Fastflix

What Fastflix is

Fastflix is a guide rather than a channel. It tells you what each film is, who made it and who appears in it, and then hands you to the services that hold the rights. The catalogue was assembled by hand, one summary at a time, with a household audience in mind. Romance, comedy, family drama, biography and a little adventure make up nearly all of it. Thrillers, crime stories and disaster films, which fill much of the television-film schedule, were set aside. Christmas films, which are numerous enough to need a guide of their own, were left out as well, so that everything here can be watched in any month of the year.

The oldest films are from 1990, among them Montana, Dancin' Thru the Dark and When You Remember Me; the newest is Falling in Love in Niagara, from 2025. A viewer who browses by decade will see the form change: the star-led network dramas and literary adaptations of the 1990s, the cable biographies of the 2000s, and the bright, fast-moving romances that have dominated since about 2012.

Most of the films are American, and a good number were shot in Canada. Seven come from British television, where the single drama has a proud tradition of its own, and two from Australia.

How the pages are arranged

The design is dark, with a single strong red. A bar across the top holds the italic Fastflix mark and links to Movies, Romance, Weddings, True stories, Music, Top rated and the A to Z, with a My List link beside them. On a telephone the links fold into a menu opened by the button with three lines.

The home page begins with a rounded panel containing the logo, the main heading, a black search field with a red button, and a button leading to the full list of films. Beneath it are five rows of posters, seven to a row on a wide screen: Top rated, Romance, True stories, Weddings and From the 1990s. Each poster carries its rating in a small tab, with the title and year below, and every row heading has a See all link showing how many films the full shelf contains.

A film page shows the poster, the title, the year and running time, the rating from TMDB, the summary, the director and the cast, with the Watch now button and the country selector beside it. On every page except the first, a search field sits in the top bar.

The best loved: The Magic of Ordinary Days

The most admired film in the collection, and the one with the most votes, is The Magic of Ordinary Days, made in 2005 for a long-running anthology of quality television drama. Keri Russell plays Livy, an educated young woman from Denver in 1944 who, expecting a child and unmarried, is sent by her father to wed a shy beet farmer, played by Skeet Ulrich, on the lonely plains of southern Colorado. She arrives intending to leave as soon as she can. What follows is the slow, unshowy growth of respect into love, as she comes to understand the decency of the man she has married and befriends two sisters from a nearby camp.

The film is rated 7.5 from more than a hundred votes, far above the usual mark for a television film, and it is a good measure of what the form can do when it takes its time. Its pleasures are those of the whole shelf: landscape, good manners, a small cast, and feelings that are earned.

The same anthology produced several other films here. Plainsong, from the novel by Kent Haruf, is set in a small town on the Colorado plains, where a schoolteacher raising two sons, a pregnant teenager and two elderly bachelor ranchers gradually become a kind of family; Aidan Quinn and Rachel Griffiths lead the cast. Little John stars Ving Rhames as a Texas rancher raising his grandson, and The Echo of Thunder, with Judy Davis, is a family story set on a farm in the Australian bush. The Locket pairs Vanessa Redgrave, as an embittered resident of a care home, with a young man who needs a friend as much as she does.

Romance for every month

Seventy-nine films stand on the Romance shelf, and most follow the dependable pattern of the modern television love story: a capable heroine, a change of scene, a man who first seems an obstacle, and a town festival or deadline that throws them together. The Beach House, from the novel by Mary Alice Monroe, is among the best. Minka Kelly plays a Chicago executive who returns to her mother's cottage on the South Carolina coast, where the family has for years guarded the nests of sea turtles, and Andie MacDowell plays the mother with whom she must make peace.

The Real West, from 2024 and rated 6.9, takes a professor and her children to a working ranch for a holiday and introduces her to its owner. Identical Love, also 6.9, sends a doctor to volunteer abroad, where she meets the twin brother of the man she once meant to marry. Home for Harvest, Sweet Surrender, Fishing for Love and Just Jake, about a country singer whose songs have dried up, all bring someone back to a home town and an old flame. Catch a Falling Star strands a spoiled film actress, played by Sela Ward, in a small town where she takes an ordinary job to research a part.

