History Main / LifeTimeMovieOfTheWeek

* 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 (''Stolen from Suburbia'') and a psycho villainess (''The Wrong Daughter'')[[/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.

* AllWomenArePrudes: More accurately, ''good'' women are prudes. Women with a sex drive are evil whores whose reward is DeathBySex or RapePortrayedAsRedemption (sometimes both, [[FamilyUnfriendlyDeath possibly in that order]]). If the heroine has a lapse and sleeps with a guy, it's because he's a ManipulativeBastard who seduced her.

* DeathBySex: The cheating husband just ''might'' avoid this but the attractive, promiscuous "other woman" will either be killed or raped. Or both.

* RapePortrayedAsRedemption: Lifetime movies tend to take sadistic pleasure in breaking attractive promiscuous women. If they don't [[DeathBySex die]], that is.

* ''Film/TheHandThatRocksTheCradle'' - Creator/RebeccaDeMornay as a pregnant widow who loses her child (and everything else) and blames a happily married pregnant woman called Claire for ruining her life (as opposed to her late husband being an obstetrician who molested multiple patients of his), and plots take revenge on her by becoming Claire's new nanny/BabysitterFromHell. Another theatrical film that Lifetime frequently gives the RecycledPremise treatment.

* BlackWidow: A sometimes villain of the genre, established by 1991's ''The Perfect Bride'', in which the heroine discovers her brother's mysterious fiancée is a SerialKiller, with past fiancés among her victims.

* PanderingToTheBase: Essentially these movies are all about confirming what are often considered to be the attitudes of a stereotypical American woman in the 25 to 49 age range ([[BeautyIsBad women who are more beautiful and successful than you]] are secretly evil; most men are [[AllMenArePerverts perverts]] or [[WomenAreWiser simpletons]], except for a select few who are impossibly hot and perfect; your young daughter is under constant threat from boys or other girls, and needs you to [[MeddlingParents step in and take control of her life]]).

* ''Film/TheHandThatRocksTheCradle'' - Creator/RebeccaDeMornay as a pregnant widow who loses her child (and everything else) and blames a happily married pregnant woman called Claire for ruining her life (as opposed to her late husband being an obstetrician who molested multiple patients of his), and plots take revenge on her by becoming Claire's new nanny/BabysitterFromHell.

* 1983's ''Independence Day'' definitely qualifies; it's set in a small town in New Mexico - a waitress who wants to leave, but is discouraged by a mechanic who ''did'' leave but came back. Meanwhile they learn the mechanic's sister is regularly beaten by her husband. [[spoiler: she goes ImTakingYouWithMe on hubby's abusive ass in the climax. The only thing this has common with [[Film/IndependenceDay the better-known film of the same name]] is that both films feature big explosions...]]

** While it predated Lifetime becoming the genre's standard-bearer, the 1993 frenzy in which ABC, CBS and NBC all rush-produced TV movies dramatizing the story of "Long Island Lolita" Amy Fisher and her attempted murder of her older lover's wife is probably the most infamous example of all. Creator/AlyssaMilano starred in CBS' one, Creator/DrewBarrymore starred in ABC's (which premiered the same time as CBS' - it was better received than ABC's) For the record, Noelle Parker played Amy Fisher in NBC's entry.

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 studios 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).

* BlackAndWhiteMorality: Generally the protagonist is a blameless victim, while her antagonists have no moral ground to stand on. However, it's becoming a DiscreditedTrope in more recent movies that show BothSidesHaveAPoint or that use WhiteVsGrey Morality or GreyVsGreyMorality.

[[caption-width-right:301:Showing that women have the power, one flick at a time.]]

* MarketBasedTitle: Entries in a series, like the Creator/VivicaAFox/Creator/DavidDeCoteau ''Wrong'' movies, since they're unlikely to be themed elsewhere. (e.g. ''The Wrong Wedding Planner'' is ''My Deadly Ex'' outside North America)[[note]]This has effect of averting the TitleDrop....[[/note]]

* PsychoExGirlfriend: A very common antagonist. Subverted in ''A Bride's Nightmare'': heroine Leah is kidnapped by her fiancé's PsychoExGirlfriend Faith [[spoiler: - but she ''isn't'' psychotic; she has [=PTSD=] - she was actually trying to save Leah from getting in the kind of abusive controlling relationship that led to her emotional stress.]]

