Orono resident Mary Cady's TV tastes generally lean more toward college sports, but when she and her husband were stuck inside during the early days of the pandemic, she started watching Hallmark movies as a pleasant, soothing distraction while she sat on the couch and crocheted. Right, be he burly woodsman, sexy carpenter, charming barista or handsome lobsterman.
But it's still the ideal backdrop for a sugary-sweet, wholly unrealistic daydream of holiday cheer and meeting Mr. The real Maine may be one that lies just beneath the polished, tourist-friendly exterior. But they're certainly few and far between. There are a few holiday movies that have actually been filmed here, like "The Preacher's Wife," a 1996 film starring Whitney Houston and Denzel Washington, and "Holly Star," a 2018 indie flick, both filmed in Portland. They're generally set in picture-perfect fictional Maine towns, with names like Hampton Meadows, North Bay, and Bedford Harbor. Not that any of them are filmed here - they're almost always filmed elsewhere, often in Canada. And every year, a number of them are set in Maine. They all present a cozy, romantic fantasy of what the perfect Christmas could be, complete with hot cocoa, ice skating, cookie baking, caroling and kisses under the mistletoe. This year, the channel will premiere a whopping 40 individual movies, alongside many more such movies from platforms like Netflix and Lifetime. 5-For those who love them (or who won't openly admit they love them) the arrival of the Hallmark Channel's annual slate of holiday movies is its own kind of holiday. Quick Questions With A Quick & Easy Guide to Queer & Trans Identities Creators Mady G.Graphic Novel Reveal: The Deep & Dark Blue Confronts Identity & Adventure in a Fantasy World By Steve Foxe | 12:00pm.Supreme Court Decision Marks Massive Civil Rights Victory By Lia Pikus J| 1:12pm.Be Trans, Do Crime: By Hook Or By Crook 20 Years Later By Shayna Maci Warner Ma| 9:46am.What The Birdcage's Grand Gay Comedy Tells Us about Family 25 Years Later By Tiffany Babb Ma| 1:49pm.BrewDog Under Fire Yet Again, As Indianapolis Location Mass Fires Women and LGBTQ Employees By Jim Vorel Ma| 1:59pm.Intimate, Well-Shot Trans Sports Doc Changing the Game Wrestles with Hate By Jacob Oller J| 11:00am.No One Likes the Tuna Here: Masculine Bonds in The Fast and the Furious By Lauren Coates J| 12:00pm.Let's Go, Lesbians: 50 Years of Queer Women On Screen By Shayna Maci Warner J| 10:00am.You can keep up with her antics on Twitter: from LGBTQ If you haven’t yet indulged in the show’s 25 episodes, don’t fret: The film can still be enjoyed as a festive, standalone watch!Įmily Maskell is a freelance film critic, culture and entertainment writer from the UK who drinks way too much tea. Written by the show’s original creator, Austin Winsberg, the Clarke family’s magical Christmas promises to be fan service for the viewers who mourned the beloved musical dramedy’s cancellation. Reuniting with fan favorite Mo (Alex Newell), Zoey’s gay sidekick-turned-star, Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas’ song-and-dance numbers are sure to awaken the seasonal spirit. The eponymous Zoey (Jane Levy) is knee-deep in Christmas preparations to ensure the first Christmas without her father can be a meaningful celebration.
OBSESSED LIFETIME MOVIE MOVIE
It’s a sweet Christmas movie punctuated by confessions of adoration and mirthful joy.īased on the Emmy-nominated NBC series Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas picks up where the series left off as a holiday-themed feature film. Kathryn Trammell pens a script that confidently leans into dramatics but ensures the stakes never become so high that intensity becomes overwhelming. This delightful rom-com ties together the connection between three different couples with a neat, glittering bow: One long-term relationship, one new couple, and two friends who have yet to admit their feelings for one another compose the six-women strong ensemble. Not only a great song from Jonathan Larson’s RENT, Season of Love is also the title of Christin Baker’s rom-com that is readily regarded as the lesbian Love Actually. We’ve gathered 10 recent queer titles that embody the seasonal Hallmark spirit, perfectly accompanied by a fireside hot cocoa. A flurry of recent queer Christmas titles is adding some alternatives to the traditional holiday picks, from Under the Christmas Tree-Lifetime’s first lesbian romance-to Single All The Way-Netflix’s first Christmas film focused on a gay romance.
The festive genre is very much dominated by romance narratives of the heterosexual variety, however, there has been a noticeable increase in queer visibility, characters and stories in the last handful of years. The Christmas-themed Hallmark movie has never been renowned for its LGBTQ+ representation.