the dumb television report

[keryx]

I wish TWOP would cover some of the idiotic ABC Family Channel movies I watch. It would allow me to believe I was watching these things with irony.

But the truth is, I am a sucker for the stupid movie. Last night's being no exception. Yeah, about once a quarter, they release a made-for-cheesy-cable movie based on your average formulaic romance, and I almost always watch them.

An odd thing about this movie is how uncertain it is about parodying the pick-a-bride dating shows. It's not quite ready to outright skewer them, but it's also not exactly the "Miss Congeniality" of dating shows (that is, it doesn't quite get to the point of showing us how well-intentioned and human all the stock characters are, which is another of life's great ironies).

Actually, the whole dating show thing quickly reduces to a plot device set up to bring our heroine (Emma Caulfield AKA Anya from Buffy AKA Brandon's chica from 90210) together with her leading man (who is not, as the previews might lead one to believe, Jason Priestly - but Hot Will from Alias). And honestly, I'd rather watch Anya make out with Hot Will than watch ABC Family try to lampoon reality TV for selling a contrived view of romance (Hello, pot? This is kettle. You're black.) any day. And Jason Priestly is entirely plausible as a complete dickhead. He has the hair for it.

It's a cute, stupid movie, with a cute, stupid plot. Anya and Hot Will aren't having their best hair days in this movie, though, so that's a point against it.

While I do keep a running snarky commentary in my head as I watch these movies, the truth is that I like the idea of things always working out okay. I like youthful, romantic optimism, even if it is always about the beginnings of relationships which, let's face it, would likely be doomed in the real world - I mean, how much can you love someone you spent a total of maybe 72 hours with?

Comments

[emmapirate.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah! Made-for-TV movies (especially the American variety) are wonderful, especially when they've been carefully crafted to squeeze as many tears out of you as possible, using cheesy pop songs and actors without any divinable talent to do so. I like celebrity Made-For-Tv biopics as well- Gia and The Karen Carpenter Story are particular favourites of mine. Death is important, I think, in these kind of films. And I saw a wonderful one once about a dying young mother who made tapes and journals etc etc for her young children, and sang a terrible song about "Sunshine on my shoulders". Magnificent stuff. And sadly usually on, over here, at silly o'clock in the morning, and hence only viewed when doing nightshifts at the asylum. Pah.