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Where she falls in love with the main protestor, who must decide between his love for her, and closing down the deal which has been in his family for generations...😮
That’s the part I hate most about it. If she left her hometown, it was probably for a reason! I don’t like the idea that a guy makes it worth staying. Gross.
@@trinaq but then, a genius idea pops out of the head of our heroine (thanks to a previous event, from the first third of the movie) - and they end up saving the farm, and the whole town along the way.
@@csillakaszas7285 Also, the snotty, rich person with a stick up their rear gets dirt dumped on them by some karmic justice while the town laughs and claps.
pamelam4 lollll you’re right. But only a very specific subset of contemporary romance. Unless there’s a Hallmark collection of motorcycle club etc romances out there. 🤣
Please let somebody make 50 shades of White. A kinky candy coloured 1 hour film about an interior decorator down on her luck falling for a shopping mall Santa Clause.
This explains why my grandmother eats these movies up then and why I can't stand them. At least the romance novels have sex to make up for the terrible writing and characters.
I'm a female Arab college student in her early 20ties and I just realized that I know all the movies from the clips. I think I might be going through an identity crisis. This is an honest call for help.
Don't worry about it. I'm the same (except I'm black British). These movies are a nice bit of escapism and fantasy from the stresses of assignments and 'adulting'.
I know right!!! I don't even consciously decide to watch them, my mom has this habit of watching TV movies every afternoon and before I even realize it I find myself grabbing a blanket and food and enjoying.
@Basekitball don't be so mean, it's 3 days from Christmas eve cheer up, go have some hot chocolate and watch you a " Christmas at dollywood". Thank me later.
I'm a young adult in her early 20s from Central Asia and honestly I love Hallmark movies After a tiring day of work and negativity it's nice to just get cozy and watch a Christmas movie and forget about my troubles I don't know how the hell does that work, but Hallmark movies actually motivate me to stay nice and positive no matter how much life punches me in the gut
That is exactly the point for the Hallmark Christmas movies. They are not meant to be cinematic masterpieces that are thought provoking, just temporary escape from the everyday.
Good for you! I just make fun of the acting, writing, and production and change the channel after 37 seconds. They may cheer people up in the short-term, but the fantasies they push end up making us all miserable in the end, because real life pales on comparison.
Something I detest about these movies is they portray small towns as charming. I grew up in a small town, and it was hell on earth. I couldn’t wait to escape it and have no desire to ever go back.
Small towns vary much more than cities I think. It's like small towns are the mom and pop restaurants and cities are chain branches. The chain branches are always a solid average meal whereas mom and pop restaurants can sometimes be the worst food ever or best food
@Instrumentality1000 well if someone wanted to show that side, they should practice subtlety and rhetorical wit and stay true to reality and not engage in 'hur dur, people from small towns are dumb hicks' self-serving polemics, especially if those people are your target audience. It can be done, but not by the majority of people. And even so, its not as if that should be the main reason to create a tv show.
My mom LOVES these...every year, she binge-watches Hallmark. I like watching them with her...and my writer brain thinks about how I would deconstruct the tropes...
Like what if the fiancé she's engaged to is ACTUALLY a nice guy and she totally screws him over. "I know we've dated for years and you have been nothing but supportive and respectful. But I hung out with this guy for like three days and then we slow danced, so... Did you want this ring back or what?"
I would love to enjoy a hallmark movie but the music is intolerable, everyone is soo homogenous, and why does any love rival have to be a jerk? Why can't the heroine just conclude that her relationship isn't working? Why does she basically have to be a cheater until the ex turns out to be a cheat or whatever so her running off with someone else is ok? I'm telling Hallmark to fix up. Or I'm telling Tyler Perry and Oprah to sort it out, cos !!
An ambitious career white woman finds the love of her life in a holier than thou country town, with the most perfect, wool sweater- wearing,hot chocolate-drinking white farmer next door,on the very christmas night and décides to take over the family bakery, run by old auntie may.
Part of why Hallmark holiday rom coms are so widespread and well watched is that they offer wish fulfilment towards its target demographic, primarily women. Who HASN'T wanted to fall in love amongst a snowy, yuletide setting, whilst having wacky shenanigans along the way?! No wonder Vanessa Hudgens and Lacey Chabert seem to be drawn towards the genre as of recently!💘🎅🎄🎁
I was born and lived my whole life in a warm country, where Christmas is in summer, when I moved to a country where winter is below zero, and that winter can be quite depressing, I started to understand the hallmark movies's appeal. movies. They give you comfort in an already stressful and depressing time.
True. But 95% of tv is wish fulfillment for men, especially action films. Old, balding, unattractive man has 20 year-old hot women with skills and status tripping over themselves to get to him. They say all the right things, wear all the right things and only want to please. In these films, only the male is a fully fleshed out person with thoughts and desires outside of women. Can't blame women for wanting a small piece of that for themselves.
Trina Q you got a point... also to me personally it even seems nostalgic... I feel like every other movie when I was a child was exactly that: a montage of crazy adventures while the girl and the guy fall in love which culminates with a Big Kiss... Case in point: Love Actually
Imagine being an actress without having nude scenes and excessive kissing, A lot of people know and love you, the uglyness and cruelty life brings Sometimes is Not shown....Plus there seems to be a decent loan. Sounds appealing to me.
The craze is similar to radio stations playing 24/7 Christmas songs. First, there's a few classic, then there's a few high profile versions, and now everyone wants to make their own & we have 24 hours of media all the way up to the date itself.
I honestly hate these movies with a passion (and it's not just because my mother starts watching them in July!). I know these movies are cheesy and are purposefully made to be as simple and as saccharine as possible, but I always feel like they push a lot of the same stereotypes and tropes that people complain about finding in other media. Then again, maybe I'm not man-hungry enough to get into them. I don't know.
I work in set dec and many of these things are filmed in May and June. In a way your Mom is watching them in the appropriate season. Worst damn part aside from the slashed labor budgets and damn near impossible schedule is decorating a public place and all the "Christmas in July" comments we get from the public passersby every 20 minutes.
@@Cultureshock007 Be honest with me, Izzy. Which is worse: the repeated "Christmas in July" comments or those that honestly think they are witty enough to be the first to say it to you? And on a more personal note...I used to work in pet retail. There were days where I thought "If I hear that _bleeping_ paw pun one more _bleeping_ time..."
Or maybe it's just escapism. Life sucks, sometimes you just want to eat icecream for dinner even though you know you shouldn't. Hallmark movies are to some women what anime, or the Avengers or Comic books or computer games are to others. An escape, a bit of fun.
Just as Megan Kelly said "Santa is white" it feels like Hallmark wants to give the ideal fantasy that romance, dreams, and wishes only happen to certain white women, who are tall, slender with perfect hair and makeup. Which is why I can never partake in watching their movies given I'm an Asian woman who has worked in Christmas retail. If there only was such a movie to portray the real hardships of Christmas that would be taken more seriously: like the overwhelming labor in a department store while dealing with the borderline harassment of customers. That's an example of what working women face in the season. Not romanticized "should I do this or that" tiny decision making that comprised the whole movie.
But we dont want to see hallmark movies about hardship in christmas lol. I do think they should diverse more but then again if you want to see asians then i suggest watching movies from those countries. They have good dramas and movies.
I recently watched "The Knight Before Christmas" on Netflix, and as much as it leans into the Hallmark formula described here (like, a lot), it also plays many elements with a fair amount of irony, so in small ways, at least, it's not as cliche as you might expect.
At first I was loving that movie but then by the end I was so put off by the cheesy lines & how much of a fake little miss perfect persona Vanessa Hudgen’s character had it ruined it for me 😞
I've only recently heard of Hallmark movies because of the controversy (I think it's an American thing?), but I can see the appeal. It's like comfort food. Are these two conventionally attractive people going to get together? Yes they are.
I'm surprised they didn't tackle the marriage idealism in more detail. It's true that women are at the center of these movies, but this positive aspect is trounced by the focus on marriage, marriage, and more marriage.
The recent hallmark controversy just solidifies how much better Lifetime's holiday fare tend to be - not only does it offer similar sweet experiences but those are spread among varied different racial groups (not just black women too but asian women as well) and they've been doing so for a lot longer. lifetime definitely wins this christmas IMO
Even this video essay, which doles out snippets of these shows, is far too saccharine for me to take. Stuff like Hallmark Christmas movies only depress me, because it's the Christmas we're told we desperately need, but it's also the Christmas we AIN'T GONNA GET. It doesn't depress me because I feel I deserve it, but because every soul all around me has this entitlement and they'll crush you underheel to attain it.
This reminds me of the wish fulfillment of kdramas. Whole lot of tropes but people LOVE THEM. I'd love to see you guys do a video on kdramas. I feel like with the popularity of kpop a lot of those fans are drawn to kdramas because members from kpop groups will be in kdramas. Even a cynic like me is drawn to kdramas because we can explain away the unrealistic tropes they have because of the societal norms in South Korea.
