TV's gay Christmas movi on Lifetime and Hallmark are as benign, charmg and cliche as we always hoped they?d be - The Washgton Post

Contents:

• THE BT QUEER HOLIDAY MOVI TO MAKE THE YULETI GAY
• MAKE THE YULETI GAY WH THE NEW LGBTQ CHRISTMAS MOVI
• LIFETIME STS REAL-LIFE MARRIED GAY UPLE S FIRST LGBTQ HOLIDAY MOVIE
• THE LIFETIME GAY CHRISTMAS MOVIE TOTALLY BROKE ME—SO, YUP, IT WORKED
• TV’S GAY CHRISTMAS MOVI ARE AS BENIGN, CHARMG AND CLICHE AS WE ALWAYS HOPED THEY’D BE
• HAPPY HOLIGAYS: EVERY 2021 LGBTQ+ HOLIDAY MOVIE

THE BT QUEER HOLIDAY MOVI TO MAKE THE YULETI GAY

For Lifetime, which last year had “The Christmas Setup, ” the channel’s first-ever movie starrg gay leads, the move was a big one: the premiere of “Unr the Christmas Tree, ” s first movie featurg lbians as the uple at the center of a holiday romance. Meanwhile, Hallmark ma a smaller step by settg “The Christmas Hoe 2: Deck Those Halls, ” a sequel to 2020’s “The Christmas Hoe, ” which featured Jonathan Bent and Brad Harr as a gay uple lookg to adopt.

The dispary between the extents to which the Christmas-obssed ble channels are focg on LGBTQ holiday ntent 2021 is nsistent wh their rpective cisns ma on the matter last year, when Lifetime st a gay uple as leads “The Christmas Setup” and Hallmark featured s first homosexual uple as part of an ensemble “The Christmas Hoe. “Even though we’ve got ‘Unr the Christmas Tree, ’ which is a real highlight, we’ve got several others the mix that are clive, whether they’re gay upl or jt characters, we’ve been tryg to make sure that people are reprented across the board, ” Lifetime head of programmg Amy Wter told TheWrap durg an Oct. When “The Christmas Setup, ” Lifetime’s first-ever movie starrg gay leads, played by married--real-life uple Ben Lewis and Blake Lee, buted last year, Wter told TheWrap she had been lookg for a project starrg LGBTQ leads for some time, but was very agast somethg “really sacchare.

“The fact that big Hallmark — the greetg-rd divisn — overturned Bill Abbott’s cisn on the Zola ad shows that the pany is ser about diversy their mographics, and we’re seeg lots of baby steps the 2020 and 2021 movi wh gay and lbian B-stori.

MAKE THE YULETI GAY WH THE NEW LGBTQ CHRISTMAS MOVI

(Durg the Abbott era, spottg a queer uple was like tryg to fd a gay character a 1940s movie that somehow slipped past the Productn Co. Early the ntemporary queer holiday non, 2005’s The Fay Stone, which stars gay in Sarah Jsi Parker as a (shocker) snobby New Yorker spendg the holidays at her boyiend’s fay home, beme a queer h for s B-plot gay uple wh ambns to adopt a baby.

That is, gay and lbian Christmas movi actually center queer people now — same-sex holiday revelers csh and fall love, break up, rega romance, and jt live the same celebratory December existence every heterosexual (or closeted) character has gotten for, well, ever. Hallmark’s first-ever gay Christmas romance is a sparkly, trope-y film about the virtu of settlg down and startg a fay a glzy world where homophobia don’t exist.

LIFETIME STS REAL-LIFE MARRIED GAY UPLE S FIRST LGBTQ HOLIDAY MOVIE

Nearby, handsome sgle-gay-father-aspiree Jason (Gee Krissa) studi an adoptn pamphlet his ftively rated mansn while his dotg mom nsol him via phone om her home across the street.

A hyperfaiar, perhaps way-too-overdone heteronormative plot flipped to be gay? Netflix’s first te gay Christmas movie (2019’s Let It Snow has a cute queer-teen subplot) follows plant daddy Peter (Michael Urie) as he heads home to New Hampshire wh his bt iend and pretend boyiend, Nick (Philemon Chambers), to avoid his mom’s (Kathy Najimy) naggg about his perpetual sgle stat.

Lifetime’s first gay Christmas movie is a love story between (surprise! The Bt Queer Holiday Movi to Make the Yuleti Gay. The tradn ntu 2021, wh films starrg RuPl, Michael Urie, Jonathan Ben and more — pl appearanc by gay favor like Jennifer your holiday season bge-watchg ssns acrdgly wh the upg movi and specials.

THE LIFETIME GAY CHRISTMAS MOVIE TOTALLY BROKE ME—SO, YUP, IT WORKED

2, NetflixTony-wng director Michael Mayer (“Sprg Awakeng”) helms Netflix’s first gay holiday film, which se perpetually sgle Peter (Michael Urie) beggg his bt iend, Nick (Philemon Chambers), to e home wh him and pretend to be his boyiend to put an end to his fay’s nstant meddlg.

