holiday movie drought. Only Hallmark and Lifetime were spitting out snowy, family content and we all know those are hit or miss; mostly miss if we’re being honest. But as streaming services have grown, they seem to have spotted this gap. Netflix has been spitting out multiple Xmas movies a year and now Hulu is getting on board. So today we’re checking out Hulu’s Happiest Season, a movie trying to do more than meets the eye.
Happiest Season got our attention by putting Mackenzie Davis and Kristen Stewart in a relation and letting them kiss on screen. That it was a Xmas movie was secondary, but appreciated. The big story beat is that Harper (Davis) and Abby (Stewart) are going to spend the holidays at Harper’s conservative parents’ home, both of whom don’t know either of them are gay. Being home and back in the closet Harper starts to backslide into her old habits. Abby, forced back into her own closet (literally at one point), starts to question their relationship.
That description makes Happiest Season sound a bit heavy. And it is. But there’s a supporting cast to lighten things up and ultimately it’s a nice little movie with some fun moments.
The main take away from Happiest Season is that it was fine, and that’s ok. Not every “gay” movie needs to be a revelation. They don’t all need to be Brokeback Mountain or Call Me By Your Name. They can be decent movies that exist to help both normalize the gay experience, and put more gay representation out into the world. That’s exactly what Happiest Season does. It’s as predictable as they come, but the flourishes of humor and the standard holiday warm and fuzzies you get the end make this a very watchable movie.
What did you think of Happiest Season? Do you agree with our takes or are we way off? Let us know over on Twitter or in the Youtube comments! For now though, grab two cubes of cheese, a warm drink, and settle in for today’s family-fueled episdoe of So…I’m Watching This Show!