* CriticalResearchFailure: In some of these movies, there are inaccuracies that are obvious to the audience that anyone who knows the topic/s covered realizes they made the whole thing up and it doesn't follow common knowledge at all. Sometimes happens in the "BasedOnATrueStory" variety of this movie.

*** Taken even further where Bill Hader plays both the show host and the typical abusive man who tells the winning housewife at the end "Oh you're not going anywhere. You'll never leave ''me''."
---->'''Anna Farris''': Ow, you're hurting my arm!
---->'''Bill Hader''': WHO'S GOING TO BELIEVE YOU?!

* A variation of this can be found in ''ComicBook/VForVendetta'' in the story arc of Rosemary Almond, a gentle and demure housewife whose husband, Derek, just can't wait to get home every evening so he can get to beat her up and get drunk as a way to vent off his everyday frustrations. Derek is then killed by [[OneLetterName V]] himself, making her a WidowWoman. She is then hit on by one of her husband's co-workers whose sole purpose is to sully her husband's memory by fucking his wife. He is also killed by V later on. She is then expelled from society and is forced to become a showgirl to support herself. Eventually she snaps [[spoiler:and assassinates England's dictator]].

* {{Nephewism}}: Or Nieceism; a woman raising 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).

* 1983's ''Independence Day'' definitely qualifies; it's set in a small town in New Mexico - a waitress who wants to leave, but is discouraged by a mechanic who ''did'' leave but came back. Meanwhile they learn the mechanic's sister is regularly beaten by her husband. [[spoiler: she goes ImTakingYouWithMe on hubby's abusive ass in the climax.]]

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

->''"This Thursday, Creator/MeredithBaxter gets beaten with an iron rod, in a Lifetime Original: ''Rod''..."''
-->-- '''Creator/JimGaffigan'''

* 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 (10 days or so is the typical length of a shoot) without costing a whole lot (the budgets 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.

* PsychoExGirlfriend: A very common antagonist. Subverted in 'A Bride's Nightmare'': heroine Leah is kidnapped by her fiancé's PsychoExGirlfriend Faith [[spoiler: - but she ''isn't'' psychotic; she has [=PTSD=] - she was actually trying to save Leah from getting in the kind of abusive controlling relationship that led to her emotional stress.]]

* MealTicket: A younger protagonist will often find herself in such bad financial straits that she's desperate enough to get involved with a rich older man, which just ends up making trouble for her. Sometimes it's of her own volition, sometimes she's unwittingly pushed into it by her acquaintances (Lifetime has had movies about college cheerleading squads and sororities that turn out to be [[HighClassCallGirl secret escort services]]).

** While it predated Lifetime becoming the genre's standard-bearer, the 1993 frenzy in which ABC, CBS and NBC all rush-produced TV movies dramatizing the story of "Long Island Lolita" Amy Fisher and her attempted murder of her older lover's wife is probably the most infamous example of all.

* MarketBasedTitle: Entries in a series, like the Creator/VivicaAFox/Creator/DavidDeCoteau ''Wrong'' movies, since they're unlikely to be themed elsewhere. (''The Wrong Wedding Planner'' is ''My Deadly Ex'' outside North America)[[note]]This has effect of averting the TitleDrop....[[/note]]

* PsychoExGirlfriend: A very common antagonist. Subverted in ''Fatal Fiancé'': heroine Leah is kidnapped by her fiancé's PsychoExGirlfriend Faith [[spoiler: - but she ''isn't'' psychotic; she has [=PTSD=] - she was actually trying to save Leah from getting in the kind of abusive controlling relationship that led to her emotional stress.]]

* RetroactiveRecognition: Considering the number of movies they make and the fact that they primarily cast of 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). 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.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Considering the number of movies they make and the fact that they primarily cast of 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). 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.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Considering the number of movies they make and the fact that they primarily cast of 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, Creator/SydneySweeney). 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.