More often than not, the plots are a variation of "woman in the big city gives up her job, leaves her (admittedly bougie and shitty) boyfriend, and moves back to the small town she grew up in where she hooks up with her old boyfriend who, in spite of his working class salt-of-the-earth appearance, has money."
mom says it's my turn to post the relevant pod episode in the next thread
I’m no Hallmark apologist, but there is actually a lot to be said for the common theme of “downshifting” by leaving an unbalanced career to a more sustainable, less materialistic life.
That's called chilling the fuck out while being rich enough to afford it.
It’s palingenetic wish fulfillment, or in other words, fascist porn: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palingenesis#Politics_and_history
I don't think fascists have the monopoly on enjoying the concept of rebirth, in fairness.
I don't think that's less materialistic. If "downshifting" works out, it's because they went from doing something idealistic -- what they think they ought to be doing -- to a lifestyle that actually meets their material needs, healthy relationships, belonging to something worthwhile, minimizing stress. Capitalist ideology encourages us to be hyperindividualist strivers and then people get burnt out from stress and the ultimate emptiness and alienation of it.
absolutely. the emphasis on the "small town" (usually disgusting american suburb) being better than the big bad city is a big part of american chud ideology. sorry city slicker, REAL culture can only be found in america's (often white) suburban small towns!
I've been told they're fascist before but I'm not fully convinced by it. They look more like replacements for old MGM films like the Andy Hardy series that did the exact same thing with their narrative and worn-out "life lessons". I just find them to be bland products that pander to a small-town demographic and Christians for their sanitized messages.
At the same time, Hallmark films would probably be very popular in my country if you just made everyone brown but kept it all the same. It's kind of nice to see rural life viewed in a positive way and not depicting us as miserable mouth-breathers who live in the perpetual dark ages.
To be honest, I've seen too many Hallmark films because Lacey Chabert is in a lot of them and she's been my celebrity crush and crossdressing inspiration since Mean Girls lol
It's fas ist in the same way paw patrol is.
Sure, probably if you want to make that argument but the target audience is people with baby brains and if they ever started actually acting on the messaging you could just shake some keys in front of their face.
Titanic did it on a boat. "Rich girl discovers culture by hanging out with the poors."
