History Main / LifeTimeMovieOfTheWeek

* NoBisexuals: Men are either straight and mean or gay and nice. Also, in a coming out story a women will realise that she's actually been a lesbian all along, even when she's been in a relationship with a man for years.

* NoBisexuals: Men are either straight or gay. Also, often a women will realise that she's actually been a lesbian all along, even when she's been in a relationship with a man for years.

* SocialServicesDoesNotExist: The only form of social services that seem to exist in these kinds of movies are the DepartmentOfChildDisservices. Averted in ''Devious Nanny''/''[[MarketBasedTitle The Nanny Betrayal]]'' In which the title character explicitly says she was in foster homes. [[spoiler:She ''isn't'' the BigBad in this one, despite being a cute young blonde nanny in a Lifetime movie.]]

The {{Trope Namer|s}} is Creator/{{Lifetime}}, a cable TV channel in the United States with programming geared toward female audiences (or, at least, female audiences who conform to Lifetime's conception of its target demographic), which is well known for giving rise to the subgenre. Original movies are such a bedrock for the Lifetime brand that it has a spinoff network devoted entirely to them (LMN) and a series of movies literally using "Ripped From The Headlines" as their collective title.

** Another didn't so much deconstruct it as [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome show how absurd making the massive leaps in logic these movies do can be in real life]]. A woman claims her ex-husband is stalking her and burned her, and after a confrontation with the cops he gets killed. Turns out she burned herself and accused him of it because she was resentful of him leaving her. Olivia fought for her the whole way, and was rewarded with the woman looking right in her eyes and saying "[[ThanatosGambit I sure showed him!]]" as she lay dying after revealing her scheme. In short, [[WhatHaveIDone Olivia's own prejudices helped a woman kill her husband by proxy]].

The {{Trope Namer|s}} is Creator/{{Lifetime}}, a cable TV channel in the United States with programming geared toward female audiences (or, at least, female audiences who conform to Lifetime's conception of its target demographic), which is well known for giving rise to the subgenre. Original movies are such a bedrock for the Lifetime brand that it has a spinoff network devoted entirely to them (LMN).

* NewMediaAreEvil: They are, especially when teenagers are involved. While TheInternetIsForPorn was a classic Lifetime theme (''Film/CyberSeductionHisSecretLife''), more recent films have warned of the dangers of [[IntimateTelecommunications sexting]], especially if you happen to accidentally kill a guy who coerced you into taking nude photos ''and'' you happen to be the daughter of the sheriff (''Film/{{Overexposed}}''). BlandNameProduct versions of Website/TikTok have come under scrutiny in the recent movies ''Deadly Dance Competition'' and ''Mommy's Little Star''.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Considering the number of movies they make and the fact that they primarily cast relative unknowns for the sake of budget, it's not surprising that quite a few performers who've appeared in Lifetime movies have gone on to hit it big (Creator/HilarySwank, Creator/KristenStewart, Creator/KristenBell, Creator/KirstenDunst, Creator/HaydenPanettiere,[[note]]who has at least three on her CV including the LighterAndSofter ''Film/IfYouBelieve''[[/note]] Creator/SydneySweeney[[note]]who has Lifetime experience as both a DamselInDistress (''Film/StolenFromSuburbia'') and a psycho villainess (''Film/PsychoDaughter'')[[/note]]). When this happens, expect Lifetime to drag the movie they made out of the archives and air it frequently if the person has a big movie coming out soon.

* ''Film/{{Saved}}!'' features clips from a fictional Lifetime movie, complete with AdamWesting from Valerie Bertinelli. It leads to a EurekaMoment when the main character [[OhCrap realizes that she's pregnant]] as a result of something she sees in the movie.

** This trope is explicitly called out in the Creator/GarcelleBeauvais-starring (and produced) 2023 Lifetime Original ''Black Girl Missing'' (aka''[[CompletelyDifferentTitle Vanished: Looking For My Daughter]]''. A high school vice-principal (Beauvais) realises her college-age daughter Lauren goes missing while the police write it off as her running away home. This takes place as national media attention is on a young blonde girl called Jessica who's missing (from Oregon... the movie is set in UsefulNotes/{{Texas}}. [[spoiler: Jessica is found.... she ran away. Lauren has been taken by a serial predator - she's rescued... but the film ends by listing non-fictional black or brown girls who have gone missing.]]

[[caption-width-right:301:Showing that women have the power, one flick at a time.[[note]]L-R, top to bottom: Film/Obsessed2002, Film/{{Enough}}, Film/AmandaKnoxMurderOnTrialInItaly, and Film/TheBurningBed.[[/note]]]]

* ''Film/{{Enough}}'' features a protagonist who, after abuse and cheating from her husband, breaks into her husband's house with the full intention of beating him to death with her bare hands. Her threat, "self-defense isn't murder", rings pretty hollow considering she's instigating the fight in his home and not hers, goes out of her way to remove anything he could use to defend himself, and even plants evidence to prove the version of the story she plans to tell the cops. She gets the upper hand, but then she chickens out. After more struggling he falls out a two-story window.
** One could also say that they made the evil husband as the perfect representation of a Lifetime villain ever put to film. Along with his possessive and emotional behavior, he is also a {{Straw Misogynist}} and [[BitchInSheepsClothing manipulative con artist]] with a bit of an inflated ego, and as a "man" cares more about sleeping around with women than paying attention to his family, justifying his outside relationships to his wife because he has given her such a prosperous lifestyle, when he didn't care enough to express sincere gratefulness for her role. Not only that, he's also intimidating and not nice to ''any'' person who challenges even his minor requests and demands, whether it's a complete stranger, his wife, or mutual friends. The point being, he's just plain self-centered to the core without seeing anything unjustified his behavior that he knows is wrong.

