Christmas movies

We must love a cliche-scarce Christmas movie

If you think it’s hard to watch all these Christmas movies, imagine what it’s like to write them.
Consider Mark Amato. He used to be your standard TV writer, doing multiple episodes of “Mutant X,” “Baby Daddy,” etc. But in recent years, he’s had 13 TV movies produced; 10 were Christmas ones and two were she-meets-a-prince ones.
He’s used a lot of plots and groped for more. “You sit at a computer and the words aren’t coming,” he said. “Or, worse, they’re coming, just not any good.”
So he turned that struggle into his latest movie (shown here). ““Must Love Christmas” (9 p.m. Dec. 11) is the second of three new holiday films CBS airs on consecutive Sundays. The first (“Fit For Christmas”) was disappointing, the third (“When Christmas Was Young,” Dec. 18) has its moments … but it’s this middle one that stands out. Read more…

Is it really Christmas already?

As the leaves get brighter and the air gets crisper, life shifts.
We turn to pumpkins and cider, to costumes and … Christmas movies?
Really. The first new Christmas film (shown here) reaches TV on Friday (Oct. 22), nine days before Halloween. There are two more this weekend … then three more each weekend after that.
Those are on the Hallmark Channel, but others – Lifetime, Freeform, Ion, UPtv – will follow, next month. Even CBS, which hasn’t had a new TV movie in nine years, plans two Christmas ones this year. Read more…