My wife is a fairly avid watcher of movies on Lifetime. In an effort to extend our time spent together (a precious thing with 2 small kids and a third on the way), I will sometimes watch them with her. But I don’t get why any woman would like to watch these. There are three basic plot lines:
Woman is raped by a stranger, has to deal with it. About 50% of the time encounters rapist later.
Mother has her children taken from her by kidnappers/divorced father/clueless Childrens Services office that misfiled an abuse report. Spend next 2 hours working to get them back.
Woman is physically and/or mentally abused by husband or boyfriend.
I’d guess 80% of their movies include at least 1 of these plotlines, some combine 2 of them. True, most of these wind up with some kind of triumphant resolution, but they are horrible to watch in the meantime. I’ve asked my wife to tell me why she likes these movies, but she can’t; her response boils down to “I just like them”. I find them horribly depressing and I can’t even relate to them directly - I’d think they’d be much worse for a woman.
So can anyone out there explain why the Lifetime network seems to have made a success of showing movies depicting horrible things happening to members of their target audience?
To be perfectly honest, I really don’t know why I enjoy watching Lifetime. Sometimes the movies are good, sometimes they are boring. However, they also have some pretty good shows, like Strong Medicine, Wildcard, and 1-800-Missing. If I don’t want to watch one of those movies that has stupid body humor and/or everyone shooting everyone else, that’s normally a pretty good channel to go to.
Not all women watch Lifetime. I think maybe asking what age range a poster falls into may make a difference in this poll. IMHO. I am 33 and I have not watched a movie, or any show for that matter, on the Lifetime network (except the brief amount of time that doesn’t count when surfing past it). My mother, is 53…she’s watched MANY movies on Lifetime. She would probably also state, as a previous poster, that it was because of lack of something “decent” to watch elsewhere on t.v. these days.
I think skimming past a channel and seeing that it’s a movie with characters such as Nancy McKeon, Meredith Baxter Burney (sp?), Valerie Bertinelli, Markey Post, or the like…pretty much guarantees it will be a suckfest. (Or, more PC and less a sweeping generalization, not something I’d prefer to spend time watching.)
Your right. My mum watches the Hallmark Channel. That means I watch the Hallmark Channel. Help me!
To add to your list, not all of those type of movies are about violence:
Woman discovers she has cancer. Has X amount of time to reconcile with mother/daughter/best friend. Discovers goodness in life.
Woman discovers her child has cancer. Goes out to find a cure, whilst comforting her child and rebuilding her fragile marriage and recompense the other alienated, normally older, child.
either:
i) Child recovers thanks to the kindness of the community and it’s happy families.
or
ii) Child dies which brings the family closer. A miracle occurs and all of a sudden the mother is expecting.
Sound familiar, anyone?
I’ll be watching this thread, since this is a question I’ve often had myself…
…and, I am a woman.
I mean, the endless reruns of “Golden Girls” are one thing (I haven’t had cable for a while, so I’m not sure if Lifetime is still infamous for this or not) as that was a fairly amusing show in its heyday, and I could see why people might want to see it again (well, I worry about people who want to see it that much, but, well…), but those Lifetime original movies? Eeeeuch. If this is a “women’s network”, count me out.
I think it’s an outgrowth of the afterschool special of the 70’s and 80’s–“Watch out, kids (women), this could happen to you!” I hated afterschool specials, too–but, I guess not everyone did.
Well damn my theory then. (Though we are but 2 posters, so far, on the age-related tangent.) Given the choice, I would have said more “older women” than “younger women” would watch Lifetime. Hmm. Go figure.
Though no one has really explained yet - to the OP - why women watch it. :dubious:
Don’t forget the classic “The Abused Wife who Accidentally Killed her Policeman Husband in Self Defense.” (According to The Onion’s TV listings, at least.)
I’m not a woman, but I do watch Lifetime, just to riff on the awful movies thereon, a la MST3K.
I enjoy my share of “chick movies” but I rarely watch Lifetime. Only when they have a movie on that I want to see (like the one with Richard Dean Anderson. Repeat after me: Richard Dean Anderson).
Richard Dean Anderson is a reason to watch Lifetime, but he’s not on it that much and I don’t keep track so it’s only by happenstance that I’ll catch a movie with him (or any other hottie that strikes my fancy). The “chased by a madman” storyline (which actually described the Richard Dean Anderson movie I saw) or the “overcoming adversity” storylines are not my favorites, unless they’re done unusually well, which they usually aren’t on Lifetime.
I used to watch the Hallmark Channel, mostly for their Western Saturday. I mean, what’s not to like? The new version of The Magnificent Seven, Wagon Train (yes! Wagon Train! That Robert Horton was a hottie in his day), Bonanza and The Big Valley. It was all about Hallmark on Saturdays. (Unfortunately I don’t get access to Hallmark anymore, so no more Western Saturdays, no more Robert Horton and a young Lee Majors). Bummer.
Wait a minute. Was there a point to this post, other than to expound about Richard Dean Anderson, etc.? I lost track . . .
See, I don’t get this at all. I know women who cannot get enough of this, and that’s exactly what they tell me. “It’s about strong women, and all they have to overcome!”
Noooooo…It’s about victimhood. That’s what I call Lifetime…The Victim Channel. I was damn near burned in effigy. “I saw one last night about a woman who was raped and saw her attacker sent to prison! It was uplifting.” Right. She was raped.
“I saw one about a woman who’s children had been kidnapped and she tracked down…” K. Her kids had been kidnapped.
“I saw one about a woman who was sexually harrassed on the job and she…” Are we sensing a pattern, here? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m about as feminist as you can get but…I think these movies are missing the point, a bit.
Honestly, muldoonthief, I don’t get it either. But, hey. You’re welcome to come watch SportsCenter when the Victim Channel gets to be too much…
Was MBB making all of those Lifetime movies before, during or after her days as “Ms. Keaton”? Who knows what the deal is with that, maybe her husband’s a producer of Lifetime movies. Your guess is as good as mine.
I call it “The Women in Peril” network. I don’t watch it too often (though I like their orginal series “1-800-missing”) but my mom watches it a lot. I think their average movie makes women feel better about their own lives- at least they’re not as messed up as the Lifetime women’s lives
i personally hate Lifetime. Or Oxygen. Or any of those crafty-craft channels ('cept The Style Network because I’m obsessed with Nigella).
I have the following channels set as ‘favorites’:
[ul][li]HBO[/li][li]History Channel[/li][li]CNN[/li][li]The Cartoon Network[/li][li]Food TV[/ul][/li]
Heh! One of my women friends calls it “The PMS Channel.” She calls it that cause she says one of the major movie plot lines is: “Yes I Went On A Rampage And Killed My Husband, My Kids, Half The Neighborhood, And All My Co-Workers But I Have PMS And We Were All Out Of Ben And Jerry’s.” Sometimes I think she’s just a bit on the cynical side.
