Pop Culture Fix: Hallmark Accidentally Started a Lesbian Christmas Movie Avalanche

A happy holigay and Pop Culture Fix day upon you, friends and reindeers!


+ After celebrity outcry, pressure from GLAAD, and a trending hashtag demanding a boycott, Hallmark finally relented and admitted they made a huge mistake pulling the Zola ad that features a lesbian couple smooching on their wedding day. But don’t you worry! It stirred up some quality content in the meantime! Seth Myers writer Jenny Hagel pitched a series of lesbian Hallmark films.

+ And please do not miss these celebrity tweets which seem, to me, to indicate that Stephanie Beatriz and Hillarie Burton will be starring in a Wynonna Earp showrunner Emily Andras-penned / ODAAT showriunner Gloria Calderón Kellett-directed holiday rom-com next season???

+ Abby McEnany is getting well deserved praise for Work in Progress (which Drew reviewed brilliantly on this very website). This week, Abby is on NPR and in The Advocate

+ This week on The L Word: Gen Q, the show ruled Jenny Schecter’s death one of suicide, and Mia Kirshner (very correctly, in my opinion) did not like that one bit! If you’re looking for an investigation into this mystery that you will never forget, may I recommend Erin Sullivan and Grace Perry’s brilliant podcast, Who Killed Jenny Schecter?

+ Jennifer Beals wants to be your Santa Claus.

+ Alex Borstein opens up about her character’s sexuality on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

+ A new Star Wars series coming to Disney+ will reportedly have a lesbian character.

+ Empire’s latest breakout, Alexandra Grey, is black, trans, and talented af

+ Figure skater Amber Glenn comes out as bisexual/pansexual

+ Shadow and Act’s 50 Best Black TV Shows of the Decade list includes some queer faves 

+ Sabrina and Grace & Frankie will be back on Netflix in January 

+ Ackley Bridge to return for a fourth series but there’s a major change

+ The Bold Type‘s season four trailer is here 

+ The mamas were back on Good Trouble‘s Christmas special, which Natalie lovingly recapped for you, and here’s the season two trailer.

+ The decade of Netflix 

+ Apple orders an LGBTQ docuseries

+ Nudity, a graphic photo and the untold story of why Ruth Wilson left The Affair 

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Heather Hogan

Heather Hogan is an Autostraddle senior editor who lives in New York City with her wife, Stacy, and their cackle of rescued pets. She's a member of the Television Critics Association, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, and a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer critic. You can also find her on Twitter and Instagram.

Heather has written 1719 articles for us.

37 Comments

  1. Listen. We watched them roll Jenny’s lifeless body past all her friends on a stretcher 10 years ago. Mia Kirshner can disagree with how Jenny died but she still died regardless 🤷‍♀️

    • I don’t know why everyone avoids words like “asexual” and “aromantic” when talking about Susie in Mrs. Maisel. IMO she’s a good representation of at least one (if not both). Sure, in appearance she pings as queer. But that doesn’t have to mean sex. Thus I’m fine with not exploring that aspect. We have other lesbians on TV.

    • Right?! Ugh. This whole interview made me roll my eyes. Susie lives in the freaking Village in the 60s and works as a bartender. She makes clear jokes that reference that she is pretty in the know. PLEASE!! She GAY people. GAY GAY GAY. Leather jacket wearing, ring if kings having GAY. Let her live a little. I know she’s been getting action for years – and I bet it was good!

      • Really? She reads as aroace to me. Like everything about her just screams ACE ACE ACE to me, not gay. Different perspectives, I guess.

  2. Doctor Aphra is a great series and it’s written by Kieron Gillen who also gave us America Chavez as the lesbian goddess she currently is, as well as The Wicked and the Divine. I really hope the rumors about it coming to Disney+ are true!

  3. Look, I know that we love women and we love cats, but that we’re not supposed to mix the two up. Still, that picture does something for me.

  4. I get the feeling everyone fell out with Mia by the end of the L Word. Mia sounds very defensive about Jen, an abysmal lead character.Let it go sis!

    • Whatever one might think of Jenny or what if any good could come furthering her story, I think Mia’s quite right about one thing. To take a sexual assault surviver whose struggles with identity were a major focal point of the series and then just have her die off camera with no real resolution feels totally off base.

      • Killing her off was lazy, poor storytelling. But the original sin committed against Jenny was that she went from being a complex, interesting character to being one-dimensionally malevolent because they needed a villain to propel the plot. Jenny was ruined long before she was killed.

        • Although it’s a little hard to decide what came first since her death was presented at the beginning of the season and than the decent into one-dimensional villainy was really played out as something in past tense. So it’s almost like a möbius strip of character derailment.

      • Hmm does it feel off base tho? I have a fondness for the OG L Word, but that show was fucked up in so many ways – in how it dealt with WOC, survivors of sexual assault, trans people, bi people, etc. I still feel like w got a better idea (as viewers) as to why we should be cool with Jenny’s downfall in the final season over characters like Max, who was tortured for no good reason other than the fact that he was trans.

        It’s a classic, so many of us overlook its weaknesses, but it pretty consistently fell apart at the seams over basic shit IMO.

  5. If you are looking for a gay christmas movie, there’s Ghosting : the spirit of christmas. There’s one lesbian lead played by Soso from OITNB and a lesbian relationship. This story put friendship in the forefront. And the other lead is played by Aisha Dee.

    I enjoyed watching this one more than I did Netfix’s Let it Snow.

  6. Heather, did they interview you for that docuseries about LGBT rep on the small screen because if not, it is incomplete

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