I grew up watching the true made for TV movies in the 90s. Death of A Cheerleader, No one would tell, When he's not a stranger etc etc. I have been watching the new lifetime movies over the last few years and it was during this movie, what happened to my sister that I suddenly felt depressed and began to wonder what's wrong in my life that I have nothing better to do than watch these bottom of the pond movies. Like a bad relationship I kept hoping the next movie would be as great as the earlier movies were. I don't know what happened to lifetime but watching their movies past about 2012 is like watching a train wreck that stubbornly tries to drive on anyway, whether able to stay on the rails or not.
It's not just the ridiculously over-dramatic plotlines, the unrealistic situations or even the banal repetitiveness of the same idea... eg the perfect body/perfect spouse/perfect nanny or the wrong life coach/real estate agent/tutor etc.
The actors in all the lifetime movies pretty much act like someone has just hauled them in off the street and said, you wanna make some money, then read aloud this script that the writer drafted five minutes ago, and we'll shoot in ten. No kidding. This movie, What happened to my sister, starts as so many new lifetime movies do, right in the middle of the story. It's like they don't even have time to build up the plot. The characters are always from the start of the movie right on the edge of a nervous breakdown or freakout.
The acting is awful - it seems like the actors are given no direction... or do they only do one take and run with it? The conversations are stilted to the point it feels like the actors didn't film the scenes together even, or that someone is holding the script up behind the camera for the actors. The mothers now look more like their daughters sisters, and even the mothers dialogues are teenage-like rather than adult. I don't know who lifetime's target audience is, but this is the last new lifetime movie I will watch.
I don't know if anyone from lifetime reads these reviews. But, seriously guys. You could at least make it look like you're trying.
