Many movie theaters are still closed but several filmed-in-Pittsburgh, intended-for-theaters films make their way to smaller screens over the next month, beginning with this week’s debut of Christmas romantic comedy “Happiest Season,” now streaming on Hulu.
“Happiest Season” pushes its Pittsburgh setting from its first frames — a pastel painting of the city skyline with the Duquesne Incline in the foreground — as Pittsburgh couple Abby (Kristen Stewart, less world-weary than usual) and Harper (Mackenzie Davis, “Halt and Catch Fire”) make holiday plans.
Harper excitedly invites Abby home with her — to an unnamed small town outside of Pittsburgh — but Harper later realizes she somehow forgot she is not out as a lesbian to her family. Harper belatedly insists Abby pretend to be her friend and roommate rather than her romantic partner.
Abby had already planned to ask the increasingly insufferable Harper to marry her on Christmas morning after securing the blessing of Harper’s father (Victor Garber), prompting Abby’s gay best friend (Dan Levy, “Schitt’s Creek”) to quip, “Way to stick it to the patriarchy!”
Directed by Clea DuVall (an actress known for “Veep”) from a screenplay by DuVall and Mary Holland (who also plays Harper’s scene-stealing, awkward sister Jane), “Happiest Season” embraces holiday movie tropes with a queer love story overlay. Many elements feel familiar – from Christmas movies, from coming out films – but put together “Happiest Season” is something new, the first major studio holiday release focused on an LGBTQ couple.
Packed with a recognizable roster of supporting actors – Mary Steenburgen, Alison Brie, Aubrey Plaza — “Happiest Season” is more blandly heartwarming than it is a generator of big belly laughs (this isn’t “Christmas Vacation”), a decent enough diversion.
Pittsburgh locations featured in “Happiest Season” include an opening scene on “Candy Cane Lane” (actually Cleveland Avenue in Avalon), The Vandal restaurant and wine bar and Skelton Jewelry in Lawrenceville, Real Luck Café in The Strip, an ice rink at Belmont Sports Complex in Kittanning, Ross Park Mall, Fox Chapel Golf Club, Chartiers Country Club, Love’s Travel Stop in Slippery Rock and parts of Sewickley and Grove City.
‘The Flight Attendant’
It takes a couple of episodes for HBO Max’s “The Flight Attendant” to, ahem, really take off, but once it does the show makes a viewer realize just how important casting the right actor in the lead role can be.
Based on the Chris Bohjalian novel of the same name, the series stars Kaley Cuoco as Cassie, a flight attendant who wakes up in a Bangkok hotel room with a dead man in the bed next to her and no memory of what happened.
Cassie compounds her problemtroubles by trying to cover her tracks and lying to the FBI. It’s a festival of bad choices.
With a less likeable star “The Flight Attendant” could be a rough flight. But Cuoco, through her own plucky performance and years of accumulated goodwill from her role on “The Big Bang Theory,” acquits herself as well as anyone could in what is easily HBO Max’s most entertaining series since the service launched in May.
The opening credits, with animated visuals that bring to mind the “Mad Men” opening, and a jaunty spy thriller score set the tone for what the fast-paced show becomes in episode two once Cassie regularly imagines conversations with the dead guy (Michiel Huisman, “Game of Thrones”) as her way of coping. “The Flight Attendant” becomes a comedic mystery-thriller and Cuoco’s presence and performance capably sell its delicately balanced tone.
The eight-episode first season will roll out over the next four weeks with episodes premiering Thursdays on HBO Max (three episodes are now streaming). Curious cable viewers who don’t subscribe to HBO Max can see the first hour at 10:30 p.m. Sunday on TBS.
‘Archive 81’ adds to cast
Netflix has added to the cast of its filming-in-Pittsburgh supernatural horror series “Archive 81,” about archivist Dan Turner (Mamoudou Athie) who reconstructs the work of documentary filmmaker Melody Pendras (Dina Shihabi) from a collection of videotapes made in 1994.
Martin Donovan (“Boss”) stars as the secretive billionaire who recruits Dan to the restoration project. Matt McGorry (“How to Get Away With Murder”) plays Dan’s best friend. Julia Chan (“Katy Keene”) plays Melody’s party girl friend. Evan Jonigkeit (“Sweetbitter”) plays a charming professor who befriends Melody. Ariana Neal (“Hidden Figures”) co-stars as a ninth-grader with a mysterious ailment who asks Melody for help.
Channel surfing
Friday night CBS dramas “MacGyver,” “Magnum P.I.” and “Blue Bloods” will have their season premieres on Dec. 4 while the fourth season premiere of CBS’s “SEAL Team” has moved to 9-11 p.m. Dec. 2. … Intended-for-theaters “Wonder Woman 1984” will be released simultaneously in theaters and available to HBO Max subscribers for 30 days beginning Dec. 25. … The upcoming fourth season of The CW’s “Black Lightning” will be the show’s last. … McKeesport native Tamara Tunie and Point Park University grad Mason Alexander Park have joined the cast of Netflix’s live-action adaptation of the cult anime classic “Cowboy Bebop.” … KDKA-TV producers officially unionized a 27-member bargaining unit that includes news, sports, web and digital producers under a voluntary recognition agreement between SAG-AFTRA, which also represents KDKA on-air personnel, and CBS Broadcasting. The next step will be to negotiate a contract for KDKA’s producers. … KDKA-TV’s 39th annual Turkey Fund in partnership with the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank raised a record-setting $720,000 so far (donations will be accepted until the end of the year), almost $200,000 more than last year’s total and almost $100,000 more than the previous record high set in 2014. … Natalie Palamides, who grew up in Peters Township and is a 2012 graduate of Indiana University of Pennsylvania, stars in “Nate — A One Man Show,” a one-hour comedy special debuting on Netflix on Dec. 1. … This week’s 2021 Grammy nominations included recognition for the late Fred Rogers’ “It’s Such a Good Feeling: The Best of Mister Rogers,” a 23-track collection nominated in the best historical album category.
You can reach TV writer Rob Owen at rowen@triblive.com or 412-380-8559. Follow @RobOwenTV on Threads, X, Bluesky and Facebook. Ask TV questions by email or phone. Please include your first name and location.