Now I’m a kpop fan but I actually haven’t notice a lot of idols in dramas, maybe that’s because it’s takes me forever to jump just onto one drama and then forget about kdramas for 6 months, but I feel like I never see idols dramas.
@@parisknight1840 I feel like what happens is if you're going to watch kdramas it starts by watching an idol you love in a drama. I've heard it a lot where Taehyung from BTS was in Hwarang so a fan watched it and then they liked the other actors so that fan watched other dramas with those actors and then they become hooked on kdramas. A LOT of idols have been in kdramas. Siwon from Super Junior, Lee Minho of Shinee, Cha Eunwoo of Astro, Yoona from Girls Generation and many, many more. There's also the thing where if you look up an actor there's a good chance they were in an idol group at one point and that idol group isn't very popular or disbanded so they became a full time actor.
I really HATE these movies. Yes, it's just wish fulfillment, but it's also an unhealthy view of what Christmas and romance are. You also have to suffer the same message over, and over, and OVER again. If they're going to be cheesy wish fulfillment, can't they at least change the message, like "the woman discovering she's more than the relationship she's in".
Hunter Webster I definitely agree with your last part about the message. But tbf a LOT of movies portray an unrealistic/unhealthy view of whatever it is. Not saying just because they all do it, it’s okay. It just seems we take things involving love and romance more to heart, same with difficult subjects like depression and mental health, for example...so I guess in a way that’s a compliment to romance that it’s important and valuable enough (to the general population - always exceptions ofc) to be needed to be represented in a healthy way.
@@lurategh That is fair. Like, why is it necessary to be in a relationship to be happy? If they are really happy with who they are and what they do, why is it the "only thing missing" is to get married and have kids? THAT one annoys me regardless of genre.
Also woman doesn't need that rich man when she's got herself worth and her career and a group of people that love her for who she is and not what she can provide
@@AnimeWolf5193 because it appeals to people who lack companionship. It's unfortunate that it shits on people who DON'T want romance, but the movies are supposed to be hopeful for people who want it and don't have it
@@chocotoasties2671 But it's not. It cements that they need that relationship to be happy, that it will make them happy. This is a very unfulfilling ideal.
The Hallmark Channel wants us thinking that there was some other, better Christmas we could return to - a Christmas when it was less about the presents and more about family, or goodwill toward men or whatever, but rarely about Jesus’s birth. For them, Christmas is a secular holiday with a religious component tacked on to it and this is what their audience seems to want.
As a professional African American female, I still fail see any more than simplistic token reflections of myself in what overwhelmingly remains to be devotedly white leading casts with occasional Black coworkers whose main purpose in life is to support the white leading characters. I just don’t understand why writing, producing and casting more diverse presentations is such a great problem for Hallmark! I’m old enough to remember Hallmark Hall of Fame Productions from decades ago that did a much better job at diversity. Adding “one” African American actress to your casting list does not equal diversity! And YES, there are plenty of minorities out there capable of working on those films in many capacities! The entertainment industry is full of minority professionals. Heck, why is it so hard for Hallmark to embrace and commit to diversity?! The Obamas were placed in the WHITE House for two terms, and yet this network still seems to cringe at the thought of producing more than one African American centered Christmas movie a year, if that! And how could I forget to mention Meghan Markle, American BORN, British Royal family member, with an African American Mother!!!! WAKE UP Hallmark!!!!!! Even the MOST ELETE of European Royalty is more diverse than the Universe of the Hallmark Network! In answer to the poster telling those of us asking for DIVERSITY to find our own networks! This nation is currently being torn apart by the refusal to accept diversity, and as someone who pays the same amount for my cable bill as everyone else watching Hallmark, I have every right to expect as much representation as any other subscriber! I wasn’t aware that subscribed network television worked on segregated terms. It’s The Hallmark Channel, not White Entertainment Television. If they truly want to serve that purpose, then maybe they should consider taking on that title.
They cater to their viewers' demographics... aka middle-aged, socially conservative, white women. If Hallmark starts casting actors of other races, and white actors dip below 97% of the cast, then these women will start shouting "ANTI-WHITE RACISM" at the top of their lungs. But be content in knowing that Hallmark is trash and their viewers are pretty classless.
I’m an African American woman as well, and I think it’s for the better that they DON’T try to tell our stories. Their supporters are majority (Anglo-Saxon) white Americans with conservative ideals and a very specific fantasy in mind. I’m not in the market for a washed out movie with an African American woman just as the lead simply because. I want our culture and who we are to be represented as well, without shame. Something like the movie Coco - Mexican people were the lead and Mexican culture was the backdrop of the movie. It wasn’t just brown skin with a “no-controversy” backdrop. If Hallmark can’t do that, that’s fine.
That would be a much more unpredictable plotline what with costumes and monsters. If Hallmark wasn't as satisfied marketing on their "bread and butter" Christmas branding they could make more interesting movies just to test the potential of Halloween themed movies.
The Good Witch could be considered sort of a Halloween series ... even though it also leaks into Christmas through the plot, but yeah ... Halloween is the best and it needs more love.
You know, I thought when I was watching this; "Why isn't there a Halloween version of this phenomenon?" . Well, for two reasons; Halloween is not as popular or well-loved as Christmas(of course it has it's fans; I'm one of them), and I'm not sure Halloween itself lends itself to these kinds of movies. Although to be fair, Halloween isn't always about horror, or gore, or evil. There is plenty of fun, cute, and only slightly scary things about Halloween. Also, in the past, Halloween was associated with romance. It was seen as a time for matchmaking, and girls and young women would do divinations to find out their future husbands. So, after I thought about these aspects, the idea of Hallmark kind of movies centered around Halloween seemed a little more plausible.
It’s the same as most things. People like them because they’re like comfort food and we know there’ll be a happy ending (same with most movies, not just Hallmark), which is something we, as in the writers, can control when in real life there are many things out of our control. Pure escapism, and that’s often just what we need when we’re looking for movies, books, music etc. And tbf, most movies and books follow a certain formula. In some cases, it’s just way more obvious. Although there’s definitely a line between following a formula and rehashing the exact same storyline all the time.
I was born and lived my whole life in a warm country, where Christmas is in summer, when I moved to a country where winter is below freezing, and that winter can be quite depressing, I started to understand the hallmark movies' appeal. They give you comfort in an already stressful and depressing time.
Yeah, they are cozy movies, and though I live in the pine mountains of a subtropical country where the coldest it ever gets is 44 degrees, it inspires me to deck and garland my house to the gods! 3 Christmas trees!
I have to disagree with never being shamed for her job. If she works in the big city for a big company, she is consistently shamed. If she works in the small town for a small company, she is not. It’s rare that the woman is convincing the man to give up a high power career in the big city to live in the small town. It’s almost always vice versa from what I’ve seen
@Crow it really does depend on the person. My best friends husband is in love with the holiday. And so is his brother. I on the other hand am not. But I was speaking as a viewer of these movies that would like to see a break in the cliches. I think it would be popular with the women as well.
Carmen Del Castillo I do agree but at the same time, like the vid said, one of the things these movies have going for them is that they’re usually female-centric, which we just do not see often unless they’re romance or family movies or whatever. I love romance but of course, I do sooo wish those weren’t the only genres that tend to center around women... If anything, Hallmark could at least play around more with the Christmas tropes so the stories aren’t always carbon copies of one another.
I love Hallmark movies. Here are a couple of suggestions. Christmas Next Door, Christmas Connection and A Christmas Detour. When you want to watch something that does not make you mad, scare you or make you feel bad about yourself. Just a relaxing 2 hours of escape.
'The Christmas Cottage'. The couple has great chemistry and it held my attention all throughout. Oh, and the one they mention here 'The Christmas Shepherd' is actually great.
I've actually seen a worse romance film, and it was a British one made around World War II. The story features an RAF pilot trying to get back to Britain, and is guided by a female military staffer (whose demanor over the radio he seems charmed by). He is forced to bail out before reaching the airfield (he survives of course), and then a while later randomly meets her on a road. She's happy to see he made it, but then he turns on the charm and at the end of this ONE MEETING, they part with a huge kiss and begin dating (and the rest of the story mostly follows their romance). I literally started laughing at it. Perhaps the story was to raise morale, but no normal person falls in love THAT quickly, do they?
You know what would be a great idea? A Hallmark streaming service that lets the viewers pick the "type" of movie they want to watch. The plot can still be "person A goes to hometown and falls in love with person B because.... CHRISTMAS!!!" but the two characters don't necessarily have to be a straight, white, binary, American, christian couple. Even people of color, LGBTQ+, not-Americans, not-christians like to watch this type of movie every once in a while. They're trying so hard to appeal to a small group of conservative Americans that they forgot they could win over the rest of the population. If Bethany doesn't want to watch two guys giving each other the tiniest kiss in front of a Christmas tree then she can choose to watch one of the other 3945944858789 movies that feature a white straight couple.
Fiore Fiore Hallmark isn’t even that Christian, cause if they were Christian they would talk about Jesus and stuff like that. They are just super conservative. Conservative doesn’t equal Christian.
