I promise this will be my last piece on Hallmark channel movies. Having already covered the Hallmark Christmas movie phenomenon and “Spring Fever” cycle, I feel it’s time to finish off this infernal trio of articles by discussing the movies of Hallmark’s “Summer Nights.”
I’ve already gone into the particulars of the Hallmark formula elsewhere (a refresher: they tend to involve lucky-in-business-but-unlucky-in-love women finding romance with amiable himbos in scenic locales, with cute animal companions often thrown in). If you’ve seen one of these movies you can truly be said to have seen ‘em all, as, according to BusinessInsider.com, “Advertisers and viewers are drawn in because they know exactly what they’re going to get.”
Or, in the words of one Hallmark movie enthusiast, “Here are the reasons I love them: everyone is pretty…everyone is kind (except one person per movie who causes tension but always loses in the end)…the towns are small and pretty full of nice people…there are no contentious race or gender issues…” That latter element, I should add, is due to the fact that, as I pointed out in a previous essay, most everyone in these movies is white and heterosexual.
Continuing with the superlatives, it seems the above-quoted Hallmark enthusiast particularly likes the fact that the female protagonists of these movies “often give up all their perceived business success to be with a great, strong, caring, romantic guy and live in an idyllic small town with perfect snow!” Anyone wondering how it is that we currently have Donald J. Trump as president and republican majorities in both chambers of congress would do well to check out these films.
These movies of course tend to be centered on specific seasons. Note that the movies under discussion here generally have “summer” in their titles–among them 2016’s SUMMER LOVE, an all-too-typical Hallmark product directed, depressingly enough, by the talented Lynne Stopkewich, of the legendary 1996 cinemutation KISSED (yet another example of the “master chef working at McDonald’s” adage that’s become quite prevalent in modern cinema).
One curious aspect of the Hallmark summer season is the fact that, this year at least, it’s packed with Christmas-themed movies. Looking over their current programming 
schedule, you’ll find titles like FINDING SANTA, MARRY ME AT CHRISTMAS and MATCHMAKER SANTA predominating. Put it down to the “Christmas in July” craze, an acknowledgment that no matter how many seasonal movies Hallmark puts out their Christmas releases will always be the most popular (from Business Insider: “Hallmark, it seems, has never stopped saying Merry Christmas”).
That may explain why the Summer Nights movies aren’t as numerous as those of Hallmark’s other seasonal offerings. 2018 has a mere five summer flicks: LOVE ON SAFARI, LOVE AT SEA, A SUMMER TO REMEMBER, PEARL IN PARADISE and A SWEET TASTE OF LOVE. That’s a pretty skimpy output considering that Hallmark will be churning out an estimated 87 new movies in 2018, a full 33(!) of them Christmas themed.
In common with its Christmas and spring movie seasons, Hallmark advertises its Summer Nights movies quite heavily, with onscreen countdowns indicating when the next will premiere. This is indicative of a curious factor of Hallmark’s movies: in an age when TV viewers increasingly tune in to the internet, Hallmark viewers do it the old fashioned way, watching movies on TV at the scheduled time. Say what you will about the quality of Hallmark’s movies, but they’ve managed to do what the broadcast networks, and even most cable channels, haven’t.
The most cogent, and frequently invoked, comparisons with the Hallmark Channel movies are, ironically, the low budget horror movies put out by Blumhouse. In both cases the movies in question were made with low budgets and an eye for consistency in look and tone. The only thing missing from the Blumhouse model is the seasonal bent so important to Hallmark, and I suspect it won’t be long before Blumhouse does indeed begin making movies oriented around winter, spring and summertime.
The Summer Nights movies stand out in the Hallmark pantheon due to the fact that, simply, they’re set in the summer. This means the “perfect snow” suffusing the Hallmark Christmas movies (which is usually always fake anyway) is nowhere to be seen, and that the actors tend to dress far skimpier than their winter counterparts. See 2016’s SUMMER VILLA, whose attractive star Hilarie Burton, playing a romance novelist staying in a villa in France (actually Montreal) that’s also occupied by the requisite hunky-yet-sensitive male lead (Victor Webster), spends the movie lounging around in agreeably skimpy outfits (while Mr. Webster is always removing his shirt). So yes, in at least one respect Hallmark’s Summer Nights movies can be said to be “better” than those of the Christmas and spring seasons. But I realize such a distinction is meaningless, as anyone truly desiring a good movie is strongly advised to steer clear of the Hallmark Channel!