Stream It or Skip It: ‘Christmas with the Darlings’ on Hallmark Is a Holiday Treat (with a Little Gay Spice!)

Christmas with the Darlings is a new Hallmark holiday movie starring Katrina Law and Carlo Marks. She’s all about order and he’s all about fun. They’re so different, how will they ever take care of his orphaned nephews now that they’re moving back to Connecticut from Australia?? If there’s one thing that can unite this temporary family unit, it’s a good ol’ fashioned New England Christmas. But should you spend some time with the Darlingtons this holiday season? Or should you decline the invite?

CHRISTMAS WITH THE DARLINGS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Katrina Law (Arrow) stars as Jessica, an executive assistant at a very vague Big Firm who’s about to transition into a new gig as a corporate lawyer at said Big Firm. There’s just one big hiccup: the CEO’s recently orphaned nieces and nephew are moving back to America under the guardianship of Uncle CEO Darlington and Uncle Slacker Darlington (Max, played by Chesapeake Shores‘ Carlo Marks). But with Uncle CEO away on business and Uncle Slacker definitely not up to the task, the kids’ll have to spend Christmas at a boarding school. If you think Jessica is going to let that happen, then you don’t know Hallmark Christmas movies. She’s gonna give these tiny expats the most New England-y Christmas of all time—and she’s gonna get some surprise help from Max Darlington, who may not be such a slouch after all.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: I can say this for almost every Hallmark movie: it will remind you of almost every other Hallmark movie. That’s the point! That being said, Christmas with the Darlings‘ central plot is really similar to the decidedly un-Hallmark Hallmark movie Holly & Ivy. So this is a perfectly Hallmark Hallmark movie that’s most similar to… the one Hallmark movie that breaks all the rules. Sure!

Performance Worth Watching: Carlo Marks pulls off one of the smoothest, subtlest character arcs that I’ve ever seen in a Hallmark Christmas movie. As entitled and flighty Max, he’s convincing as a bro-y snowboarder at the top of the movie—and then he handles the cool uncle gig and Max’s reveal as a secret nice guy with aplomb. He has genuine Jake Johnson/Chris Evans nice dude vibes, and that’s who you want for Jessica.

Memorable Dialogue: I love Jessica lesbian best friend (!) Zoe, 1. Because representation matters and 2. Because she says lines like this when talking about Max: “Yes, empirically he’s very well put together.”

A Holiday Tradition: Jessica has to plan the TBD corporation’s huge holiday bash, which is of course the backdrop for the CEO’s attempt to woo a major potential client. Jessica and Max also take the kids to a hospital’s Christmas fair/fundraiser. And Jessica imparts a tradition from her family to the Darlingtons: they decorate a tree in the Darlington estate’s backyard with birdseed ornaments for all of their woodland pals.

Does the Title Make Any Sense?: I think the more accurate question is does the family’s last name make any sense. Really, this movie should be called Christmas with the Darlingtons. That’s an empirically (h/t Zoe) worse title, so the family should’ve had their name changed to match the title!

Our Take: When a Hallmark movie lead clearly states up top that their mission is to give someone the most New England Christmas of all, you know you’re in for a treat. And that’s what Christmas with the Darlings is: a Hallmark treat through and through with perfectly cast leads that clash in all the right ways (she loves lists and he solves problems by having fun!) and then come together in the best way. It’s a wonder why it took Katrina Law five years to return to Hallmark’s main street, because she’s perfect at playing a lead that’s all business and all about Christmas.

And what about that New England-style celebrating? Christmas with the Darlings delivers! We get multiple montages of festive activities (Baking cookies! Trimming a tree! Building a snowman!) set to perfectly pleasant Christmas pop tunes, the kind with rights that are easy to clear. If you judge a Hallmark movie on how well it can double as a festive screensaver when muted, then Christmas with the Darlings gets high marks.

Definitely the densest part of this frothy film has to be the exposition up top. We’re dropped into the big money world of the Darlingtons and have to not only navigate Jessica’s career trajectory but also mentally picture the overly elaborate Darlington family tree. Let’s just say that a lot of relatives and Darlington Corp. employees had to fall victim to health scares and unmovable travel plans in order for these kids to end up in Jessica’s care. Make sure you pay close attention to the first few minutes of the movie—or don’t. I mean, you’ll pick it up as it goes along. This isn’t Inception with the Darlings.

The most intriguing part of the film for a gay like myself, though, is the subplot involving Jessica’s BFF Zoe (Morgana Wyllie), who is totally gay. Not only is she gay, but she has a romantic subplot with a hot barista! Do they kiss? No. Do they hold hands? They both hold hands with the same kid at the same time, so they’re holding hands via the transitive property. Does the barista tenderly touch Zoe on the arm after serving her some cocoa? Yes. I know it’s not a lot and just barely above the lowest bar one could set for representation, but this is a major deal for Hallmark and no doubt the result of a whole lot of pushback against the network’s continued lack of representation. Basically every single time Zoe and her crush were on screen, which wasn’t an insignificant amount of time, I was like:

It’s a very merry feeling to have while watching a Hallmark movie, to be sure.

And that’s the general vibe of the whole film. It’s just merry and cozy, like a New England Christmas as depicted as only the Hallmark Channel could.

Our Call: STREAM IT. You’ll have a pleasant time spending Christmas with the Darlingtons.

Christmas with the Darlings premieres on the Hallmark Channel on Sunday, November 8 at 8 p.m. ET

Stream Christmas with the Darlings on Hallmark