But did you ever consider that list of white, binary, straight etc IS their target audience? There are plenty of movies out there that are inclusive. If hallmark want to appeal to those demographics and you're not into it then move on 🤷♀️ Its like complaining Disney movies don't tackle adult issues.... While being aimed at kids. You're not the target audience.
penelope pittstop For someone who thinks people should be allowed to like what they want, you sure spend a lot of time defending these movies. This whole video is a critique, and you’re not changing any minds here. Just drop it and watch what you want.
Hallmark movies used to be good. There were movies that I watched and had no idea that they were Hallmark because the production quality was so much higher, the acting was better, and the plots were not so predictable and cheesy. Now all the movies are just so corny and predictable, someone from a big city visits a small town, falls in love, and decides to stay
They really did used to take chances on the kind of movies they made before they fell into a very specific formula. A lot of their early movies didn't specifically fall into the romance genre.
I am woman, I loathe these movies. Any new relationship or huge step like engagement during a major cultural nostalgic holiday/moment seems manipulative to me. I'm not bitter, I just prefer the reality of love, not idealized versions that can cause those less confident or stable to ene up being hurt by feeling completely alone or as if they need to force a relationship into the pretty box presented on screen for it to be "the real deal" & "special" etc. I do not begrudge anyone who enjoys them, my mother watches them multiple times over every season now while doing xmas things at home, it is her favourite holiday of all so I am happy to see her enjoy the season her way. We are very different though, so this is just my take(ha!), but I truly can't stand these movies.
I still say the only reason why people don't take these movies seriously because women watch them It is not worse than any stupid action movie guys typically enjoy.
@@lisah8438 totally agree. Something seems right about women watching hallmark and men watching die hard and both sexes indulging the other by watching one movie of the other genre
Lisa H I always say that about rom-coms too. It’s fair if the movie is just plain bad but a lot of people like to mock the genre for being cliche and unrealistic (and *cough* too girly *cough*). It’s like my dude, and you think all those action films out there are an accurate representation of reality?? 🤣 And I say this as someone who loves both genres. Kinda sad how it’s no big deal for women to enjoy all sorts of movies but some men might feel constricted in what they can enjoy. And this obviously applies to many things beyond film and entertainment...
"After the apocalypse a stressed out zombie woman finds herself missing christmas. She makes it her mission to restore the holiday cheer human kind once took part in"
thank you for this informative video. It has always baffled me why these movies are so popular. My main problem with the hallmark christmas movies is that it doesn't understand what it takes to make a very interesting christmas story. One of the best christmas movies i know don't really revolve around christmas, instead the christmas season is the backdrop for a separate and interesting story. You can see that clearly in movies such as it's a wonderful life or love actually. And those hallmark movies really lack that interesting element of it. Also they're super chaste and it's just so obvious and i dont like it at all
@@evivandersalm1788 Honestly, the character development on the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina has been pretty bad. It's all shallow. It's not really trying to be that kind of show, anyway. It's a plot-based soap opera like Riverdale that fits the characters into their plots as opposed to having their plots fit their characters.
"The woman isnt judged for her career OR love choices" Now admittedly I havent watched a hallmark movie in a few years due to not having cable but from what I remember she was judged the whole movie for choosing career until a mom, sister, bff, santa, co worker, barista, guy on a plane, guy on plan who turns out to be santa, etc. Finally convinced her to give up the high powered job for a relationship. Or turn down the position to save the relationship. Or convinced her to quit her job to move someplace for a relationship. Etc. While it's rare for another character to outright, aggressively say it, the whole movie itself is a judgment that ends pushing the female character away from her job to the relationship. That being said, I do enjoy a cheesy xmas rom com every now and then. But let's be honest.
@@janibii_608 Also that movie where the boyfriend learns about Christmas doesn't even really count cause the family starts celebrating both Hannukah and Christmas about halfway through.
Please do Community character breakdowns. I think they would work really well considering all of the work put into making their characters seem real as well as the way they fit into a group dynamic
I have tried watching these and find myself actually getting dumber and have to turn them off about 20 minutes in ... at least Netflix has been bringing more diversity into its rom coms with South Asian and Asian actresses. The plots are still dumb but at least POCs are getting work!
I still say the only reason why people don't take these movies seriously because women watch them It is not worse than any stupid action movie guys typically enjoy.
“women’s experiences are consistently centred and honoured” - did you mean “straight, white women’s experiences are consistently centred and honoured”?
I like many of the actresses that play in these movies but the lack of diversity of black women & non white women makes it harder to keep supporting these movies. It's about to be 2020 the world is diverse.
On the downside, they are saccharine, formulaic, WASP-y hetero-normative wish fulfillment for middle class women that doesn't really take any risks and avoids taking a stand. On the upside, they treat women's experiences as meaningful, you also didn't mention that they have been noted to treat their actors very well on set. Not my thing, but I can see why some people are into it.
Since Hallmark has gained such a large conservative audience, I don’t really blame them for pulling out the lgbtq+ commercial because most of their audience would probably stop watching and the channel would die (kind of like how Disney hasn’t had any lgbtq+ leads). However, I think that the Hallmark channel would be a perfect platform to help normalize the lgbtq+ community since it’s so wholesome and traditional. Maybe they will be able to do so in the future
(kind of like how Disney hasn’t had any lgbtq+ leads) This quote is barely true. The have LGBT characters now. Not as the main character but Andi Mack and the new high school musical series. They have gay character with a big back story. I mean one character danced with his crush and one character came out of the closet more than once and fell in love with a guy.
This year my mom, my sister, and I made Christmas cookies. I made a gingerbread man and named him Mr. Hallmark, yes, after these movies. He's that business boyfriend who gets dumped for small town boy who has a Christmas spirit.
It couldn't possibly be the case that the primary reason why people condescend to something is because it is primarily popular among women, could it? No, surely not. I mean, it's not as if superhero movies are all exactly the same, is it?
I am Italian and these movies flood a few channels here, and are not at all as popular as they seem to be in America. In fact, they're usually watched with rolled eyes and are aired during daytime, where only elderly people or bored kids might watch them. Its interesting to see how these pests originate.
I'm Canadian and loathe these sorts of movies. They make us dumber and promote traditionalism as being better than individuality. Poor messaging to the female viewers. Like seriously, I loathe them.
They get shown on Channel Five in the afternoons from November 6th to Christmas. Because that's the slot for the psychological thrillers the rest of the year where the divorced mother hires a psycho nanny or meets a new man who turns out to be a killer.
Audition is a Japanese movie kind of like what you're describing. It's not a Christmas movie though. It starts out a bit like a fun romantic comedy and goes very, very dark.
what's really surprising is all the dads in my life that love these movies. my dad, my friends dads, and my friends who are dads..... how did these men come into my life?
I feel like Hallmark is a safety net for actors and actresses, because all the lead actors are people who i've seen in only ONE movie or tv show that later gets cancelled, then they disappear then BOOM I find them in a hallmark movie. If an actor does't get hired they go to hallmark.
It's honestly fitting that Candace Cameron-Bure, Jodie Sweetin, and Lori Loughlin have found steady work being in Hallmark movies because Full House and Fuller House were essentially Hallmark movies disguised as a cheesy family sitcom. Fuller House especially leans heavily into that. Not that I've been spending my Christmas week binge-watching Fuller House or anything... oh, come on, tell me your heart doesn't feel full (heh) seeing DJ and Steve get together or Max and Rose's super cringey and unrealistic yet sweet childhood love! I never said I had sophisticated taste in television. My life is sad and this brings me happiness. 😂
LOL! Love the low-key cattiness with the narration in this video at 6:20. Gretchen of "that's so fetch!" fame has clearly shown off her acting range, all right: upper-middle-class white woman #1 in a village, upper-middle-class white woman #2 in a suburb, upper-middle-class white woman #3 in a city, upper-middle-class white woman #4 in a town. That acting range is truly remarkable! Give her an Oscar! LOL!
I kind of wonder why they had this pristine and affluent vision of Christmas featuring mostly white folk it would be nice if they had a movie about disabled folk celebrating Christmas or las posadas in the hood or a chosen family celebrating Christmas where its dry and muddy but they pretty much celebrate each other And it doesn't matter of the end up having sandwiches for their Christmas feast because They have one another and they're celebrating one of their owns getting promoted in their gas station. Maybe they can do different holidays like may be an African American Family trying to get through a snowy road in time for watch night at church or a film adaptation of Gary Soto's "Too Many Tamales" or Our Jewish hot family bringing the spirit of Hanukkah to a homeless shelter or even a bunch of people who padda really crabby year and things aren't necessarily working out the way they want by Christmas but they all glory in the company of each other and over progress that have been made.
If only. But so much of the demographic these are aimed at unconsciously add to their holiday escapism an element of escaping from the “wrong” people and from facing reality in society. Recent voting trends and polls show this so clearly.
