Tuesday, February 10, 2009

The Lifetime Movie Network is my friend.

"Homeless to Harvard"
"Half a Dozen Babies"
"Why I Wore Lipstick to my Mastectomy"
"Family Sins"
"No Brother of Mine"
"Try to Remember"

I can't help it. Their gooey cheesiness sucks me in and...and... I find myself riveted; GLUED to the screen; slack-jawed as a homeless girl gives an impassioned speech to get herself in to Harvard or, as Tori Spelling attempts to play a sweet girl haunted by a robbery or, as young woman gives birth to what she thought would be 5 babies, but turns out to be 6 because the 6th is hiding and no one noticed till the moment of birth or...or...a female detective trying to trust her instincts in the face of her grandmother's killer.

Yes. I am admitting it here. I love the sticky, sappy, feta- cheese- stinkiness, of the Life Time Movie Channel. Part of of me likes to revel in how corny the movies are. But, there is a big part of me that likes to see LMN rise to the challenge of fulfilling the stereotype that they have succumb to: that they are a channel that appeals to the emotions of women.

Don't you just picture a woman going through a bad break up or menopause or a rough day at work watching Lifetime movies from her bed while clutching a pint of Ben and Jerry's and crying?
What is the appeal? Its all in the relationship baby. Women like watching relationships, yes, this is true but, more importantly for the LMN, its the relationship women form while watching another woman struggle through her journey. This 2 hour relationship we share with this character and her problems allow us to either examine our own struggles and celebrate the fact that we aren't being stalked by our best friend's dad, or to forget them for a while as we laugh at 'C list' actors attempt to act through convoluted plots and emotional torment.

6 comments:

Jamie Hamilton said...

You are so funny! I had never examined LMN that closely but I think you hit the nail on the head :)

Lexi said...

Lifetime is hit or miss with me- sometimes they only show really scary things that happen to people {like stalkers, rapists, addiction to drugs, bullying, adultery, murder, etc, etc,etc}.

I don't mind the happy lovey dovey ones occasionally even with all of the bad cheesy over-acting but I can't always watch the other ones because they make me paranoid! I know- I'm a goober! :-)

Lexi said...

I think it's the 'Based on a True Story' that freaks me out. Give me fiction any day- but the minute it's TRUE then I start to worry that it will happen to me too. I think that's what it is!

The Awesome Rawsons said...

Lexi, I totally agree! I can watch scary monsters and be cool with that, but if there's a bad PERSON doing things that could actually be DONE in reality, that freaks me out too.

Kristi said...

Haaaaaaaaa! I have seen No Brother of Mine. Isn't there one with Ricky Lake with a similar name too? The best were the old "Face on the Milk Carton" series... do you remember those? They were on lifetime when I used to babysit in the summers after the kiddies were gone to bed. Yikes.

Holly said...

I haven't checked out any lifetime movies lately. I might just have to check one out. I'm with you and Lexi though, no true story ones. Those scare me, too. Okay, so most scary fiction scares me, too. I'm a super scaredy cat. I'll take the cheesy ones please.