Christmas Crush flirts with Christmas TV movie deconstruction
American television has a long tradition of [Christmas TV movies]Christmas TV movies (I mean, they are branded as "Holiday movies," but until I see one of those focusing on a holiday other than Christmas, I'm going to call them like I see them). They plots are pretty traditional and predictable, the acting is serviceable, and, until recently, they tended to be overwhelmingly white. At best, they have a certain charm and get you invested just enough to be entertaining. At worst, they act as perfectly inoffensive background noise. Hallmark channel tends to be known for those, but Lifetime network does its own Christmas movies, and so does Ion Television (a TV over-the-air broadcast network built from the ashes of Evangelical Pax TV) and, most recently, Netflix.
Since Ion is the only one I can get on TV, I was able to catch a lot of those Christmas movies. And, last year, I decided to look at who actually makes those movies. And it turned out that there are several production companies - including, but not limited to, MarVista Entertainment, Sonar Entertainment and Motion Picture Corporation of America - that basically specialize in making made-for-TV movies. Not just Christmas stuff, but thrillers, comedies, sci-fi, etc.
Every once in a while, I like to visit their sites, just to see what they got coming down the pipeline. And, while looking at MarVIsta's site, I found something called "A Christmas Crush."
Now, it isn't unusual for movies like this to involve contrived coincidences, or some kind of low-key magic, to serve as a trigger to bring a couple together. But this may be the first Christmas movie I've seen where this cliche actually went awry.
Now, in all other ways, this didn't seem to stray too far from the Christmas movie template... But in a genre not known for non-formula twists, I'm intrigued by anything that played with the format. And it was intriguing to see one of those movies play argent, devoted love as a bad thing.
I wanted to see it - but first, I had to find out if it would air on a channel I could see. At first, I couldn't find any information on it other than the listing on MarVista's page and the trailer. It didn't help that it shares the name with an earlier, 2012 Christmas TV movie (that's also known as "Holiday High School Reunion"). But when I decided to look it up in a combination with the name of its star, Cindy Sampson, I discovered an article that still wasn't helpful, but I did find out that it was written by John Burd, who has a long history of producing made-for-TV (mostly Christmas) movies, and that this is one of his few writing credits.
But then, I came across a press release that showed that it will be airing on Ion on December 22 (and, knowing Ion, there will be reruns).
I suppose it makes sense, given that Christmas Crush stars Cindy Sampson, one of the co-starts of Private Eyes, a Canadian detective comedy that's airing on Ion here in United States.
Will it be good? I'm not holding my breath. Might it be entertaining? We'll see.
Will we get more movies that, however briefly, stray from the formula? I hope so.
Since Ion is the only one I can get on TV, I was able to catch a lot of those Christmas movies. And, last year, I decided to look at who actually makes those movies. And it turned out that there are several production companies - including, but not limited to, MarVista Entertainment, Sonar Entertainment and Motion Picture Corporation of America - that basically specialize in making made-for-TV movies. Not just Christmas stuff, but thrillers, comedies, sci-fi, etc.
Every once in a while, I like to visit their sites, just to see what they got coming down the pipeline. And, while looking at MarVIsta's site, I found something called "A Christmas Crush."
Now, it isn't unusual for movies like this to involve contrived coincidences, or some kind of low-key magic, to serve as a trigger to bring a couple together. But this may be the first Christmas movie I've seen where this cliche actually went awry.
Click to viewNow, in all other ways, this didn't seem to stray too far from the Christmas movie template... But in a genre not known for non-formula twists, I'm intrigued by anything that played with the format. And it was intriguing to see one of those movies play argent, devoted love as a bad thing.
I wanted to see it - but first, I had to find out if it would air on a channel I could see. At first, I couldn't find any information on it other than the listing on MarVista's page and the trailer. It didn't help that it shares the name with an earlier, 2012 Christmas TV movie (that's also known as "Holiday High School Reunion"). But when I decided to look it up in a combination with the name of its star, Cindy Sampson, I discovered an article that still wasn't helpful, but I did find out that it was written by John Burd, who has a long history of producing made-for-TV (mostly Christmas) movies, and that this is one of his few writing credits.
But then, I came across a press release that showed that it will be airing on Ion on December 22 (and, knowing Ion, there will be reruns).
I suppose it makes sense, given that Christmas Crush stars Cindy Sampson, one of the co-starts of Private Eyes, a Canadian detective comedy that's airing on Ion here in United States.
Will it be good? I'm not holding my breath. Might it be entertaining? We'll see.
Will we get more movies that, however briefly, stray from the formula? I hope so.