@@StamfordBridge The sad thing is I know many minorities like my own family actually watch and love these movies and it would be nice if weak sauce and that reflected our experiences too. We should really support people in entertainment trying to put out diverse images even mediocre ones
I love the idea of a holiday movie not centering on romantic love or Christmas, but instead on love for the family or those who are less fortunate than us.🎄🎁
Jessica Victoria Carrillo Absolutely! And to be clear I was in no way criticizing the notion of sentimental holiday fare; I was criticizing the demographic that these movies are usually aimed at, and what they’ve morphed into especially in the last three years. Of course I support your main point about diversifying movies like these - it would be good not only for underrepresented people to see themselves in wholesome fare, but it would also be good for overrepresented groups to see it and get used to it.
There's a market for LGBT Holiday movies, for example: if you look into m/m romance fiction there are TONS of Christmas themed ones with yuletide related themes and romantic life-affirming plotlines that feel like they could work as movies. People want there to be optimistic, happy movies with LGBT characters as main characters (where they don't die or have depressing tragic lives). Not only that, but m/m romance is something that's enjoyed by more than just gay men since women especially enjoy reading about two guys falling in love. In fact, women make up the majority of the readers in the genre. Hallmark Channel has women as the target audience, so going for that kind of film would be really smart and people would watch it. Even just trying it to test the waters with ONE movie like that would blow their mind with how successful it could be.
Literally just taking a short break from the mm romance book I'm reading to watch RUclips. And couldn't agree with you more. I would so LOVE a mm romance sort of movie- something fun and optimistic.... oh, and I'm a woman. Now I must get back to my book, but before I do I wanna recommend a nice Christmassy mm romance book "better not pout" by Annabeth Albert.
@@h.s.l6875 No joke, "Better Not Pout" is one I have on audiobook to listen to right after I finish the audiobook I'm currently only a few chapters from finishing now. (For my own recommendation, I'd say Eli Easton's "Merry Christmas, Mr. Miggles" was a sweet, cheery Hallmark style story and Leta Blake's "Mr. Frosty Pants" was one I found very down-to-earth and romantic and it's holiday themes balanced out the angst in a perfect way) I'm happy I found out about these kinds of books cause I'm a gay guy and grew up with mostly really depressing movies to watch if I wanted gay main characters with depth (I love Brokeback Mountain to death, but it breaks my heart everytime and I never really came across many LGBT movies with Happily Ever After endings). If I had media with what I find currently with m/m books available when I was a teen, I'm positive that I wouldn't have felt so pessimistic about life back then.
I personally noticed that you can spot a hallmark movie not only by the same plot but also by bad scenography. The interiors always lack props. Good example is hallmark movie about a Christmas decorator with her decorations being hanging few red bows in an empty apartment(you can watch that movie on RUclips). There are few good hallmark movies but what about the rest of them? I feel they are made to numb ourselves so we can go back to office job we hate and not think about the system we actually live in. Numbing yourself shouldn't be a norm. Living should be a norm.
Honestly, I don't see any different between these movies and the superhero genre or stupid action movies. They all offer us a form of aspirational escapism. I suspect that the the reason Hallmark movies get more criticism is because they are primarily targeted toward women. And female centric interests are often seen with more disdain. Superhero and action movies, while do have their share of criticism, don't get skewered nearly as much. I don't like the Hallmark Christmas movies myself. But I can understand why others might and I try not to judge.
Ghoulish Bunny Studios 💯 I love, and I mean *love* my Marvel films, and they do get their fair share of hate, but the superhero and more broadly the action genre doesn’t get nearly as lambasted.
As someone who isn't north american but saw these wallmark movies (even if I only learned what a Hallmark was at sixteen) from time to time during Christmas season, I always thought they were so basic. I couldn't even remember who the character were the next morning. So yeah, forgettable at best and patronizing at worst (for the longest time I though God is not Dead was one of those, and even at seven I thought it was stupid... that's how bad that movie is. Even a child picks up on the idiocy.).
I'm not mad at Hallmark. The funny thing is, Hallmark movies should be right up my alley: happy endings, romance, good nature, but for some reason they aren't for me :( Maybe that's why I watch a lot of Bollywood movies, same things mentioned above, but not so saccharin I guess (and with more brown people).
@@aleksandra_______ If you want sappy, drippy romance I recommend Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehena. But some of my favorites are Salaam Namaste, Jodha Aakbar, Chalte Chalte, and Kabhi Kushi Kabhi Gham.
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Can you do a Samantha Jones (Sex and the City) analysis?
Didn't know there's a Christmas-Con. So I'm guessing we'll be seeing "What's Up Wih Valentine Hallmark Movies?"
Know the GOSPEL!
It is what is most important!
1st Corinthians 15:1-8.
Thanks
Richard Mason Copy pasta.
You should compare and contrast Pink Diamond (Steven Universe) and Eclipsa Butterfly (Star vs. the Forces of Evil).
"Tired of her high pressure big city job, a young woman goes home for Christmas to help save her family's worm farm..."
Where she falls in love with the main protestor, who must decide between his love for her, and closing down the deal which has been in his family for generations...😮
That’s the part I hate most about it. If she left her hometown, it was probably for a reason! I don’t like the idea that a guy makes it worth staying. Gross.
@@trinaq but then, a genius idea pops out of the head of our heroine (thanks to a previous event, from the first third of the movie) - and they end up saving the farm, and the whole town along the way.
@@csillakaszas7285 Talk about Deus Ex Machina, back to save the day, through sheer coincidence and dumb luck!😉😁
@@csillakaszas7285 Also, the snotty, rich person with a stick up their rear gets dirt dumped on them by some karmic justice while the town laughs and claps.
Hallmark movies are basically contemporary romance novels without the sex.
pamelam4 lollll you’re right. But only a very specific subset of contemporary romance. Unless there’s a Hallmark collection of motorcycle club etc romances out there. 🤣
The most hilarious thing, some movies are adapted from Harlequin novels. Maybe not Hallmark, but definitely their copycat channels like UP.
Please let somebody make 50 shades of White. A kinky candy coloured 1 hour film about an interior decorator down on her luck falling for a shopping mall Santa Clause.
Yep.
This explains why my grandmother eats these movies up then and why I can't stand them. At least the romance novels have sex to make up for the terrible writing and characters.
It's adult fairy tale. The real world is a burning dumpster fire so I'm not surprised people use hallmark to escape.
@ there is no true snowflake. We're all snowflakes of a different name who try to look better than others by stating how miserable we are
Everyone copes in their own way.
I'm a female Arab college student in her early 20ties and I just realized that I know all the movies from the clips. I think I might be going through an identity crisis.
This is an honest call for help.
Don't worry about it. I'm the same (except I'm black British). These movies are a nice bit of escapism and fantasy from the stresses of assignments and 'adulting'.
@@elle19ism I am a Black Senegalese American and same. I find them so simple and I like that.
Apparently Hallmark movies are more effective than crusades.
I know right!!! I don't even consciously decide to watch them, my mom has this habit of watching TV movies every afternoon and before I even realize it I find myself grabbing a blanket and food and enjoying.
@Basekitball don't be so mean, it's 3 days from Christmas eve cheer up, go have some hot chocolate and watch you a " Christmas at dollywood". Thank me later.
The narrator sounds like shes from hallmark
I thought so too. It doesn't feel like the usual The Take.
She sounds kinda like Rashida Jones
That’s how meta the hallmark christmas formula is
I fully appreciate the essay she provides here but I won’t lie - I really miss the other narrators voices and delivery.
And she neglected to mention all the hallmark product placement.
I'm a young adult in her early 20s from Central Asia and honestly I love Hallmark movies
After a tiring day of work and negativity it's nice to just get cozy and watch a Christmas movie and forget about my troubles
I don't know how the hell does that work, but Hallmark movies actually motivate me to stay nice and positive no matter how much life punches me in the gut
That is exactly the point for the Hallmark Christmas movies. They are not meant to be cinematic masterpieces that are thought provoking, just temporary escape from the everyday.
Same here. We dont expect masterpieces but cute and cheesy movies.
Yes, you are a target demographic.
Good for you! I just make fun of the acting, writing, and production and change the channel after 37 seconds.
They may cheer people up in the short-term, but the fantasies they push end up making us all miserable in the end, because real life pales on comparison.
@@s.l.3281 😂😂😂😂 because they cheer you up, they actually make you more miserable... Wtf?
Speak for yourself 😂
No they cheer us up and that's it.
Hallmark movies - even _whiter_ than Christmas.
👏👏👏👏👏👏
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
lol
Even whiter and brighter than people in white costumes with burning crosses...
Something I detest about these movies is they portray small towns as charming. I grew up in a small town, and it was hell on earth. I couldn’t wait to escape it and have no desire to ever go back.
Small towns vary much more than cities I think. It's like small towns are the mom and pop restaurants and cities are chain branches. The chain branches are always a solid average meal whereas mom and pop restaurants can sometimes be the worst food ever or best food
@Instrumentality1000 well if someone wanted to show that side, they should practice subtlety and rhetorical wit and stay true to reality and not engage in 'hur dur, people from small towns are dumb hicks' self-serving polemics, especially if those people are your target audience. It can be done, but not by the majority of people. And even so, its not as if that should be the main reason to create a tv show.