** One could also say that they made the evil husband as the perfect representation of a lifetime villain ever put to film. Along with his possessive and emotional behavior, he is also a {{Straw Misogynist}} and [[BitchInSheepsClothing manipulative con artist]] with a bit of an inflated ego, and as a "man" cares more about sleeping around with women than paying attention to his family, justifying his outside relationships to his wife because he has given her such a prosperous lifestyle, when he didn't care enough to express sincere gratefulness for her role. Not only that, he's also intimidating and not nice to ''any'' person who challenges even his minor requests and demands, whether it's a complete stranger, his wife, or mutual friends. The point being, he's just plain self-centered to the core without seeing anything unjustified his behavior that he knows is wrong.

** One could also say that they made the evil husband as the perfect representation of a lifetime villain ever put to film. Along with his possessive and emotional behavior, he is also a {{StrawMisogynist}} and [[BitchInSheepsClothing manipulative con artist]] with a bit of an inflated ego, and as a "man" cares more about sleeping around with women than paying attention to his family, justifying his outside relationships to his wife because he has given her such a prosperous lifestyle, when he didn't care enough to express sincere gratefulness for her role. Not only that, he's also intimidating and not nice to ''any'' person who challenges even his minor requests and demands, whether it's a complete stranger, his wife, or mutual friends. The point being, he's just plain self-centered to the core without seeing anything unjustified his behavior that he knows is wrong.

** One could also say that they made the evil husband as the perfect representation of a lifetime villain ever put to film. Along with his possessive and emotional behavior, he is also a [[StrawMisogynist]] and [[BitchInSheepsClothing manipulative con artist]] with a bit of an inflated ego, and as a "man" cares more about sleeping around with women than paying attention to his family, justifying his outside relationships to his wife because he has given her such a prosperous lifestyle, when he didn't care enough to express sincere gratefulness for her role. Not only that, he's also intimidating and not nice to ''any'' person who challenges even his minor requests and demands, whether it's a complete stranger, his wife, or mutual friends. The point being, he's just plain self-centered to the core without seeing anything unjustified his behavior that he knows is wrong.

** One could also say that they made the evil husband as the perfect representation of a lifetime villain ever put to film. Along with his possessive and emotional behavior, he is also a StrawMisgyonist and manipulative con artist with a bit of an inflated ego, and as a "man" cares more about sleeping around with women than paying attention to his family, [[Hypocrite justifying his outside relationships to his wife because he has given her such a prosperous lifestyle, when he didn't care enough to express sincere gratefulness for her role]]. Not only that, he's also intimidating and not nice to {{any}} person who challenges even his minor requests and demands, whether it's a complete stranger, his wife, or mutual friends. The point being, he's just plain self-centered to the core without seeing anything unjustified his behavior that he knows is wrong.

* HereWeGoAgain: In the {{Yandere}} subgenre, if the villain doesn't die a gruesome death, the movie will end with the villain finding someone new to become obsessed with (''Film/The Crush'', followed by ''Mother, May I Sleep With Danger?'' were probably the TropeMaker for this type of ending).

* HereWeGoAgain: In the {{Yandere}} subgenre, if the villain doesn't die a gruesome death, the movie will end with the villain finding someone new to become obsessed with (''Mother, May I Sleep With Danger?'' was probably the TropeMaker for this type of ending).

** This trope is explicitly called out in the Creator/GarcelleBeauvais-starring (and produced) 2023 Lifetime Original ''Black Girl Missing'' (aka''[[CompletelyDiffererentTitle Vanished: Looking For My Daughter]]''. A high school vice-principal (Beauvais) realises her college-age daughter Lauren goes missing while the police write it off as her running away home. This takes place as national media attention is on a young blonde girl called Jessica who's missing (from Oregon... the movie is set in UsefulNotes/{{Texas}}. [[spoiler: Jessica is found.... she ran away. Lauren has been taken by a serial predator - she's rescued... but the film ends by listing non-fictional black or brown girls who have gone missing.]]

* NewMediaAreEvil: They are, especially when teenagers are involved. While TheInternetIsForPorn was a classic Lifetime theme (''Film/CyberSeductionHisSecretLife''), more recent films have warned of the dangers of [[IntimateTelecommunications sexting]], especially if you happen to accidentally kill a guy who coerced you into taking nude photos ''and'' you happen to be the daughter of the sheriff (''Film/{{Overexposed}}''). BlandNameProduct versions of [=TikTok=] have come under scrutiny in the recent movies ''Deadly Dance Competition'' and ''Mommy's Little Star''.

* An episode of ''Series/ThirtyRock'' featured scenes from a fictional Lifetime movie which told the story of how C.C. became a congresswoman after being shot in the face by a dog. The movie was titled ''[[LongTitle A Dog Took My Face And Gave Me A Better Face To Change The World: The Celeste Cunningham Story]]'' and the scene where she's shot had her dramatically gasping "I'm going to get into politics!" as she fell to the ground.

* {{Docudrama}}: Typically regarding whatever missing or dead woman is in the news this week (the movie about Natalee Holloway, the movie about Amanda Knox, the movie about the Craigslist killer, etc.), as well as recent scandals (the 2019 college admissions bribery fiasco and the NXIVM cult both got quick-turnaround movies). Also often adapts true stories about mothers trying to get justice for their sick/mentally ill/LGBT child.