For some people Hallmark movies are a way of life. Hallmarkies, fans of Hallmark movies, live tweet the newest Hallmark romances every Saturday night, and Sluthers, Hallmark Movies and Mysteries watchers, can be found tweeting the latest mystery movie on Sundays.
These people, like myself, watch new movies year round not just during Christmas and if you aren’t a year-round watching, then you really should be.
Hallmark movies are happy, going in you know how they are going to end. The couple is going to work out their problems and kiss as the movie fades to black. They follow a basic formula, couple meets, there is a misunderstanding that leads to them breaking up, and then they get back together at the end of the movie to live happily-ever-after. The tropes are interchangable, enemies forced to work together, childhood friends that lost touch, a couple finding their way back together, it doesn’t matter the movies are familiar.
The mystery series are the same, someone is found dead, the characters, who most of the time have no business investigating murders, insert themselves into an investigation, and then the crime is solved, usually with a little romance thrown in.
To me Hallmark movies present the ultimate escape, you never have to wonder what is going to happen in them. The bad guys get caught, the couple works out their problems in the end, and nothing truly bad happens to them.
Everything is wrapped up in a very neat bow. It’s a fairytale. It’s also a relief.
To quote The Good Place, “The Earth’s a mess y’all.” There is so much to be worried and stressed about and sometimes you just have to tune it out. Hallmark movies allow you can take comfort in the familiar.
Hallmark movies aren’t perfect though. The predominantly white, straight movies, that should really work towards being more diverse. In the past couple of years they have made movies starring POC, and this past year they even added two movies incorporating Hannuak into their Christmas celebrations. Even so there is much more work to be done and with a slate of movies this year celebrating every season, hopefully more strides will be made. Especially considering how much we raged about some of their decisions in the past.
If Hallmark movies are comfort food then shouldn’t everyone see themselves reflected on the screen? Last year there was a new Hallmark romance movie almost every Saturday, in fact I can only remember one weekend that didn’t have a new release and out of all those movies I can only remember five tops that had people of color as the main couple. No LGBTQ+ couples whatsoever.
With Bill Abbott, the former President and CEO of Crown Media Family Networks, the parent company for Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, stepping down from his position after 11 years made, we can only hope new blood will lead to a more diverse line-up of movies. We want to believe that. We want to feel like we can keep supporting Hallmark, after all.
To see a full list of Hallmark movies you can find my Letterbox list here. I update the list monthly with all of the new premieres.
If you want to stay up-to-date with showtimes and recent premieres then you should download the Hallmark Movie Checklist App (android and ios)
