Editor's Note: The following has been adapted with the author's permission from its original publication on Carolina Culture Warrior. To be fully transparent, the author also owns shares in ABC (as previously disclosed).
With the start of March, a family-oriented series teaching moral lessons never seen in most TV shows and a spinoff of an envelope-pushing lefty TV series highlight this new installment of winners and losers in the television industry.
Winner – Hallmark Channel for important lessons in When Calls the Heart
Readers might recall a previous column focusing on the Hallmark Channel original series When Calls the Heart starring Erin Krakow, Daniel Lissing and Fuller House actress Lori Loughlin.
Its family-based, conservative values messaging illustrates why the show has made Hallmark Channel one of cable’s fastest growing destinations. More broadly, it’s one of the few shows left with moral lessons that anybody can find agreement and comfort in, regardless of one’s place on the political spectrum
Last week’s episode provided a perfect example.
It had young teacher Elizabeth Thatcher tell two of her sister Julie’s students that, after he got into a fight with a classmate, it was okay to disagree with someone, but resorting to violence only makes matters worse, not better. That same subplot saw Elizabeth helping her sister Julie as a teacher and overcoming mistakes in the classroom.
It’s not often we see a lesson like that in today’s television programming, and it’s crucial that the Hallmark Channel continue to understand what’s missing in the entertainment industry as the country is further divided.
Loser – CBS, Vicious Anti-Trump Propaganda in The Good Fight
CBS is at it again, alienating the same viewers they count on for shows like NCIS and Blue Bloods, and it happens to be a smutty spinoff of the reliably liberal Good Wife drama airing on its All Access streaming service.
Scott Whitlock reported that the show decided to fulfill the liberal fantasy of impeaching President Trump for, among other gripes, racial injustice. Star Christine Baranski was giddy over this plot line on February 27's CBS This Morning:
GAYLE KING: Christine Baranski, welcome back to the table. I love that scene where she says, “Why not go with no devil,” which I absolutely agree with. But the thing I think about this show that is great is that you guys really push the envelope. You talk about white supremacy, referring to the President of the United States. You talk about racial injustice. You talk about sexual harassment. It really pushes the envelope. Is that what you like about it?
CHRISTINE BARANSKI: Well, I don’t see how if you’re doing a show with characters that are living in our surreal time, how you cannot address what is, you know, a world off its axis. And so it addresses exactly the world that —
KING: In realtime.
BARANSKI: And they’re lawyers, so that is their reality. They have to do cases on sexual harassment and white supremacy or gun violence or — so I think more than ever — I’ve been playing with the character for nine years and never had more fun. It’s never been more rock and roll in terms of the writing. This character of Diane Lockhart, very pulled together, beautiful clothes, always the grown-up in the room, elegant, eloquent. She gets unhinged. You watch — she’s addicted to cable news. She can’t believe what she’s watching. You know, can we relate to this?
Who’s “we”? Would “we” be entertainment industry elites like Baranski who are disconnected from the elites in Los Angeles, New York, and Washington? CBS must be very proud to have a show as arrogantly partisan as The Good Fight on their airwaves, even if it’s the network’s paid subscription service.
