Picture this: You're a woman in the big city who is working hard to build your cookie company. You have a few clients (most of whom you've known a long time, and happen to be very quirky) but the bills are stacking up and you are afraid you might have to go back to your job as an administrative assistant in the finance industry. You've just found out that your aunt back home in the Midwest (the only person in your family who is still alive) is sick with cancer. The stress and sadness are tearing you apart, and your boyfriend isn't emotionally available. He's busy with work - you met him at the finance company you left a year ago - and doesn't understand you need more support than his weekly bouquet of flowers and your weekly date night.
Eventually, your aunt gets sick enough that you have to fly home to take care of her for an undetermined amount of time. The holidays are coming up, and it's supposed to be your busiest time of the year. Perhaps the last chance you have to keep your cookie business afloat. Despite this, you do the right thing and go back to your small town to be there for Aunt Bess. At first, the culture shock gets to you. But then, while having a mini-breakdown at the local dive bar, you see Ryan, your prom date. You haven't spoken in years as he rejects social media. And he looks…good. One thing leads to another, and the well-meaning veterinarian kind of sweeps you off your feet. He also hires you to make cookies for his successful practice. There's just one problem: your high-powered executive boyfriend is supposed to visit you for Christmas, and you think he might propose.
Sound familiar? Well, that might be because this is basically the plot of every Hallmark movie ever made. The greeting card and television movie giants have figured out a formula that is both very specific and very successful. They may be more inclusive with their characters lately, but the themes persist. And boy, are we onto them.
Twitter user @owenbroadcast shared their musings on classic Hallmark tropes this week, and the people of the bird app were more than happy to contribute their own riffs on the channel's love of the cliche. We may not love a Hallmark movie, but we do love roasting tired stereotypes. It's all in good fun.
