Wash, rinse, repeat

Every year at about this time Lifetime brings us a new movie that bears a familiar resemblance to It’s A Wonderful Life. Someone hates their life and either 1) has an accident, 2) goes through some portal, or 3) suddenly wakes up and finds themselves in their “perfect” world with their “perfect” life only to discover later that the life that they had was what they really wanted.

The latest fare from Lifetime:

A week before Christmas, Paula (Nicole Eggert) finds herself struggling with bills and life with her blue-collar husband Gary and her two daughters. When Nick, her High School boyfriend returns to town a wealthy art Gallery owner, Paula wonders if she made the wrong decision when she took the wrong date to the prom. What would her life have been like if she stayed with Nick? Christmas is a time for Miracles, and so when Paula wishes she could see what her life would have been like if she’d made the other choice, she finds herself magically transported through her washer/dryer to a parallel life where she is Nick’s wife. At first, this new life seems the answer to her dreams, as she shops and dines out with her newfound wealth. But she soon realizes that the grass is NOT always greener. Her relationship with Nick is in shambles, and she misses her real husband Gary and her two girls. When she sees Gary and her kids living a happy life with another woman, she wishes for just one Christmas gift’to have back the life she didn’t appreciate. Holiday Switch | myLifetime.com

There was one last year that was the same, just with different people and circumstances—the woman last year was a single, successful businesswoman. She wakes up after a car accident to find that she is now a mother and a wife. At first she hates her new life but soon comes to love it. After another car accident, she wakes up back in her old life and “magically” meets her husband from her dream life.

I guess it’s an easy way to get viewers. Just recycle an old story and tweak it a bit. It can’t lose!