First issues first: You would need to be one significantly hardhearted bastard to not love The Thing About Harry, Freeform’s belated homosexual Valentine (premiering Saturday, Feb. 15, at 8/7c). Its leads — Gray’s Anatomy’s Schmitt, Jake Borelli, and newcomer Niko Terho — have chemistry for days. The script, co-written by director and co-star Peter Paige (Good Hassle), goes down as simply as a field of goodies. Uncommon is the bestie/wingwoman who’s as interesting as Britt Barron (GLOW). And the film’s “Will they or gained’t they?” moments are approach extra loaded than they’ve any proper to be. (Will they or gained’t they? Of freaking course they may!)
That mentioned, Harry is a traditional romcom for each higher and worse. As soon as smartypants Sam (Borelli, blocks if not miles from Gray’s nebbishy Glasses) is compelled to reconnect together with his now-out former high-school bully Harry (Terho, wielding his crooked smile like a deadly weapon), there’s little little question that these opposites won’t solely appeal to however uncover that they had been by no means actually opposites to start with. Reinventing the wheel, Harry ain’t. The film goes on to trot out an entire lotta the style’s clichés (proper all the way down to the tried-and-true “You’ve acquired an eyelash in your cheek” bit). And it additional normalizes the lookism that gave Love, Simon its disagreeable aftertaste.
However to quibble with Harry, when it sticks no less than the primary of its two landings and left even this hardhearted bastard misty-eyed, feels just like the equal of claiming that if love isn’t excellent, it isn’t value it. It is value it. And in an age when the printed of a homosexual couple’s kiss can nonetheless by some means be “deemed controversial,” a film like this isn’t simply cute, enjoyable and swoon-inducing, it’s necessary.
THE TVLINE BOTTOM LINE: Like Sam, you may want to withstand Harry. The factor is, you’re not going to have the ability to. It’s as pleasant as it’s predictable.