I was recommended Dashing in December, a Christmas romcom advertised on Amazon Prime as a tv series, for some reason. The blurb gives the standard plotline: Big City careers are stupid, go home for Christmas and find love. The twist: Big City is a guy! It will take about 10 minutes of screen time for the big reveal: he's gay!
Scene 1: Establishing shot of NYC. Big, Important Financial Planner Wyatt (Peter Porte) is at an office Christmas party, miserable amid the talk of husbands and wives. He and Lindsey broke up in October, so he'll be alone! At Christmas! Hey, I thought Wyatt was gay. Has he not figured it out yet, or is Lindsey a made-up girlfriend?
"What went wrong?" the Big Boss wants to know. "I thought you and Lindsey were perfect for each other." So they've met? Maybe Lindsey is a beard? Or maybe he's bi?
"The nonstop trips to the Cape, the five-star restaurants every night. I want someone with simple, down-home tases." Should have thought of that before you moved to the Big City, Dude.
More plot: this is the first Christmas since Dad passed away, so Mom is depressed, so he's going back to the ranch in Colorado. 10,000 to one he finds love there.
Hey, the hot bartender (Eric Meroño, left) grins at Wyatt! If you came in cold, this would be your first clue that Wyatt might not be straight, but I'll bet not one viewer in 100 catches it
Scene 2: Establishing shot of a beautiful ranch in Colorado. Wyatt's Mom brings tea to her workers: a girl and Heath (Juan Pablo de Pace, below). She announces that Wyatt is coming home for Christmas, for the first time in five years. Heath has only been working there for three years, so they've never met, but the girl is his High School Girlfriend. Whoa, Wyatt really racks up the babes.
"Won't your husband, who is out of the country working for Doctors Without Borders, be jealous of your ex-boyfriend visiting?" Heath asks.
High School Girlfriend, grinning: "I...don't...think so." Her certainty is another clue.
Heath leaves, and High School Girlfriend interrogates Mom: "Heath doesn't know about Wyatt?"
"Well, I couldn't just tell him, could I?" Tell him what, Mom? What about your son is such a problem that you're afraid to tell your employee about it?
"Well, does Wyatt know about Heath?"
"What could I say: you guys are both gay?" The big reveal! Why all the circumlocution and misdirection? Probably the same rationale as not revealing that a tv character is gay until Season 2: you want the viewers to become invested in the story first, so they won't run away in homophobic horror.
Wait -- Ranch Hand Heath is gay, too? So what's the problem? This will be a very short romcom. Wyatt's plane lands, sparks fly, mistletoe, the end.
Scene 3: Heath giving two moms and two kids (a lesbian couple?) a tour of Santa's Workshop. By horse-drawn carriage, not sleigh: there's no snow on the ground.
Mom points out Heath: "He keeps the place going." Wyat notices the lack of customers for Santa's Village, and criticizes him for not doing his job. Yeah, Heath, get busy and make with the snowfall!
Scene 4: Heath and High School Girlfriend are heading to dinner, and to meet Wyatt. Heath worries that he will be homophobic, but she reassures him: that won't be a problem. So the guy who escaped Colorado, with its long history of homophobic legislation, for the freedom of a gay mecca, is homophobic?
At dinner, Wyatt snipes at Heath (left), misnames him Hank, criticizes the terrible wine he brought, and ignores him to chat up High School Girlfriend. This isn't going well, but then neither of the guys knows that the other is gay.
More misdirection after the break