This multinational, multidisciplinary collection of essays focuses on Hallmark Channel movies and Hallmark’s position in the changing North American media landscape.
This book covers the ‘Countdown to Christmas’ offerings, year-round productions, made-for-TV mysteries and romances, Hallmark’s use of specific filming locations, and its relationship to viewer desires. Chapters examine Hallmark’s position in a changing sociopolitical context and the tensions the company must navigate in creating more “progressive” content; they discuss issues of gender, race, sexuality, and place, as well as analyzing the extensive ranges and reactions of social media participants and interrogating the nature of Hallmark’s popularity.
Suitable for scholars and students of film and tv and popular culture studies, this is a multifaceted look at both Hallmark and its viewers at a particular moment of Hallmark’s market dominance.
1. Introduction 2. Aunt Becky Brings Back the ‘80s: Lori Loughlin and ‘80s Nostalgia in Hallmark Christmas Movies 3. Back to the Family: Time Travel, Nostalgic Casting and the New Social Conservatism of Hallmark Christmas Movies 4. A Christmas to Remember: Nostalgic Constructions of the “Ideal” Christmas in Hallmark’s Holiday Line-Up 5. Back to the Future of Post-feminist Film: Hallmark, Netflix, and the “New” Woman’s Holiday Film 6. Holding Hands and Singing “Silent Night”: Applying Heteronormativity to Queerness in Hallmark’s Christmas Movies 7. “It’s the Extras That Have to Be Thrown In at Hallmark Nowadays”: The Conservative Backlash to Hallmark’s Efforts at Queer Inclusivity 8. “Better Off Dead”: The Prevalence of Widowhood in Hallmark Lone Parenting Narratives 9. Countdown from Cliché: Advancing Jewish Stereotypes in Hallmark Hanukkah Movies10. A Very Merry Hanukkah: Secular Tensions and Christian Hegemony in Hallmark’s “Countdown to Christmas” 11. Gaslighting Love: A Feminist Walking Tour Through a Hallmark Hotspot 12. Living, Loving, and Dying in Hallmark, U.S.A.: An Examination of Place and Space 13. Hallmark’s Investigative Women 14. “Love them, ironically or unironically”: Hallmark Movies Discussed on Reddit 15. “It’s a fun escape from reality”: Why Viewers Watch Hallmark Romance Movies 16. “Am I done getting any enjoyment out of these movies?”: Escapism and the Hallmark Holiday Movie Formula
Carlen Lavigne, Ph.D., is Head of Communications Studies at Red Deer Polytechnic in Alberta, Canada. She is the author of Post-Apocalyptic Patriarchy: American Television and Gendered Visions of Survival (McFarland, 2018), and Cyberpunk Women, Feminism and Science Fiction (McFarland, 2013). She is also the editor of Remake Television (Lexington, 2014) and the co-editor of American Remakes of British Television (Lexington, 2011).
