Critical Perspectives on the Hallmark Channel

This multinational, multidisciplinary collection of essays focuses on Hallmark Channel movies and Hallmarks position in the changing North American media landscape. This book covers the Countdown to Christmas offerings, year-round productions, made-for-TV mysteries and romances, Hallmarks use of specific filming locations, and its relationship to viewer desires. Chapters examine Hallmarks position in a changing sociopolitical context and the tensions the company must navigate in creating more progressive content; they discuss issues of gender, race, sexuality, and place, as well as analyzing the extensive ranges and reactions of social media participants and interrogating the nature of Hallmarks popularity. Suitable for scholars and students of film and tv and popular culture studies, this is a multifaceted look at both Hallmark and its viewers at a particular moment of Hallmarks market dominance.