I know you’re thinking “Mika! Didn’t you just post about this on Wednesday?”
I did! But then I got the screener so I can give you a little more information about why you queer fans want to watch.
Screener Review On Love, Classified
Queerness is normal, expected, and a little cliched on this rom-com. It’s a super fun, silly, and romantic story where people hold on to hope and are rewarded. Like a good rom-com should be.
Okay, What’s Classy About This?
The name is, like with a lot of Hallmark movies, a bit of a double entendre. Kind of … The small town of Penfield is the home of famous romance author, Emilia Bloom. She comes back for a reading, and of course runs into her kids’ who still live there and have drama!
The underlying plot ties around an app called Classife (pronounced ‘Classify’) which is basically the town-board. It’s a social network that the local area uses for everything. Think ‘Nextdoor’ but also Grindr. It’s about as silly an idea as you think. Still Emilia (like Hallmark) is made to address the reality that social media is ubiquitous. Everyone has it, everyone uses it, and a book without it feels like a fantasy. More than a romance should be, I guess.
Naturally Emilia’s work getting to learn social media results in the worst way possible. But at least it’s entertaining.
Anachronisms Abound
If the idea of an app to be like the classifieds seems a little weird and abnormal to you, the whole idea that a small town has a giant bookstore that’s busy enough to have a reading of a famous author, but not a jewelry store, feels somewhat out of touch with reality for small businesses in small towns.
The also heavily lean into the trope of ‘older people aren’t super hip with the socials’ enough though the ‘kids’ are my age, and I promise while I’m online-dating inept, it’s not because I’m old. I’ve been with my wife forever, but I would very much hit up online dating if that wasn’t the case.
Also Gen Z aren’t all kids anymore. They’re 1990-2010 so they’re between 32 and 12 (…) so don’t act like they’re all college-bound hipsters.
As one might expect, there’s a struggle between old-school and new-school, and figuring out what the right way to be is. Spoilers? There isn’t a right way. If it’s easier to type, then that’s an okay way to be. If you need to be the in-person kind of person? That’s okay to!
The Queers Aren’t Alone
One of my biggest beefs with RomComs or a series that introduces a single queer, is that they seem to be alone. We move in packs, whenever possible, so seeing a solo gay on their own is always frustrating.
Franki, our lovely love interest, and her gay bro BFF, hang out all the time. They talk to each other about life as well. Franki’s a lesbian, who is absolutely out with herself and who she wants to be. We know she’s the love interest for Taylor (Emlia’s daughter), a plant shop owner, who isn’t gay. Is she?
I did fear that the show was going to lean too hard on that angle, but I am happy to say that the movie is about a family struggling to come to terms with damage from five years ago, healing as best they can, and finding the room to grow and be themselves. With our own sexuality, sometimes we don’t know until we know. And the trope this does lean into is one of my favorites: Is this a date? Like a date date?
Oh how I love that one.
Also the “I’m not scared [to kiss you]”/”That makes one of us” trope?
My little queer heart was delighted.
What of Love?
Well it’s a romcom, so if you didn’t expect happy endings all around, you really came in with the wrong idea. Everyone gets a happy ending. Everyone pairs up as expected (seriously you will identify who ends up with whom as soon as you meet people). And like a good family romcom, the love of family is just as important as the love of romance.
So check it out, tomorrow on Hallmark. It’s cute, it’s fun, and Melora Hardin is a freaking delight.
This may only be the 5th Hallmark movie to have overtly, open, queer women, it’s a welcome step in, and I hope the hallmark (yes yes I know) of a sign to come.