PREACH!
Kimnicpat I think they definitely can be, it depends on how you look at it.
And also the small towns are still big enough to have stores that specialize in cutesy stuff than reality would be overpriced
That shade thrown at the acting skills of that one actress 👌
"She displays a wide range of emoti...."
I died before the end of that sentence
My mom LOVES these...every year, she binge-watches Hallmark. I like watching them with her...and my writer brain thinks about how I would deconstruct the tropes...
That would be so amazing! A parody halmark movie!!!
I want one about a jaded Hallmark actress who hates Christmas.
Like what if the fiancé she's engaged to is ACTUALLY a nice guy and she totally screws him over.
"I know we've dated for years and you have been nothing but supportive and respectful. But I hung out with this guy for like three days and then we slow danced, so... Did you want this ring back or what?"
No mention of Aunt Becky. Ultimate shade.
I would love to enjoy a hallmark movie but the music is intolerable, everyone is soo homogenous, and why does any love rival have to be a jerk? Why can't the heroine just conclude that her relationship isn't working? Why does she basically have to be a cheater until the ex turns out to be a cheat or whatever so her running off with someone else is ok? I'm telling Hallmark to fix up. Or I'm telling Tyler Perry and Oprah to sort it out, cos !!
I get the feeling they're trying to appeal to viewers whose views about divorce and infidelity is still stuck in the 50s
An ambitious career white woman finds the love of her life in a holier than thou country town, with the most perfect, wool sweater- wearing,hot chocolate-drinking white farmer next door,on the very christmas night and décides to take over the family bakery, run by old auntie may.
Or she just falls in love with Nick Carter and says, " I am done with it." But that is just me.
and i will watch every second of it
Part of why Hallmark holiday rom coms are so widespread and well watched is that they offer wish fulfilment towards its target demographic, primarily women. Who HASN'T wanted to fall in love amongst a snowy, yuletide setting, whilst having wacky shenanigans along the way?! No wonder Vanessa Hudgens and Lacey Chabert seem to be drawn towards the genre as of recently!💘🎅🎄🎁
I was born and lived my whole life in a warm country, where Christmas is in summer, when I moved to a country where winter is below zero, and that winter can be quite depressing, I started to understand the hallmark movies's appeal. movies. They give you comfort in an already stressful and depressing time.
@Nathan Trujillo To be fair, that's what most porn is anyway.
True. But 95% of tv is wish fulfillment for men, especially action films.
Old, balding, unattractive man has 20 year-old hot women with skills and status tripping over themselves to get to him. They say all the right things, wear all the right things and only want to please.
In these films, only the male is a fully fleshed out person with thoughts and desires outside of women.
Can't blame women for wanting a small piece of that for themselves.
Trina Q you got a point... also to me personally it even seems nostalgic... I feel like every other movie when I was a child was exactly that: a montage of crazy adventures while the girl and the guy fall in love which culminates with a Big Kiss... Case in point: Love Actually
Imagine being an actress without having nude scenes and excessive kissing, A lot of people know and love you, the uglyness and cruelty life brings Sometimes is Not shown....Plus there seems to be a decent loan. Sounds appealing to me.
The craze is similar to radio stations playing 24/7 Christmas songs. First, there's a few classic, then there's a few high profile versions, and now everyone wants to make their own & we have 24 hours of media all the way up to the date itself.
I honestly hate these movies with a passion (and it's not just because my mother starts watching them in July!). I know these movies are cheesy and are purposefully made to be as simple and as saccharine as possible, but I always feel like they push a lot of the same stereotypes and tropes that people complain about finding in other media. Then again, maybe I'm not man-hungry enough to get into them. I don't know.
I work in set dec and many of these things are filmed in May and June. In a way your Mom is watching them in the appropriate season. Worst damn part aside from the slashed labor budgets and damn near impossible schedule is decorating a public place and all the "Christmas in July" comments we get from the public passersby every 20 minutes.
@@Cultureshock007 Be honest with me, Izzy. Which is worse: the repeated "Christmas in July" comments or those that honestly think they are witty enough to be the first to say it to you?
And on a more personal note...I used to work in pet retail. There were days where I thought "If I hear that _bleeping_ paw pun one more _bleeping_ time..."
Or maybe it's just escapism. Life sucks, sometimes you just want to eat icecream for dinner even though you know you shouldn't. Hallmark movies are to some women what anime, or the Avengers or Comic books or computer games are to others. An escape, a bit of fun.
@@wwaxwork Don't disrespect anime or comics like that.
Girl, same! Hallmark movies induce some major cringes!
“There is even a Christmas Con”. Modern Christmas time is one big con with the push for materialistic joy
big oof
don't cut yourself on all that grade school scissor edge, sis.
I'd like to see one where a construction worker meets a female billionaire, who eventually marries him.
Do you watch these, cause I’ve definitely heard a similar storyline
Does it count if she's a successful business woman? Because there are dozens
Just as Megan Kelly said "Santa is white" it feels like Hallmark wants to give the ideal fantasy that romance, dreams, and wishes only happen to certain white women, who are tall, slender with perfect hair and makeup. Which is why I can never partake in watching their movies given I'm an Asian woman who has worked in Christmas retail. If there only was such a movie to portray the real hardships of Christmas that would be taken more seriously: like the overwhelming labor in a department store while dealing with the borderline harassment of customers. That's an example of what working women face in the season. Not romanticized "should I do this or that" tiny decision making that comprised the whole movie.
You make an excellent point, except that the women in Hallmark Christmas movies are usually short or sometimes middle-height. A tiny detail, of course
But we dont want to see hallmark movies about hardship in christmas lol. I do think they should diverse more but then again if you want to see asians then i suggest watching movies from those countries. They have good dramas and movies.
@@rosetteruiz8615 did you just tell me, an American woman to watch movies from other countries if I want something in relation?
Joanna Yeah she did lmao racist white ladies are WILD.
rosette ruiz No that’s not how that works but go off.
As a gay black man, Hallmark Christmas movies give me life during the holidays.
good for you bro! hope you find new movies on there to enjoy this christmas. happy holidays and lots of love.
And you left out, the following line must be said at least once: "This is the best Christmas we've ever had"
I recently watched "The Knight Before Christmas" on Netflix, and as much as it leans into the Hallmark formula described here (like, a lot), it also plays many elements with a fair amount of irony, so in small ways, at least, it's not as cliche as you might expect.
Likewise, I enjoyed it, mostly for the charm of the leading performances, as well as how self aware it seemed. ❤
Same with The Princess Switch. I wonder if Vanessa Hudgens had any influence on this.
At first I was loving that movie but then by the end I was so put off by the cheesy lines & how much of a fake little miss perfect persona Vanessa Hudgen’s character had it ruined it for me 😞
Have you seen Kate and Leopold?
@@melodyclark1944 Never from beginning to end.
I've only recently heard of Hallmark movies because of the controversy (I think it's an American thing?), but I can see the appeal. It's like comfort food. Are these two conventionally attractive people going to get together? Yes they are.
Going from Superman to a lawyer in a Christmas movie is the ultimate sign of a dying career.
Just let yo career die.
I'm surprised they didn't tackle the marriage idealism in more detail. It's true that women are at the center of these movies, but this positive aspect is trounced by the focus on marriage, marriage, and more marriage.
But, at the end of most movies all they do is kiss, they're not even married.
@@nadiarivera8269 okay I'm surprised they didn't tackle the "happy ending/perfect kiss" in more detail..
The recent hallmark controversy just solidifies how much better Lifetime's holiday fare tend to be - not only does it offer similar sweet experiences but those are spread among varied different racial groups (not just black women too but asian women as well) and they've been doing so for a lot longer. lifetime definitely wins this christmas IMO
Right? I prefer the lifetime knock offs. And have been enjoying Netflix throwing they hat in the ring as well.
Even this video essay, which doles out snippets of these shows, is far too saccharine for me to take.
Stuff like Hallmark Christmas movies only depress me, because it's the Christmas we're told we desperately need, but it's also the Christmas we AIN'T GONNA GET.
It doesn't depress me because I feel I deserve it, but because every soul all around me has this entitlement and they'll crush you underheel to attain it.
This reminds me of the wish fulfillment of kdramas. Whole lot of tropes but people LOVE THEM. I'd love to see you guys do a video on kdramas. I feel like with the popularity of kpop a lot of those fans are drawn to kdramas because members from kpop groups will be in kdramas. Even a cynic like me is drawn to kdramas because we can explain away the unrealistic tropes they have because of the societal norms in South Korea.
V.E. Gray I second this
Now I’m a kpop fan but I actually haven’t notice a lot of idols in dramas, maybe that’s because it’s takes me forever to jump just onto one drama and then forget about kdramas for 6 months, but I feel like I never see idols dramas.
