History Main / LifeTimeMovieOfTheWeek

* ''Film/TheOksanaBaiulStory''. Most glaring among the liberties taken is the near-complete absence of Viktor Petrenko. In real life he persuaded his own coach to coach Oksana, he paid for all her costumes early on, and even translated for her during interviews before she learned English.

* ''Film/{{Hush1998}}'' has Creator/GwynethPaltrow as a pregnant newlywed whose new mother-in-law (Creator/JessicaLange) is an EvilMatriarch who ''really'' [[ClingJealousGirl isn't planning on letting go of her son]]. Or her impending grandchild.

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

** Sally Field does it again in ''Eye for an Eye'', which deals with her struggles to cope with the brutal rape and murder of her daughter after the perpetrator gets OffOnATechnicality. Unlike ''Enough'', Sally's character plays it smarter by baiting the evil creep and getting him to break into her house so she can kill him and more reasonably claim self-defense.

* Lifetime got in on the act in June 2015 with ''A Deadly Adoption'', starring Creator/WillFerrell and Creator/KristenWiig. It featured all of the standard tropes turned UpToEleven. The decision to do a straight-faced parody à la ''Film/TheLostSkeletonOfCadavra'' that never turned to wink at the camera or crack obvious jokes ended up confusing many TV snark and social media sites, several of which [[PoesLaw concluded it was dead-set serious and sincere]] (which just made the whole thing more amusing).

* MamaBear: ''Night Nurse''/''[[MarketBasedTitle Killer Night Shift]]'' sports an impressive one in [[spoiler:Tricia - who gets loose from her bindings and successfully beats the crap out of the PsychoExGirlfriend (of her husband) who's been trying to steal Tricia's newborn baby; as in ''born just moments before''.]]

Despite being the Trope Namer and TropeCodifier, Lifetime didn't invent the genre. Starting in TheEighties, the major US networks added stories in this fashion to their MadeForTVMovie lineups, and saw them get phenomenal ratings. Hollywood even got into the act with films like ''Film/NotWithoutMyDaughter'' and ''Film/SleepingWithTheEnemy''. Lifetime itself got into the business with the 1990 movie ''Memories of Murder'', starring Creator/NancyAllen as a victim of EasyAmnesia who gets stalked by a deranged man. Its success pushed them to make more movies. Meanwhile, TheNineties also saw Creator/{{NBC}} revamp their ''Monday Night at the Movies'' series to appeal more to young women. The result was a whole slew of ripe {{Melodrama}} movies loaded with familiar TV faces, including the immortal ''Mother, May I Sleep With Danger?'', starring Creator/ToriSpelling. As the other networks began to move away from TV movies, Lifetime became the home of the subgenre, adopting the other networks' movies and the theatrical films and airing them frequently, to the point that "Lifetime movie" is now a generic description (Indeed, only two of the movies in the page image above were actually produced for Lifetime).

** And now, ''Literature/MySweetAudrina'' and the Literature/DollangangerSeries have been adapted as films for Lifetime, with plans to adapt the Literature/CasteelSeries as well.

* TVTeen: The teen-oriented movies are frequently guilty of this, particularly with DawsonCasting, ToxicFriendInfluence and AlphaBitch[=/=]BetaBitch[=/=]GirlPosse drama, plus TheCheerleader often being the star of the whole thing. That said, some movies try to be at least a bit realistic, with themes of TeenPregnancy and [[PeerPressureMakesYouEvil Peer Pressure]].

* 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}}'').

-->'''[[https://unobtainium13.com/2015/08/17/what-lisa-watched-last-night-135-sorority-murder-dir-by-jesse-james-miller/ Through the Shattered Lens]] on''' '''''Sorority Murder''''': The film’s title promised both a sorority and a murder and it totally delivered both of those things.

-->'''[[https://unobtainium13.com/2015/08/17/what-lisa-watched-last-night-135-sorority-murder-dir-by-jesse-james-miller/ Through the Shattered Lens]]''' on ''Sorority Murder'': The film’s title promised both a sorority and a murder and it totally delivered both of those things.

-->'''[[http://pbandginger.blogspot.com/2012/05/lifetime-movie-reviews-sexting-in.html Peanut Butter and Pickled Ginger]] reviewing "Sexting in Suburbia":''' For a movie that is about sexting and the dangers of slut shaming, this movie does a whole lot of... slut shaming.

* 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 (''Overexposed'').

* MonsterMisogyny: If the male villain isn't motivated by unrequited love, his main motivation for wanting the heroine - and sometimes her female friends - dead is because she's a woman who refuses to StayInTheKitchen or who just [[StrawMisogynist exists as a woman and this alone is enough to deserve death]]. ''Who is Killing the Cheerleaders?'' adds a new wrinkle with a villain whose MotiveRant seems like it was compiled from posts on some "manosphere" [[Website/{{Reddit}} subreddit]].

* NoBudget: Lifetime movies are all about production efficiency. The crews are professional, the actors are all experienced, even if they aren't big names, and the films are designed to be shot quickly (an entire movie can be finished in around 10 days) without costing a whole lot (the budgets typically don't go much above a million dollars). Some movies can do a good job of hiding this, but often the props, costumes, and limited number of sets in a movie will give it away.

* NoBudget: Lifetime movies are all about production efficiency. The crews are professional, the actors are all experienced, even if they aren't big names, and the films are designed to be shot quickly (an entire movie can often be finished in around 10 days) without costing a whole lot (the budgets don't seem like they go much above a million dollars). Some movies can do a good job of hiding this, but often the props, costumes, and limited number of sets in a movie will give it away.

* NoBudget: Compared to the really low-budget films, they're not ''that'' low-budget and are actually very expensive to make, but they're not made on the same budget as a superhero movie or PeriodPiece, even if they've got A-list, B-list or C-list actors in them. But evidence of the low-budget nature shows in the props and costumes.

* TeensAreMonsters: In movies that are BasedOnATrueStory, they will show how the teenage character was totally depraved, especially in flashbacks.

* Sally Field's ''Not Without My Daughter'', taken from the book by Betty Mahmoody. Neither the Iranians nor Creator/RogerEbert were impressed.

* EvilOldFolks: Lifetime has done a few movies with an older female villain, like ''Killer Grandma'', which features Creator/NanaVisitor as a deranged ex-mental patient who reconnects with her estranged family only because she wants to use her granddaughter as a ReplacementGoldfish for her daughter who died in a long-ago tragic accident. In other cases, it can relate to things like pedophile rings or corrupt bosses who run companies into financial ruin.

** But follow that with a FunnyAneurysmMoment when she ended up in the Lifetime movie ''Homecoming'', as a psycho who couldn't let go of her high school sweetheart and lost it when he brought his new girlfriend home for the weekend.

* WhatAnIdiot: It has to be said, a lot of these movies require the protagonists to be idiotic in order to drive the plot.

* {{Nephewism}}: Or Nieceism; a woman raising her her sister's daughter, usually because the sister died tragically or some other sordid circumstance (like the sister being in prison) is not uncommon, either to give the teen heroine a TragicBackstory to help elicit sympathy for her, or to allow the grown heroine to be motherly while avoiding a blatant PlayingGertrude or AbsurdlyYouthfulMother situation (which, with DawsonCasting being common for teens in these movies, could be a problem).