Nov 25

Nov 25 Happiest Season

Spending Christmas with your girlfriend’s family is tough enough. But Abby’s trip gets doubly difficult when she learns her Advent adventure isn’t as advertised: turns out her honey, Harper, hasn’t told her family she’s gay. Can their closeted capades convince the clan… or is the truth bound to come out?

Christmas clichés:

Deceased Parent
Ice Skating Scene
Mistaken Identities

Our Thoughts

It’s too bad the rumblings for “Happiest Season” didn’t start before we published our list of anticipated 2020 premieres. A holiday rom-com starting Bella Swan and our gal from Black Mirror’s best episode, “San Junipero”? We didn’t need any further description—we were pumped for Hulu’s first foray into original Christmas content. (It was supposed to premiere in theaters, but Hulu, we’ll give it to ya.)

Upon viewing, our grand excitement transformed into sad confusion with a dash of anger. Not quite the spirit of the season.

Abby (Kristen Stewart, so compelling on screen) and Harper (Mackenzie Davis, why that wig?) are living together but don’t spend holidays together. This Christmas is different, and off they go to stay with Harper’s family. But on the way, Harper reveals that she’s not out; Abby is not her girlfriend of a year, who’s about to propose (shhh) but her orphaned roommate who’s tagging along.

It’s a typical setup of Mistaken Identities, and we love that our favorite cliched setup is used on an underrepresented love story of two women. However, the beloved tropes stop there. The only Evil Fiance in sight is Harper, who ditches Abby to hang out with her high school friends, doesn’t defend her when her niece and nephew almost get her arrested (not very Cute and Precocious), and didn’t tell her the real story of her ex-girlfriend, Riley (Aubrey Plaza, phenomenal). As viewers, we get downtrodden watching Abby get ignored again and again and question why Harper’s so great in the first place.

And a few days after viewing, we’re still questioning…

Let’s dedicate a whole paragraph to middle sister, Jane (Mary Holland, the co-screenwriter), who deserves much more than 3+ sentences. She’s the kooky comic foil to sibling rivalry between Harper and her oldest sister, Sloane (Alison Brie). Jane’s one liners, large expressions, and general childlike jolliness is exactly what the Christmas season’s about. Plus, her climactic telling-off of her family was cathartic, especially since they didn’t support her YA authorship dreams. “Shadow Dreamers” would fit perfectly on Jess’s Goodreads shelf, and Jane’s descriptions of her universe gave a needed lightness to the heavy plot.

We’re a blog free of spoilers (sans our “Last Christmas” reveal, which we couldn’t avoid), so we won’t share how the family Christmas comes to a head. What we will share is that, while we empathize with Harper, we couldn’t get over the quick 10 minutes between her betrayal and a seemingly happy ending. (Plus, these sisters are way too violent with each other. This family has problems!)

You’ll probably watch it for the star power, like we did. But any relationship that can be undermined in 24 hours isn’t one you can honestly cheer for. If this ended with new love between Riley and Abby, though, we’d ring our jingle bells for that.

We say “Skip it.” But, we know you won’t listen. And that’s what we love about our blog readers: you’re as stubborn about these movies as we are.

Rob's Final Take: Not Very Merry
I’m willing to forgive a lot at Christmas, but Harper’s jaw-dropping disrespect doesn’t deserve an easy redemption story. Plus, she doesn’t sparkle in the sunlight.

Jess's Final Take: Not Very Merry
The acting’s fantastic, but I was left feeling angry and sad…so, kind of opposite of “Merry.” But I’ll take more Jane any day!