@@parisknight1840 I feel like what happens is if you're going to watch kdramas it starts by watching an idol you love in a drama. I've heard it a lot where Taehyung from BTS was in Hwarang so a fan watched it and then they liked the other actors so that fan watched other dramas with those actors and then they become hooked on kdramas. A LOT of idols have been in kdramas. Siwon from Super Junior, Lee Minho of Shinee, Cha Eunwoo of Astro, Yoona from Girls Generation and many, many more. There's also the thing where if you look up an actor there's a good chance they were in an idol group at one point and that idol group isn't very popular or disbanded so they became a full time actor.
I really HATE these movies. Yes, it's just wish fulfillment, but it's also an unhealthy view of what Christmas and romance are. You also have to suffer the same message over, and over, and OVER again.
If they're going to be cheesy wish fulfillment, can't they at least change the message, like "the woman discovering she's more than the relationship she's in".
Hunter Webster I definitely agree with your last part about the message. But tbf a LOT of movies portray an unrealistic/unhealthy view of whatever it is. Not saying just because they all do it, it’s okay. It just seems we take things involving love and romance more to heart, same with difficult subjects like depression and mental health, for example...so I guess in a way that’s a compliment to romance that it’s important and valuable enough (to the general population - always exceptions ofc) to be needed to be represented in a healthy way.
@@lurategh That is fair. Like, why is it necessary to be in a relationship to be happy? If they are really happy with who they are and what they do, why is it the "only thing missing" is to get married and have kids?
THAT one annoys me regardless of genre.
Also woman doesn't need that rich man when she's got herself worth and her career and a group of people that love her for who she is and not what she can provide
@@AnimeWolf5193 because it appeals to people who lack companionship. It's unfortunate that it shits on people who DON'T want romance, but the movies are supposed to be hopeful for people who want it and don't have it
@@chocotoasties2671 But it's not. It cements that they need that relationship to be happy, that it will make them happy. This is a very unfulfilling ideal.
Want to see one where the Prince realizes that his PA, who is also his best friend, is the man of his dreams. Merry Christmas.
That sounds fantastic!
The Hallmark Channel wants us thinking that there was some other, better Christmas we could return to - a Christmas when it was less about the presents and more about family, or goodwill toward men or whatever, but rarely about Jesus’s birth. For them, Christmas is a secular holiday with a religious component tacked on to it and this is what their audience seems to want.
As a professional African American female, I still fail see any more than simplistic token reflections of myself in what overwhelmingly remains to be devotedly white leading casts with occasional Black coworkers whose main purpose in life is to support the white leading characters.
I just don’t understand why writing, producing and casting more diverse presentations is such a great problem for Hallmark!
I’m old enough to remember Hallmark Hall of Fame Productions from decades ago that did a much better job at diversity. Adding “one” African American actress to your casting list does not equal diversity! And YES, there are plenty of minorities out there capable of working on those films in many capacities! The entertainment industry is full of minority professionals.
Heck, why is it so hard for Hallmark to embrace and commit to diversity?!
The Obamas were placed in the WHITE House for two terms, and yet this network still seems to cringe at the thought of producing more than one African American centered Christmas movie a year, if that!
And how could I forget to mention Meghan Markle, American BORN, British Royal family member, with an African American Mother!!!!
WAKE UP Hallmark!!!!!!
Even the MOST ELETE of European Royalty is more diverse than the Universe of the Hallmark Network!
In answer to the poster telling those of us asking for DIVERSITY to find our own networks!
This nation is currently being torn apart by the refusal to accept diversity, and as someone who pays the same amount for my cable bill as everyone else watching Hallmark, I have every right to expect as much representation as any other subscriber!
I wasn’t aware that subscribed network television worked on segregated terms.
It’s The Hallmark Channel, not White Entertainment Television. If they truly want to serve that purpose, then maybe they should consider taking on that title.
They cater to their viewers' demographics... aka middle-aged, socially conservative, white women. If Hallmark starts casting actors of other races, and white actors dip below 97% of the cast, then these women will start shouting "ANTI-WHITE RACISM" at the top of their lungs.
But be content in knowing that Hallmark is trash and their viewers are pretty classless.
Jnta it’s so white to
You want black shows and movies, watch BET. Problem solved.
It’s a conservative channel, be glad us blacks aren’t on that channel, the BET Christmas movies are bad enough.
I’m an African American woman as well, and I think it’s for the better that they DON’T try to tell our stories. Their supporters are majority (Anglo-Saxon) white Americans with conservative ideals and a very specific fantasy in mind.
I’m not in the market for a washed out movie with an African American woman just as the lead simply because. I want our culture and who we are to be represented as well, without shame. Something like the movie Coco - Mexican people were the lead and Mexican culture was the backdrop of the movie. It wasn’t just brown skin with a “no-controversy” backdrop. If Hallmark can’t do that, that’s fine.
If you’ve watched this, you’ve now seen every hallmark movie
No such thing as a Hallmark Halloween movie
There really SHOULD be, in a twist of the standard formula, about couples finding love on Halloween🎃🎆
but this genre should exclusively be about lgbt+ ppl finding love
That would be a much more unpredictable plotline what with costumes and monsters. If Hallmark wasn't as satisfied marketing on their "bread and butter" Christmas branding they could make more interesting movies just to test the potential of Halloween themed movies.
The Good Witch could be considered sort of a Halloween series ... even though it also leaks into Christmas through the plot, but yeah ... Halloween is the best and it needs more love.
You know, I thought when I was watching this; "Why isn't there a Halloween version of this phenomenon?" . Well, for two reasons; Halloween is not as popular or well-loved as Christmas(of course it has it's fans; I'm one of them), and I'm not sure Halloween itself lends itself to these kinds of movies. Although to be fair, Halloween isn't always about horror, or gore, or evil. There is plenty of fun, cute, and only slightly scary things about Halloween. Also, in the past, Halloween was associated with romance. It was seen as a time for matchmaking, and girls and young women would do divinations to find out their future husbands. So, after I thought about these aspects, the idea of Hallmark kind of movies centered around Halloween seemed a little more plausible.
It’s the same as most things. People like them because they’re like comfort food and we know there’ll be a happy ending (same with most movies, not just Hallmark), which is something we, as in the writers, can control when in real life there are many things out of our control. Pure escapism, and that’s often just what we need when we’re looking for movies, books, music etc. And tbf, most movies and books follow a certain formula. In some cases, it’s just way more obvious. Although there’s definitely a line between following a formula and rehashing the exact same storyline all the time.
I was born and lived my whole life in a warm country, where Christmas is in summer, when I moved to a country where winter is below freezing, and that winter can be quite depressing, I started to understand the hallmark movies' appeal. They give you comfort in an already stressful and depressing time.
Yeah, they are cozy movies, and though I live in the pine mountains of a subtropical country where the coldest it ever gets is 44 degrees, it inspires me to deck and garland my house to the gods! 3 Christmas trees!
I have to disagree with never being shamed for her job. If she works in the big city for a big company, she is consistently shamed. If she works in the small town for a small company, she is not. It’s rare that the woman is convincing the man to give up a high power career in the big city to live in the small town. It’s almost always vice versa from what I’ve seen
It would be nice if the guy was the one having the problems. And the girl is the crush.
@Crow it really does depend on the person. My best friends husband is in love with the holiday. And so is his brother. I on the other hand am not.
But I was speaking as a viewer of these movies that would like to see a break in the cliches. I think it would be popular with the women as well.
they have a kingdom to run, so they have their problems too ;)
Carmen Del Castillo I do agree but at the same time, like the vid said, one of the things these movies have going for them is that they’re usually female-centric, which we just do not see often unless they’re romance or family movies or whatever. I love romance but of course, I do sooo wish those weren’t the only genres that tend to center around women... If anything, Hallmark could at least play around more with the Christmas tropes so the stories aren’t always carbon copies of one another.
The guy has one big problem. "Who do I call my girlfriend? My betrothed, or this johnny-come-lately who seems so nice?"
The Take should do a video about " you know it's a Lifetime movie if"
Honestly I'm not pretending to have any standards for media I consume. Anyone have a favorite hallmark movie they can recommend?
A Gift Wrapped Christmas!
I love Hallmark movies. Here are a couple of suggestions. Christmas Next Door, Christmas Connection and A Christmas Detour. When you want to watch something that does not make you mad, scare you or make you feel bad about yourself. Just a relaxing 2 hours of escape.
Thank you guys for taking the time to reply! 💗💗
'The Christmas Cottage'. The couple has great chemistry and it held my attention all throughout. Oh, and the one they mention here 'The Christmas Shepherd' is actually great.
I like a December bride and Holiday Engagement - if you like the fake fiancé trope in these movies they are a must watch.
As a non-American... the Hallmark Chanel seems nauseating. The only Christmas movies one ever needs is Elf and Home Alone (1 & 2).
I've actually seen a worse romance film, and it was a British one made around World War II. The story features an RAF pilot trying to get back to Britain, and is guided by a female military staffer (whose demanor over the radio he seems charmed by). He is forced to bail out before reaching the airfield (he survives of course), and then a while later randomly meets her on a road. She's happy to see he made it, but then he turns on the charm and at the end of this ONE MEETING, they part with a huge kiss and begin dating (and the rest of the story mostly follows their romance). I literally started laughing at it. Perhaps the story was to raise morale, but no normal person falls in love THAT quickly, do they?