But the se is put to the tt when his mother (another gay fave, Kathy Najimy) sets him up wh her hunky traer (“Brothers and Sisters” actor Le Macfarlane) to “Sgle All the Way” for stg three out actors as gay characters — and for stg Jennifer Coolidge, perd.

3, NetflixFormer nttants return to the tents for a pair of holiday-themed episos: In “The Great Christmas Bakg Show, ” out ic Tom Allen subs for Noel Fieldg to -host wh gay prenter Matt Lus as season ne’s Jon Jenks and Kim-Joy Hewlett and season 11’s Herme and Rowan Williams whip up wondro Yuleti treats. “The showstopper challenge, they’ve got to make a ftive feast illn ke, ” judge Pl Hollywood teased, acrdg to “The Great New Year’s Bakg Show, ” 's season five wner Nancy Birtwhistle up agast season ne champn Rahul Mandal and two nttants om season 19: Gay nerd Henry Bird and wchy Helena Garcia. Baneatta’s gay son, Kenny (Anthony Chatmon II), brgs his boyiend, Logan (Derek Chadwick), home for the holidays but is given an icy receptn.

TV’S GAY CHRISTMAS MOVI ARE AS BENIGN, CHARMG AND CLICHE AS WE ALWAYS HOPED THEY’D BE

18, Hallmark ChannelLast year, after sparkg outrage by pullg a jewelry ad featurg lbian bris, Hallmark ma amends by featurg the first gay uple one of s many, many holiday movi: "The Christmas Hoe" sred more than 13 ln viewgs over the 2020 holiday season, so a sequel was a no-braer. In the origal, Bill and Phylis Mchell (Treat Williams and Sharon Lawrence) ved their adult sons home for the holidays, then drop a bomb that they’re sellg the fay time around, gay son Brandon (Jonathan Ben) and his hband, Jake (Brad Harr), pete wh Brandon’s straight brother, Mike (Robert Buckley), to see who n create the most ftively rated Christmas hoe. 19, LifetimeLast year, Lifetime buted s first gaycentric holiday flick, "The Christmas Setup, " and this season, 's brgg a lbian romance to the small this holiday tale om "The Christmas Setup" screenwrer Michael J.

But this time around, Lifetime is puttg the gay romance at the center of the story. In oln tim, the people behd the so-lled gay agenda wanted nothg more than what everyone else already had: marriage, kids, suburban bliss, job secury and equal accs to all the benignly merry thgs life. Bee ’s all too fabulo to the gay rights movement ntu to seek the last few crowng glori of the monplace — and when to that, televisn form, nothg uld be more smothergly nventnal than the ma-for-ble-TV Christmas by the good grac of irony has the Christmas movie bee s own vnted style of heterosexual mp.

The Christmas TV movie — perfected by Hallmark, Lifetime and a few others — prs all the right buttons at once, except the one was always too timidated to prs: It didn’t believe gay has been remedied wh Lifetime’s charmgly by-the-book “The Christmas Setup, ” which featur two gay characters ont and center, played by two actors (Ben Lewis, of “Arrow, ” and Blake Lee, of “Mixology”) who are real-life spo. Rather than revent (or God forbid, subvert) the form, “The Christmas Setup, ” which premiered Saturday, assiduoly prov that the Christmas movie genre was pretty much gay all along — for who else would so emphatilly lk ephemeral happs to obssive r and splendid social gathergs? Your gay Christmas ’s Christmas tree (one of many) is livered to the hoe by none other than adorable Patrick (Lee), the olr, openly gay popular boy that a then-closeted Hugo ped for (see what I did there?

HAPPY HOLIGAYS: EVERY 2021 LGBTQ+ HOLIDAY MOVIE

Was the man who so lovgly tend to the statn and started the holiday tradns all those years ago himself gay? That’s what is most tertg about puttg gay characters Christmas movi: In this world, nothg ever reach a boilg pot; screamg is not allowed. That is precisely what gay TV viewers have ever wanted, too — not to blow and thgs wh our forbidn sir, but to be noticed and clud, to the extent that Christmas n ever make anyone pletely happy.

14), and has, for the first time Hallmark’s holiday movie history, a gay uple the mix: They are Brandon (Jonathan Bent) and Jake (Brad Harr), and although they are nowhere near central to the plot — which a TV actor (Robert Buckley) returns home to help his parents (Sharon Lawrence and Treat Williams) and brother (Bent) stage the fay’s showstoppg, si-and-out holiday ratns one last (ya thk? Sgle All the Way has a faiar plot that you may have seen a lot of other films the past, but the big difference here is that was ma to be gay and f for Christmas. While plenty of different LGBTQ Christmas movi foc on gay relatnships between men, Unr the Christmas Tree foc on a nice lbian uple, as Lifetime’s first attempt at a lbian Christmas movie is actually a pretty good film you might want to tch.