Little did we realize that there were thousands........no, possibly millions of us out there, consuming these shamelessly machine-tooled movies.......gobbling them up like a bowl of Hershey's Kisses while we wrapped presents.
This year, things changed. TV Christmas movies finally hit the pop culture radar.......with entertainment pundits having themselves a fine old time mocking the films and their many strange locked-in conventions.
Here's a prediction......remember, you heard it here first from the BQ. Next holiday season will bring about one or more feature length spoof-sendups of these films.......mark our words, this is inevitable. It will be Open Season on our Hallmark holiday bon-bons.......prepare yourselves.
"Christmas Inheritance", another finely polished Netflix imitation of a Hallmark Christmas movie, includes all the tropes we've come to expect........sophisticated Executive Girl, saddled with a cold-hearted Executive Fiance, travels to warm 'n fuzzy small town, where she rekindles her humanity and Christmas spirit......not to mention falling in love with warmhearted local guy (but not before an unhappy 3rd act misunderstanding....) All ends well with a romantic kiss carefully calibrated to occur 2 minutes before the credits roll.....
But being a Netflix creation, the filmmakers can take some outrageous liberties with the normally carved-in-granite features of the genre.....such as....
A Black Fiance! A special BQ Hero Award and a tip of our hat to Michael Xavier for taking on one of the most thankless, worthless roles ever handed to any actor.......playing the obnoxious, self-absorbed, destined-to-be-dumped fiance of the film's leading lady. In accepting this role, he's bravely paved the way for fellow actors of diverse backgrounds to play equal-opportunity jerks in TV Christmas movies........a pioneer, indeed.
Homeless people! You would never, never see such a thing in a Hallmark Christmas film. But Netflix, in their daring blasphemy, populates their picture-postcard village with a few artistically grungy street people..........used strictly as plot devices, of course, but we applaud Netflix for throwing in at least a few exiles from the upper middle and millionaire class.
So with a 3 star rating for this one(***) we'll now wave a fond goodbye to TV Christmas movies........they served their purpose in that they kept us from committing scissors suicide during gift wrapping. We can now move on with our lives........for about 10 months until they start up again.......
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