They're essentially the comfort food of movies
You know what would be a great idea? A Hallmark streaming service that lets the viewers pick the "type" of movie they want to watch.
The plot can still be "person A goes to hometown and falls in love with person B because.... CHRISTMAS!!!" but the two characters don't necessarily have to be a straight, white, binary, American, christian couple.
Even people of color, LGBTQ+, not-Americans, not-christians like to watch this type of movie every once in a while. They're trying so hard to appeal to a small group of conservative Americans that they forgot they could win over the rest of the population.
If Bethany doesn't want to watch two guys giving each other the tiniest kiss in front of a Christmas tree then she can choose to watch one of the other 3945944858789 movies that feature a white straight couple.
Fiore Fiore Hallmark isn’t even that Christian, cause if they were Christian they would talk about Jesus and stuff like that. They are just super conservative. Conservative doesn’t equal Christian.
Deborah Okere “Conservative doesn’t equal Christian.” Don’t tell conservative Christians that. They’ll cry persecution.
But did you ever consider that list of white, binary, straight etc IS their target audience?
There are plenty of movies out there that are inclusive. If hallmark want to appeal to those demographics and you're not into it then move on 🤷♀️
Its like complaining Disney movies don't tackle adult issues.... While being aimed at kids.
You're not the target audience.
penelope pittstop For someone who thinks people should be allowed to like what they want, you sure spend a lot of time defending these movies. This whole video is a critique, and you’re not changing any minds here. Just drop it and watch what you want.
@@melodyrichardson5051 yes defending them because people can watch what they like. Not everything has to be mainstream
Hallmark movies used to be good. There were movies that I watched and had no idea that they were Hallmark because the production quality was so much higher, the acting was better, and the plots were not so predictable and cheesy. Now all the movies are just so corny and predictable, someone from a big city visits a small town, falls in love, and decides to stay
They really did used to take chances on the kind of movies they made before they fell into a very specific formula. A lot of their early movies didn't specifically fall into the romance genre.
I am woman, I loathe these movies. Any new relationship or huge step like engagement during a major cultural nostalgic holiday/moment seems manipulative to me. I'm not bitter, I just prefer the reality of love, not idealized versions that can cause those less confident or stable to ene up being hurt by feeling completely alone or as if they need to force a relationship into the pretty box presented on screen for it to be "the real deal" & "special" etc.
I do not begrudge anyone who enjoys them, my mother watches them multiple times over every season now while doing xmas things at home, it is her favourite holiday of all so I am happy to see her enjoy the season her way.
We are very different though, so this is just my take(ha!), but I truly can't stand these movies.
I still say the only reason why people don't take these movies seriously because women watch them It is not worse than any stupid action movie guys typically enjoy.
Your comment reads like the opening of a Hallmark movie tho when we first meet our protagonist🤣🤣
@@lisah8438 totally agree. Something seems right about women watching hallmark and men watching die hard and both sexes indulging the other by watching one movie of the other genre
Hahahaha, I also LOVE Die Hard. That is my favourite xmas movie!
Lisa H I always say that about rom-coms too. It’s fair if the movie is just plain bad but a lot of people like to mock the genre for being cliche and unrealistic (and *cough* too girly *cough*). It’s like my dude, and you think all those action films out there are an accurate representation of reality?? 🤣 And I say this as someone who loves both genres. Kinda sad how it’s no big deal for women to enjoy all sorts of movies but some men might feel constricted in what they can enjoy. And this obviously applies to many things beyond film and entertainment...
"After the apocalypse a stressed out zombie woman finds herself missing christmas. She makes it her mission to restore the holiday cheer human kind once took part in"
A lot of 90s stars who cant land actual stable acting Jobs
Being the lead in a made for tv movie is a stable acting job.
Im Sure it does pay some Bills..... Besides: Everyone is complaining but still watching.....
thank you for this informative video. It has always baffled me why these movies are so popular. My main problem with the hallmark christmas movies is that it doesn't understand what it takes to make a very interesting christmas story. One of the best christmas movies i know don't really revolve around christmas, instead the christmas season is the backdrop for a separate and interesting story. You can see that clearly in movies such as it's a wonderful life or love actually. And those hallmark movies really lack that interesting element of it. Also they're super chaste and it's just so obvious and i dont like it at all
Oh they're brutal. Mind-numbingly dumb, as are their fans.
Which interesting movie are you referring to?
"Beloved actors we grew up with" shows lorie loughlin. Yikes
Ray Palmer starred in a Hallmark movie involving cats ? I'm definitely watching that.
Please do character studies for the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and Mean Girls!!!
They did it for Regina George
Jadzia Wynter how many times are you going to ask for this
@@evivandersalm1788 Honestly, the character development on the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina has been pretty bad. It's all shallow. It's not really trying to be that kind of show, anyway. It's a plot-based soap opera like Riverdale that fits the characters into their plots as opposed to having their plots fit their characters.
jeremyud I would respectively disagree with you on that but everyone has their opinion
"The woman isnt judged for her career OR love choices" Now admittedly I havent watched a hallmark movie in a few years due to not having cable but from what I remember she was judged the whole movie for choosing career until a mom, sister, bff, santa, co worker, barista, guy on a plane, guy on plan who turns out to be santa, etc. Finally convinced her to give up the high powered job for a relationship. Or turn down the position to save the relationship. Or convinced her to quit her job to move someplace for a relationship. Etc. While it's rare for another character to outright, aggressively say it, the whole movie itself is a judgment that ends pushing the female character away from her job to the relationship. That being said, I do enjoy a cheesy xmas rom com every now and then. But let's be honest.
I will not rest until there is a Hallmark Hanukkah movie
I think there was one about a Jewish guy learning how to celebrate Christmas.
@@jeremyud lol that doesn't count
Check out Hallmark's "Double Holiday."
@@janibii_608 Also that movie where the boyfriend learns about Christmas doesn't even really count cause the family starts celebrating both Hannukah and Christmas about halfway through.
There are over 200 film adaptions of A Christmas Carol.
Please do Community character breakdowns. I think they would work really well considering all of the work put into making their characters seem real as well as the way they fit into a group dynamic
Honestly, the reason why I love Good Witch is because it’s low stakes drama and pure fluff. And sometimes that’s all I want!!!!
I have tried watching these and find myself actually getting dumber and have to turn them off about 20 minutes in ... at least Netflix has been bringing more diversity into its rom coms with South Asian and Asian actresses. The plots are still dumb but at least POCs are getting work!
Oh look, another white person trying to be ‘woke’ and ‘inclusive’... why don’t you worry about your own race and others will worry about theirs, ok?
Lumosnight Why don’t you mind your own business, snowflake?
I still say the only reason why people don't take these movies seriously because women watch them It is not worse than any stupid action movie guys typically enjoy.
Lindsey Ellis analyzes this in her video Dear Stephanie Meyer, it’s a pretty good video and I recommend
Why is Gretchen Weiners in the most cliche films possible after starring in Mean Girls, a cult classic? She even starred on Christian Mingle.
“women’s experiences are consistently centred and honoured” - did you mean “straight, white women’s experiences are consistently centred and honoured”?
To those that pass this way… wishing you peace , love, and find joy in each and every day. Happy Xmas to be xxx
My ex and I came up with a title for a Hallmark Christmas movie "A man for Christmas "
As an older woman, I am waiting for a Hallmark "Train to Busan" or "Christmas Krampus" to be made. Seriously Hallmark, get with the program!
I can't tell if everything in this video is a joke or none of that is, and I love it.
SOOOO many of these movies are filmed in my city
which city?
Vancouver?
I like many of the actresses that play in these movies but the lack of diversity of black women & non white women makes it harder to keep supporting these movies. It's about to be 2020 the world is diverse.
Because the black community makes its own movies and they also dont include white people in it.
Is that Gretchen Weiners? Lol
I feel like I'm watching a How It's Made video. Nice.
Should have called it "the hallmarks of the hallmark Christmas movie"
My mom hates these movies, which is weird cause she's the kind of person who you'd think would like them.
On the downside, they are saccharine, formulaic, WASP-y hetero-normative wish fulfillment for middle class women that doesn't really take any risks and avoids taking a stand. On the upside, they treat women's experiences as meaningful, you also didn't mention that they have been noted to treat their actors very well on set.
Not my thing, but I can see why some people are into it.
I’ve always wondered where the other girl from Mean Girls ended up...
Gretchen is making “fetch” happen. 😂
Since Hallmark has gained such a large conservative audience, I don’t really blame them for pulling out the lgbtq+ commercial because most of their audience would probably stop watching and the channel would die (kind of like how Disney hasn’t had any lgbtq+ leads). However, I think that the Hallmark channel would be a perfect platform to help normalize the lgbtq+ community since it’s so wholesome and traditional. Maybe they will be able to do so in the future
(kind of like how Disney hasn’t had any lgbtq+ leads) This quote is barely true. The have LGBT characters now. Not as the main character but Andi Mack and the new high school musical series. They have gay character with a big back story. I mean one character danced with his crush and one character came out of the closet more than once and fell in love with a guy.
