What are some of your favorite melodramas?
From Wikipedia
A modern melodrama is a dramatic work in which the plot, typically sensationalized and for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodramas typically concentrate on dialogue that is often bombastic or excessively sentimental, rather than action. Characters are often flat, and written to fulfill stereotypes.
Contemporarily, we use the word melodrama for narrative works that go to great lengths to induce certain kinds of emotion at all costs, to detriment of the internal cohesion of both plot and characterization, often in a manner that some consider cheesy, corny, or excessive. All soap operas are melodramas, as are many movies and TV shows. Some melodramas are cheap and fail to achieve their effects, while others can be more rich and even sophisticated. In a way, many mainstream stories are, to some extent, melodramas, even when there are other, more salient genres. There's melodrama in action, crime, and science fiction.
Here are some examples of what I consider more or less contemporary melodramas:
- The Young and the Restless
- Grey's Anatomy
- The Color Purple
- Downton Abbey
- Dawson's Creek
- Avatar
- Gone with the Wind
And here are some stories that are not melodrama, but contain a whole lot of it:
I really liked Chernobyl actually. It's been heavily dramatised for the big screen and it's full of inaccuracies but it was just a good watch IMO.
I didn't really think this would be melodrama! Now I kinda wanna watch it just to see how they managed that.
Me neither, but I think it fits exactly your description actually! It's a very dramatised account of the Chernobyl disaster.
I like pretty much everything about Downton Abbey. Yes, I know that the author is a monarchist and has a vested interest in representing the aristocracy as honorable and good, but I only learned that later and, frankly, I don't care. I'm not British so to me Downton Abbey is "historical fantasy". The show managed to make me feel part of that family, both upstairs and downstairs. I felt their pain and cheered for their happiness. That is certainly my favorite pure melodrama of all time.
Did you watch the most recent movie? Honestly, they could make a Downton movie about the most frivolous events, and it would still warm my heart. I will always enjoy the snapshots we get of that "historical fantasy" world. Both movies gave me that getting-the-band-back-together feeling unlike any other reboot/remake/sequel/what-have-you I've seen in recent years.
My wife and I literally cheered Save Downton, save Downton at our TV at some point during the Mary/Matthew romance plot. And of course, the pain we felt shortly thereafter.
Oh, that is so cute! I did that in my mind. I love them so much.
I haven't seen the second movie, only the first. It's not available in my country so I'll probably pirate it.
I’d classify all the Guillermo de Toro movies as melodramas.
David O Russell movies contain a lot of melodrama but specifically The Fighter.
Clint Eastwood movies generally also are melodramatic with few exceptions if any. Million Dollar Baby, Changeling, J. Edgar, Cry Macho, and especially Mystic River. Even Eastwood inspired movies like Bradley Cooper’s A Star is Born carry that distinction.
Speaking of A Star is Born, all of them. All the versions. I like most of them, the only one I don’t like is the Judy Garland version.
Going into some old movies we have Mildred Pierce, All That Heaven Allows, Black Narcissus, The Lost Weekend (and really all of Wilder’s dramatic movies like Sunset Boulevard).
The melodrama we got into during Covid was Jane the Virgin. Highly recommend.
Lost?