I'm super surprised about some of the responses to happiest season wow. I bought Harper as a fun and adorable and desirable character immediately, I thought the opening prologue part did a good job of that. And I definitely bought the relationship between Abby and Harper as worth forgiving things for. fascinating. I really thought every scene was well-placed. Except the ending - Harper coming after Abby and proclaiming she doesn't care about her parents ....only to go back to her parents' house when Abby just wanted to go home. Like....that was a poor choice but I guess the family being so nice and warm was worth it. But like. Damn they also should have apologised - because who treats their daughter's friend like that. They dropped the ball there - Harper should have promised Abby a real Christmas again, forreal, and been shown to actively include and push her family to actively include Abby successfully. I think.
So it's not perfect, but it definitely achieved what it attempted. I definitely think that a casual audience like me is successfully encouraged to forgive Harper for being such an asshole. And I did. But ironically, maybe if you're very close to the subject matter she doesn't come across as sympathetic enough.
Then again, I didn't go in expecting pure fluff.
