Lifetime's 2020 Christmas slots feature LGBTQ+ and other diverse storylines
Lifetime is going to make your Christmas a very special one this year. It will release a group of 30 films as part of It's a Wonderful Lifetime program, which will feature its first LGBTQ+ movie centered on the relationship between two lead men. With this decision, the network has expanded its scope of spreading happiness to a broader group of audience.
What is the movie, 'The Christmas Set-Up', about?
The film titled The Christmas Set-Up dives into the life of Hugo, a New York-based corporate lawyer who visits his mother, Kate, in his Milwaukee home. That Kate has planned to set him up with his secret crush Patrick isn't known to him. Amid this biggest surprise, he gets a promotion and has to shift to London. What will he choose: Patrick or career?
Even last year Lifetime broke a cliche
Putting gay romance as the holding plot for a film is undoubtedly a bold move by the network, but not the first one. In 2019, they took a risk and screened a kissing scene between two men for the Christmas movie Twinkle All the Way. Though that didn't involve the lead actors but it broke the clichés of heterosexuality Lifetime was known for.
Two other diverse movies in pipeline
It's not just same-sex relationships Lifetime scores on this year. Tony awardee and disabled actor Ali Stroker, known for Oklahoma! musical, will star in the film Christmas Ever After, in which she plays a romance novelist, Izzi Simmons, suffering from writer's block. Lifetime will also show a Chinese-American origin girl, who takes up baking like her grandmother in A Sugar & Spice Holiday.
Lifetime's holiday destination is welcoming to all, says top executive
Lifetime-LMN programming EVP Amy Winter says that the network's legacy "of creating a holiday destination that is welcoming to all," continues with this announcement. She added that her team is thrilled about "the incredible talent" in the directorial positions and lead casts. This decision of the network assumes significance after its rival, Hallmark, was criticized last Christmas for an ad featuring a Lesbian wedding.
