Lifetime, LMN, and Hallmark

[Wales2004]

LMN has turned into the killer documentary station. Does that mean this holiday season will be filled with stories of how I killed my BFF over Thanksgiving dinner, kids who kill when they don't get the Christmas present they wanted, and celebrity's ghostly pumpkin pie stories?

Or maybe Lifetime will premiere Killed at 17 by my BFF's Favorite Celeb's Uncle's GF's Ghost on the Night Before Christmas Eve After Watching The New Bonnie and Clyde.

[chicklitsandfantasies]

Yeah the stories about murder have been excessive this year. LMN is trying too hard to be Chiller with their horror story wannabe thriller movies.

I'm surprised by how out of place A Country Christmas story felt on the channel. It felt more Hallmark or UpTV than Lifetime. The acting was surprisingly solid, the singing was good and they had they touched on religion without bashing people over the head with it. All in all it was a cute movie for the whole family that actually used the fact that the lead was African American competing in a mostly white genre to further the story and teach a little history instead of just skirting around it. Not a bad way for Lifetime to kick off the holiday season especially since last year their movies were not great.

[Wales2004]

Maybe UP but I can't imagine this on Hallmark.

I missed a little bit of it so I didn't get to see what prompted the teacher to give her the history of black singers and country music. I assume that she was hesitant about entering the contest because of race. My only issue with his history lesson was throwing in the instruments as though that was an integral part of said history. I would have found it relevant if he said a black American produced those instruments not that they came from Africa. I imagine that some of the instruments used in R&B music were produced on non-African continents so that must make them an integral part of R&B's history as well.

They basically made race an integral part of the movie by making it about what others would have to say and not the main characters. It was like "see we brought up what y'all were thinking...pat on the back for us." Would the mother have scoffed at the idea of a "biracial" girl playing country music if she looked white? No, and that wouldn't have been a movie with a need to mention race as it pertains to country music. So it would have been a more honest moment had the mother said what they were having her imply....black. The girl's response addressed what the mother was apparently being too politically correct to say. And so everyone accepted the mother marrying a black man but a black looking girl in a country music contest is a problem. I could care less about race being brought up but if you're going to do it then don't make it significant only to tiptoe around it. The only other thing on that front was how they had the girl refer to herself as biracial and half-black and half-white, and the guy in the bar call her a black girl and they remained consistent with their use of black as a racial reference until they decided to have Dolly Parton go pc and call her an "African-American" girl.

I think Brian McKnight was miscast as her father. There wasn't an ounce of chemistry with Megyn Price. But I guess it wasn't that big of a deal. The contest result worked but the ending would have been better without the quick fix. It didn't feel like much of a Christmas or even holiday movie.

I liked Hallmark's The Thanksgiving House. This is the best job that I've seen Justin Breuning do in one of these movies. I still like Class despite the stiff acting by him and Jodi Lyn O'Keefe. Emily Rose was good and Lindsay Wagner and Bruce Boxleitner were perfect. Andy Kaufman's Boston accent seemed a little OTT but the movie was Hallmark good.

[chicklitsandfantasies]

I don't have anything against WWE Studios films. I did watch one a few moths back on Netflix called The Chaperone that wasn't that bad actually. There were some over the top ridiculous parts in that movie but it was watchable without being cringe worthy.

I have no problem with the attempt to do something from the typical Christmas movie but this just didn't fit the bill. Damn near everyone was trying their hardest to play the biggest Jersey caricature.

However Christmas Bounty was terrible. I know I wasn't the only one confused about the status of Mannuci. They kept saying he got out of prison so I thought he was let out for good behavior. It wasn't until damn near the end of the movie that I realized he escaped from jail.

And the ending was so predictable and lame.

I know for tv movies you have to suspend belief but no way did Francia Raisa's Tori look related to the mother, father, or brother.

[Mathewson]

Me too! A lot of 90s movies LMN needs to show that they haven't shown in way too long - A Promise to Keep, Dare to Love, The Other Woman, Sweet Temptation, Close to Danger, Outrage, In My Sister's Shadow, The Test of Love, and many others!

The only lighthearted classic movie they've shown lately was "When Andrew Came Home" which was last week. And even that's only once every four months while all the same "true story" murder movies are shown every month or every month (often twice or three times in the same month!)

I Wanna Marry Ryan Banks sucked. Too bad Bradley Cooper had to be second fiddle to Jason Priestly there.

[chicklitsandfantasies]

Christmas in the City was so dull and half the time I couldn't figure out if they wanted us to believe the city was New York or if it really was set in Los Angeles(and not just filmed there). Ashanti as the black baddie was one dimensional as was the token coworker. The random singing was odd. Ashley Williams was also way too perky in this movie. And I kept wondering why that department store has no security cameras. How nice the production company also did some plugging for their other Chritsmas movie Holiday Highschool reunion. Also the same male actor in both.

[Mathewson]

Does anyone know how we can request Lifetime and/or LMN to air certain movies again?! They used to have a movies request section and it hasn't been on there in awhile! There are many movies I want Lifetime or LMN to air again that haven't been on in years.

[chicklitsandfantasies]

I also miss Pick a Flick Friday. They need a request section on their site badly.

[Wales2004]

LMN needs to change its name because movies stopped being the main focus of that network when they got into ghost stories and killer kids. Now it's all kinds of shows with movies thrown in. It would have been nice had they at least kept the weekends for just movies but Sunday is it and maybe Wednesdays.

I don't know what the people in charge of programming are thinking and I don't know how well this pays off for them but it's more like the channel one switches to for a heavy dose of depression and paranoia.

At least for now they seem to be allowing open online viewing of some of their movies. I know at one point you were restricted if you did not have cable service from specific providers.