Does the annual haul of new Christmas TV movies always have to be horrible?

The Daily Beast

"We have allowed these atrocious Hallmark, Lifetime, and Netflix movies to have an unprecedented chokehold on our culture," says Kevin Fallon. "It’s gotten out of control. I’m done resisting." According to EW, 146 brand-new Christmas movies have been scheduled for this holiday season. "As in new. Not yet seen," says Fallon. "One hundred and forty-six movies were made for ephemeral holiday release, to be viewed while you drink eggnog and fart under your living room quilt, drifting in and out of sleep on a Sunday afternoon. That is preposterous to me—and yet, finally, unignorable. With a grimace on my face and my finest Scrooge top hat on, I swan-dived into the avalanche of content. When pop culture like this is such a behemoth, it does become an intriguing test case for where we are as a society and how we’re changing. (That I am assigning that significance to a Lifetime movie starring Haylie Duff should bring none of us joy.) It was barely a few years ago when this assault of Christmas movies from Hallmark and Lifetime featured such a lack of diversity that watching them came with the risk of snow blindness affliction. In some ways, it is remarkable to see the larger conversation we’ve had about inclusivity in storytelling in Hollywood make tangible, observable progress in this genre of entertainment. A scan of this year’s lineup—if you have the hours in your day to read through it all—reveals impressive diversity, whether it’s race, disability, sexuality, or even religion. This year, there are Hanukkah love stories, too. And what is progress, truly, if not seeing yourself reflected in horrendous holiday movies on Hallmark? I don’t want that snark to minimize the significance of this, though. This is such an influential and important cottage industry of entertainment—though so large now it might be more apt to call it a mansion industry—that there’s been backlash to that inclusivity and that progress. This fall, the channel GAC Family was launched as a haven for those who think—get this—Hallmark has gotten too edgy and lost its wholesomeness. Hallmark! It was started by the former chief executive of Crown Media, Hallmark’s parent company, who was in charge in 2019 when, under pressure from conservative groups, the network pulled ads from Zola that featured a same-sex couple. It is truly a testament to how ridiculous and extreme the culture wars have become that GAC Family even exists. (Would you believe that Lori Loughlin is one of the network’s inaugural stars?) But that anyone can take this genre so seriously definitely begs some critical exploration. It would be a lie to say that I even made a dent in those 146 new movies. But I did watch a bunch. They are still not good! Not good at all!"