Hallmark vs. Netflix: Christmas Movies
This Christmas, before you settle down to watch another Hallmark movie, consider flipping over to Netflix.
There are plenty of new movies to watch that rival Hallmark in more than one way. You can watch Netflix anywhere, their movies have better female role models, and the relationships are more realistic.
Hallmark is a staple for the holidays, whether it be finding romance through a secret billionaire, or building an Inn with a stranger after someone you knew passed away and left it to you. There is no doubt that these movies are entertaining. I watch them with my mom and best friend every week. However, there is always that nagging feeling that the women are not getting the attention they deserve. I noticed that a lot of the movies end up with less focus on the girls’ careers and more on her finding love and moving away to where the guy lives.
I am all for finding romance and fantasizing about what you could have. However, dreaming about the perfect job is just as valid. In the future, I want to support myself financially and love what I do for a living before I love and support someone else. Some of the Hallmark movies do allow women to have bits of their success. However, most don’t, and I am tired of the male-dominated success and males characters leaping in to save the day.
I need a strong female role model that gets to have her career and her romance, too.
This is what you get with the Netflix movies The Holiday Calendar and The Princess Switch. Both films have a romantic plot, but also have a career motivated subplot. Go ahead and watch them if you haven’t. Bonnie from The Vampire Diaries and Vanessa Hudgens are in them.
While watching one Netflix movie, I was prepared to guess the ending they. Guy proposes to the girl after knowing her for three weeks; the girl says yes, and a week later they’re married under a romantic canopy of lights. Yet, I was pleasantly surprised to know that the characters considered their relations rationally and allowed time to grow their bonds. There was not one instance where someone cheated on a spouse through flirtation or physical touch.
Hallmark finds it romantic to fall for the guy who was awful at the beginning or the guy who wants to leave his fiancé for the other woman. It’s crazy to think about how that would go down in real life. Consider you have a significant other. Said significant other gets called away to business in some small snow-covered town miles away. A local girl bakes him a pie when his car breaks down, and immediately it becomes about her being his long-lost soul mate. How would you feel? Enraged? I would hope so. It would all sound so romantic if you were the girl and some guy in a fancy tuxedo came to your bakery two nights before Christmas. It would be fate, then. No, it’s just adultery.
Don’t get me wrong; I will continue to watch Hallmark movies as I am just as addicted as the next fan. My point is, keep in mind that these are not all healthy romantic plots. They are just fantasies.
Here are some links to Hallmark and Netflix movies that I love:
http://www.hallmarkchannel.com/christmas-at-pemberley-manor
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8954732/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4767950/
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8262802/
