What Hallmark Movies Tell Us About the Current State of America

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I know. I know. What is the president of a national men’s ministry doing watching Hallmark Movies? They’re formulaic (boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back), cheaply made (I jokingly call them “Walmart movies” to my wife), and targeted at women (After watching one I get the urge to go smoke a cigar out back so I can regrow the hair on my chest that fell out during the movie).

And yet, I’m hooked. For me Hallmark movies are a welcome respite from the chaos that is current American culture and politics. Those cheesy movies with the same successful-business-woman-returns-to-her-idyllic-childhood-small-hometown-only-to-rediscover-and-fall-in-love-with-her-high-school-boy-friend-who-stayed-behind plot that includes the same decorations, the same fake snow, the same town fair/bake-off/Christmas tree lighting, the same interrupted kiss, the same breakup, the same makeup, and even the same actors, draw me back again and again.

It turns out, I’m not the only one addicted to this new opiate of the people. Hallmark Channel, and its sister channel, Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, have been exploding in the ratings.¹ In 2018, Hallmark channels often ranked among the top five cable TV channels in ratings.

So why have these movies, which can seem so out of place in our current culture, become so popular? Here’s what entertainment commentator Rachel Carrington has to say:

“Though Hallmark movies can be formulaic and simple, they are also free of profanity, sexual situations, and heavy drama. They are movies you can watch with anyone from age two to ninety-two. And the series follow the same format, although they do inject more drama and a little more romance than found on a two-hour movie.”

“When someone thinks of family-friendly television, shows like Little House on the Prairie and The Waltons come to mind, and once upon a time, those were the only type of shows on television. Think back to I Love Lucy, Bonanza, Dragnet, and Marcus Welby, M.D. They were shows that entertained and allowed grandparents to watch with grandchildren. And some people miss that type of television and now turn to Hallmark.“²

This explanation is true as far as it goes. But Ms. Carrington misses an important point. Our cultural worldview has completely changed in the last fifty years. We have moved from a predominantly Christian theistic worldview to a predominantly materialistic atheistic worldview. And “people act the way they think,” as the Christian philosopher and social commentator Francis Schaeffer used to say.

Back in the 50’s, when Christianity still had a powerful influence on the general population, people really did rarely curse in public, and never on TV. Sex before marriage was taboo. Divorce was around 5%. Almost all stores were closed on Sunday. And most of the population went to church weekly. As a result, when people watched “family-friendly” content on TV, they viewed what they saw as normal behavior, as simply a reflection of their everyday lives. All of this was a natural product of their Christian worldview.

But that correlation between TV and the general culture is not the case when it comes to today’s Hallmark movies. Everyone watching them knows that people in our culture don’t really act like that anymore because they don’t believe like that anymore. Couples don’t just date, fall in love, kiss and get married. No, they hop into bed after the first few dates, move in together and, maybe, get married. Couples who have been married for forty or more years are a rarity. Instead of strong nuclear families, Hallmark viewers know that today’s families are in a state of chaos. They know that public discourse is much more boorish, that men – and increasingly women – are saturated with pornography, and that poverty probably awaits them in their retirement years. All of this is the natural product of a materialistic worldview.

Thus, for the general public, watching Hallmark movies is simply wishful thinking: nostalgic escapism with no hope of ever reproducing that kind of life in reality.

But for me, as a Christian, Hallmark movies fit – mostly, but not always – my worldview. I really have experienced, and do experience, life as it is depicted in these films. That kind of entertainment is not escapism for me, but affirmation. I only wish everyone could enjoy them from that perspective too.

BTW – I don’t really smoke cigars.

This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.

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1. See Forbes, “Behind the Hallmark Christmas Movies Juggernaut: Ratings Just Keep Rising,” by Toni Fitzgerald.
2. “Why the Hallmark Channel’s Popularity is Growing Despite Cable Cutters” by Rachel Carrington