This year my mom, my sister, and I made Christmas cookies. I made a gingerbread man and named him Mr. Hallmark, yes, after these movies. He's that business boyfriend who gets dumped for small town boy who has a Christmas spirit.
I can't tell if she's being sarcastic or not 😂😂
It couldn't possibly be the case that the primary reason why people condescend to something is because it is primarily popular among women, could it? No, surely not. I mean, it's not as if superhero movies are all exactly the same, is it?
I am Italian and these movies flood a few channels here, and are not at all as popular as they seem to be in America.
In fact, they're usually watched with rolled eyes and are aired during daytime, where only elderly people or bored kids might watch them.
Its interesting to see how these pests originate.
I'm Canadian and loathe these sorts of movies. They make us dumber and promote traditionalism as being better than individuality. Poor messaging to the female viewers.
Like seriously, I loathe them.
Same in Portugal, they're sooo boring
They get shown on Channel Five in the afternoons from November 6th to Christmas. Because that's the slot for the psychological thrillers the rest of the year where the divorced mother hires a psycho nanny or meets a new man who turns out to be a killer.
tbh i would love a self-aware hallmark movie
I want to see a movie that starts out like this then turns into the most depraved gory slasher film ever made.
Audition is a Japanese movie kind of like what you're describing. It's not a Christmas movie though. It starts out a bit like a fun romantic comedy and goes very, very dark.
what's really surprising is all the dads in my life that love these movies. my dad, my friends dads, and my friends who are dads..... how did these men come into my life?
I feel like Hallmark is a safety net for actors and actresses, because all the lead actors are people who i've seen in only ONE movie or tv show that later gets cancelled, then they disappear then BOOM I find them in a hallmark movie. If an actor does't get hired they go to hallmark.
It's honestly fitting that Candace Cameron-Bure, Jodie Sweetin, and Lori Loughlin have found steady work being in Hallmark movies because Full House and Fuller House were essentially Hallmark movies disguised as a cheesy family sitcom. Fuller House especially leans heavily into that.
Not that I've been spending my Christmas week binge-watching Fuller House or anything... oh, come on, tell me your heart doesn't feel full (heh) seeing DJ and Steve get together or Max and Rose's super cringey and unrealistic yet sweet childhood love! I never said I had sophisticated taste in television. My life is sad and this brings me happiness. 😂
Do one on Disney Channel movies and Lifetime movies.
My grandfather loves this movies, during Christmas he watched 3 of these movies every day
LOL! Love the low-key cattiness with the narration in this video at 6:20. Gretchen of "that's so fetch!" fame has clearly shown off her acting range, all right: upper-middle-class white woman #1 in a village, upper-middle-class white woman #2 in a suburb, upper-middle-class white woman #3 in a city, upper-middle-class white woman #4 in a town. That acting range is truly remarkable! Give her an Oscar! LOL!
I kind of wonder why they had this pristine and affluent vision of Christmas featuring mostly white folk it would be nice if they had a movie about disabled folk celebrating Christmas or las posadas in the hood or a chosen family celebrating Christmas where its dry and muddy but they pretty much celebrate each other And it doesn't matter of the end up having sandwiches for their Christmas feast because They have one another and they're celebrating one of their owns getting promoted in their gas station.
Maybe they can do different holidays like may be an African American Family trying to get through a snowy road in time for watch night at church or a film adaptation of Gary Soto's "Too Many Tamales" or Our Jewish hot family bringing the spirit of Hanukkah to a homeless shelter or even a bunch of people who padda really crabby year and things aren't necessarily working out the way they want by Christmas but they all glory in the company of each other and over progress that have been made.
If only. But so much of the demographic these are aimed at unconsciously add to their holiday escapism an element of escaping from the “wrong” people and from facing reality in society. Recent voting trends and polls show this so clearly.
@@StamfordBridge The sad thing is I know many minorities like my own family actually watch and love these movies and it would be nice if weak sauce and that reflected our experiences too. We should really support people in entertainment trying to put out diverse images even mediocre ones
I love the idea of a holiday movie not centering on romantic love or Christmas, but instead on love for the family or those who are less fortunate than us.🎄🎁
Totally like love for our fellow human beings love for a parent's love for everything we've accomplished even if it doesn't seem impressive
Jessica Victoria Carrillo Absolutely! And to be clear I was in no way criticizing the notion of sentimental holiday fare; I was criticizing the demographic that these movies are usually aimed at, and what they’ve morphed into especially in the last three years.
Of course I support your main point about diversifying movies like these - it would be good not only for underrepresented people to see themselves in wholesome fare, but it would also be good for overrepresented groups to see it and get used to it.
This felt quite complimentary of the Hallmark movies rather than a critique
There's a market for LGBT Holiday movies, for example: if you look into m/m romance fiction there are TONS of Christmas themed ones with yuletide related themes and romantic life-affirming plotlines that feel like they could work as movies. People want there to be optimistic, happy movies with LGBT characters as main characters (where they don't die or have depressing tragic lives). Not only that, but m/m romance is something that's enjoyed by more than just gay men since women especially enjoy reading about two guys falling in love. In fact, women make up the majority of the readers in the genre. Hallmark Channel has women as the target audience, so going for that kind of film would be really smart and people would watch it. Even just trying it to test the waters with ONE movie like that would blow their mind with how successful it could be.
Literally just taking a short break from the mm romance book I'm reading to watch RUclips. And couldn't agree with you more. I would so LOVE a mm romance sort of movie- something fun and optimistic.... oh, and I'm a woman. Now I must get back to my book, but before I do I wanna recommend a nice Christmassy mm romance book "better not pout" by Annabeth Albert.
@@h.s.l6875 No joke, "Better Not Pout" is one I have on audiobook to listen to right after I finish the audiobook I'm currently only a few chapters from finishing now. (For my own recommendation, I'd say Eli Easton's "Merry Christmas, Mr. Miggles" was a sweet, cheery Hallmark style story and Leta Blake's "Mr. Frosty Pants" was one I found very down-to-earth and romantic and it's holiday themes balanced out the angst in a perfect way) I'm happy I found out about these kinds of books cause I'm a gay guy and grew up with mostly really depressing movies to watch if I wanted gay main characters with depth (I love Brokeback Mountain to death, but it breaks my heart everytime and I never really came across many LGBT movies with Happily Ever After endings). If I had media with what I find currently with m/m books available when I was a teen, I'm positive that I wouldn't have felt so pessimistic about life back then.
I personally noticed that you can spot a hallmark movie not only by the same plot but also by bad scenography. The interiors always lack props. Good example is hallmark movie about a Christmas decorator with her decorations being hanging few red bows in an empty apartment(you can watch that movie on RUclips). There are few good hallmark movies but what about the rest of them? I feel they are made to numb ourselves so we can go back to office job we hate and not think about the system we actually live in. Numbing yourself shouldn't be a norm. Living should be a norm.
Honestly, I don't see any different between these movies and the superhero genre or stupid action movies. They all offer us a form of aspirational escapism. I suspect that the the reason Hallmark movies get more criticism is because they are primarily targeted toward women. And female centric interests are often seen with more disdain. Superhero and action movies, while do have their share of criticism, don't get skewered nearly as much. I don't like the Hallmark Christmas movies myself. But I can understand why others might and I try not to judge.
Ghoulish Bunny Studios 💯
I love, and I mean *love* my Marvel films, and they do get their fair share of hate, but the superhero and more broadly the action genre doesn’t get nearly as lambasted.
As someone who isn't north american but saw these wallmark movies (even if I only learned what a Hallmark was at sixteen) from time to time during Christmas season, I always thought they were so basic. I couldn't even remember who the character were the next morning.
So yeah, forgettable at best and patronizing at worst (for the longest time I though God is not Dead was one of those, and even at seven I thought it was stupid... that's how bad that movie is. Even a child picks up on the idiocy.).
I'm not mad at Hallmark. The funny thing is, Hallmark movies should be right up my alley: happy endings, romance, good nature, but for some reason they aren't for me :( Maybe that's why I watch a lot of Bollywood movies, same things mentioned above, but not so saccharin I guess (and with more brown people).
which would you recommend ?:) I have watched devdas and bajirao mastani!
@Tangential_Tangine Yeah, I hear you...but they are still brown people...
@@aleksandra_______ If you want sappy, drippy romance I recommend Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehena. But some of my favorites are Salaam Namaste, Jodha Aakbar, Chalte Chalte, and Kabhi Kushi Kabhi Gham.
@@allinone-qz2gi thank you :)
So?? Did I just sit through 14 min Hallmark ad??
I am from India and I have watched each movie during Christmas here, honestly I love these movies 😅😅 it's like cake ,u need some once in a while
Hallmark in a whole is magical 😍😍😍
I feel so smart watching your videos
What was the title of the film about the friend romance with adorable cats? Please...
@TK Wallace it IS this one indeed!!
Ah it’s finally happening, glad you all could tackle something overdue since the creation of Hallmark channel.