For some, an over-the-top cheesy romance movie is like chicken soup for the soul. Hallmark is known for quickly churning out overly sentimental movies for every holiday occasion. Valentine’s Day is no exception. Their streaming service has an impressive collection of flowery offerings that will keep you reaching for the tissues on the holiday of love.

These films have a lot of common things between them. They just wouldn’t be Hallmark movies without certain elements. Here’s a lit of the 10 most common tropes you’ll find in their Valentine’s titles.

The Cynic

What is it about humans that makes us cheer for the underdog? Every Christmas, Hallmark puts out movies about people who don’t believe in Santa that go on to find their Christmas spirit.

For Valentine’s Day, there are lead characters who don’t believe in love. These archetypical characters have given up on romance and dating. The film is dedicated to showing them the error of their ways. The Cupids of Valentine’s Days past, present, and future haunt these lonely scrooges until their hearts melt. Choosing to stay single is a perfectly healthy and valid choice. Unless you’re in a Hallmark movie, that is.

The Workaholic

Movies villainizing women who love their careers is nothing new. Hallmark movies love to skewer any character who prefers to put in long hours at the office over baking cookies in an apron. The brand pushes one specific lifestyle pretty hard. There are plenty of movies depicting women with careers they love as heartless snow-queens who crave money and recognition.

Maybe, these characters worked hard in college and just like their work? That’s an impossible concept in the Hallmark universe. There, the only noble use for a woman’s time is to fall in love with a small-town pastry chef and immediately give up her six-figure salary.

Restoring The Old Homestead

In the real world, couples usually meet on dating apps or at work. In a Hallmark movie, couples meet when someone leaves a multi-million dollar property in need of renovation. It’s not always an inheritance. There’s also the common occurrence of winning a bed and breakfast in an essay contest or a calling into a radio station and being handed a cliff-side lighthouse.

Whatever it takes to get a reluctant woman to take ownership of a dilapidated property that she must, for some reason, personally restore with the help of the local single guy. In reality, the simple act of assembling Ikea furniture has broken up happy households. In the Hallmark world, rebuilding a barn is the ultimate aphrodisiac.

Moving To A Small Town

Apparently, the first step to falling in love is to get away from the big, mean city. You have to get out of the hustle and bustle of your everyday life to find the perfect guy. Distractions like a career, social life, and hobbies are romance killers.

The way to find true happiness is to be forced to move out to some unknown small town with no cell towers and practically be held hostage. Friendly locals will immediately begin trying to set the newcomer up with the only single guy in town. Their only competition will be a petty woman who peaked in high school and has it out for them.

A Handsome Widower

Nothing is sexier to a woman than trauma, right? Hallmark really pushes the idea that there is a huge population of young, handsome men who have lost their first loves too soon. How else will he come with a pre-made family but still seem like a good guy?

There are very few men in these movies who got caught texting another woman then went through a messy divorce. There has to be a vulnerability to the characters to soften them. A man cannot just be sensitive because that is there natural personality. In a Hallmark movie, men only discover their true emotional depth through personal tragedy.

A Magic Spell

In Hallmark movies, falling in love after getting to know someone is so unrealistic that they employ actual sorcery to avoid it. There are countless movies in which characters endure supernatural experiences that push them toward their soulmates. Imagine bumping into an older woman who babels cryptic messages about massively lowering your expectations of men.

She casts some kind of spell on the protagonist to force them to relive Valentine’s Day over and over and over until finally, they are broken. Eventually, they’ll accept that what they really need to be happy is a boyfriend.

Free Real Estate

The Hallmark world is a magical place. In it, there are so many romantic, historic properties that they give them away for seemingly free. Real estate agents can kiss their commission goodbye in this world because no one is paying for a thing.

The audience is expected to sit spellbound as formerly happy people are made responsible for buildings they do not want. For some reason, an entire small town will depend on them to swoop in and save these crumbling structures. Along the way, they learn a lot about love, priorities, and finding true happiness at the local hardware store.

The Parent Trap

It’s widely known that children are expected to make huge, lifechanging decisions on behalf of adults. No one is more qualified to choose a spouse than a 7-year-old who wants a new mom.

Kids setting their parents up is a staple of a good Hallmark film. Rest assured, if there is a single parent in the script, their kid is definitely going to meddle.

A Dying Spouse

Hallmark films are full of tragedy. Everyone seems to take death surprisingly well and they effortlessly talk about it with smiles plastered across their faces. Entire plots exist based around the premise that someone doesn’t need any time to grieve and their terminally ill loved one wants to watch them fall in love with someone else.

There is no time to process what’s happened to their life, heal, and move on slowly. In the Hallmark world, they either stay married for 108 years or someone dies while their partner is still young and beautiful.

Waiting For Lost Love

This may be the greatest romance trope of all time. Everyone loves a story about a middle-aged person who spent decades of their lives waiting on someone they dated for 3 weeks in high school.

Far from being a red flag, in the Hallmark universe, this is seen as proof of one’s undying commitment to long-dead relationships. What could be more attractive than a person who’s been hung up on their ex since WWII?

Next: 10 Best Hallmark Valentines Movies, According To IMDb