TikTok has recently been going in on the Hallmark Channel and all of it’s infamous Christmas movies. The main critique is that of the repetitive plots and tropes. Often times in these movies we see one of two things; big time CEO comes back to their hometown to find the true meaning of the holidays or high school rivals work together during the holidays to overcome either some sort of tragedy or some sort of roadblock.
Another reason for the hate comes from the quality of the acting that we see in these movies. Hallmark doesn’t necessarily have the budget for A and B listers, but occasionally there will be a C list name thrown in there that we might recall from that one movie 5 years ago. This often leads to a lot of cringe-worthy lines, kisses, and interactions among the characters in these movies.
But how does this translate to these movies being bad? Is there not a sense of comfort that comes with the possibility of being able to predict the plot? In my opinion, guessing whether or not the NYC entrepreneur is going to stay in her quaint small town to run an Inn with her estranged high school cutie or return to the big city to finish her project proposal is half the fun of watching the movie in the first place. The other half of the fun of these movies is the typically tpoor acting skills. Poking fun at the generically named actors and actresses along with their plainly named characters almost makes me miss them once the movie is over.
I personally like watching the cheesy movies, maybe because I wish it was me in the story line. Admit it, we have all dreamt of a whirlwind romance or to have a trope-filled love story. Not to mention having one in an adorable, winterly decked-out small town with it’s very own Santa Clause.
I think we should embrace the tackiness and cringey-ness and appreciate my personal reason for the season; Hallmark Movies.