Recently I watched “Happiest Season,” a Christmas, lesbian love story between Abby (Kristen Stewart), a Christmas-hater who recently lost her parents, and Harper (Mackenzie Davis), a closeted writer with conservative parents.

    When Harper invites Abby to stay with her and her parents over the holidays, she comes clean with her parent’s lack of knowledge regarding her sexuality and they must pretend to be roommates for the duration of the trip. Directed by Clea DuVall, this movie breaks many barriers in a genre dominated by straight relationships. However, with this first-time-ever representation comes reflection on where the film and television industry should go next.

   As excited as I was hearing about and watching this film, I could not help but be slightly disappointed by its general theme of “coming out.” I love watching people accept themselves and be accepted by their family and friends, but I wish there were more tropes chosen for LGBT movies.

   It is a bittersweet feeling, but for once I just want to see queer people exist on the big screen without explanation nor justification. Coming out is something all queer people unfortunately go through, and I understand the solidarity in that, but it would be nice to get a gay movie where the conflicts stop at a woman attempting to get the perfect ring for her fiancée.

   Television has gotten slightly better about this in the past few years; Captain Holt and Rosa Diaz from “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” Klaus and Vanya Hargreeves from “The Umbrella Academy” and Kat Edison from “The Bold Type” are just a few examples of casually queer characters. Albeit, television is much more niche than film. There are thousands of shows between streaming services and cable with all sorts of genres; there are only so many spots in a movie theater. This concept has been slightly changed since coronavirus altered the way we consume content, but the point still stands. Hollywood would rather play it safe and stick to what they know will be successful, but movies like “Moonlight” definitely prove it wrong.

   In the future I would like to see even more LGBT holiday movies. Specifically, LGBT holiday movies with a premise of something other than the main character being LGBT. Perhaps a workaholic could be reminded that Christmas and family are more important than a promotion, or two single parents could fall in love after their kids stop at nothing to meddle in their relationship. Hallmark, it is your time to shine.