Opposites attract in It Had to Be You, where two rivals at a merged advertising agency must share a campaign; in Listen Out for Love, where a podcast producer has to polish a brash new host; in Hearts in the Game, which pairs a New York publicist with a baseball pitcher who has lost his form; and in Two Chefs and a Wedding Cake, where a food critic meets a chef famous for ignoring critics. While You Were Dating reunites a long-divorced couple on a blind date, after which they agree to find partners for each other.

A few films add a touch of fantasy. For All Time stars Mark Harmon as a man in a failing marriage who finds that a commuter train can carry him back to the 1890s. Edge of the Garden gives a newly single man a house in Maine whose overgrown garden opens onto the year 1960. In My Dreams of You, a mix-up in the office that manages dreams sends a woman the same handsome stranger every night, and in Smooch a little girl, played by Kiernan Shipka, decides that the amnesiac man she has found must be a prince and a good match for her mother. The romance page offers a route through the shelf.

Weddings, planners and honeymoons

Thirty-three films have a wedding somewhere in the plot. The planners come first. In The Wedding Contest, a wealthy couple at odds over a theme hire two rival organisers and promise the job to the better proposal. A Bridesmaid in Love is about a woman who works as a professional bridesmaid, A Snapshot of Forever about a wedding photographer whose small-town routine is upset by a famous client, and The Wedding Arrangement about a botanist preparing the flowers for a society ceremony. One Perfect Wedding is the third film about the same couple, who now have two weeks to arrange their own.

Families supply the comedy. Mother of the Bride, from 1993, stars Rue McClanahan as a woman whose plans for her daughter's day are upset by the return of the husband who left years before. Wedding Daze, with John Larroquette and Karen Valentine, gives a couple three daughters who all announce their engagements at once. Mothers of the Bride brings together an adoptive mother and a birth mother, and Meddling Mom stars Sonia Braga as a parent with firm opinions on her daughters' choices. Falling in Love with the Girl Next Door pits two formidable mothers against each other across a garden fence.

Then there are the weddings that go astray. A Honeymoon to Remember and Falling in Love in Niagara both send a bride on her honeymoon alone, the first to a tropical resort and the second to the great waterfall, where a cautious planner learns to be spontaneous. Married by Mistake begins the morning after two colleagues celebrate a little too well in Las Vegas. Wish Upon a Wedding has a romantic who books the venue before she has found the groom, and Bridal Boot Camp sends a dressmaker on a tough training week for brides. Undercover Bridesmaid, with Brooke Burns, places a bodyguard in the wedding party of a tycoon's daughter. The weddings page sorts them by mood.

Kitchens, gardens and careers

The heroines of these films are good at their jobs, and the jobs are part of the charm. Food is a favourite. In Recipe for Love, Danielle Panabaker plays a perfectionist test cook assigned to help a temperamental television chef finish his book. A Slice of Romance pairs a publicist with a coffee-shop owner who dreams of being a pastry chef. Apple Mortgage Cake is a true story: Angela Logan, played by Kimberly Elise, saved her New Jersey home by baking and selling a hundred apple cakes in ten days.

Flowers and farms come next. Be Mine begins with six hundred pallets of flowers ordered by mistake and a contest invented to use them. In Growing the Big One, Shannen Doherty is a radio host who inherits a pumpkin farm and must win the giant-pumpkin prize to keep it. The Chateau Meroux gives a city woman a neglected vineyard left by the father she barely knew. The Nature of Romance sends a travel writer to a state park, and You, Me, and that Mountain Retreat a product designer to lead a company outing she is far from ready for.

The media appear in Chasing the One, about a podcast that reunites lost loves; in Change of Heart, about a producer of a travel programme; in Cupid, with Joely Fisher as a talk-show host; and in When Sparks Fly, in which a city journalist goes home to write about the Fourth of July, with the future Duchess of Sussex in the cast. Sport supplies A Winning Team, about a professional footballer coaching a girls' side, and The Princess and the Barrio Boy, about a young swimmer with Olympic hopes. The careers page groups the films by profession.

True stories: public life

Thirty-one films are drawn from real lives, and the finest is George Wallace, directed in 1997 by John Frankenheimer. Gary Sinise plays the governor of Alabama across thirty years, from the ambitious young judge of the 1950s to the figure who stood for segregation at the schoolhouse door and, late in life, asked forgiveness of those he had wronged. Mare Winningham plays his first wife Lurleen, who succeeded him as governor, and a young Angelina Jolie his second. Sinise, Winningham and Frankenheimer all won Emmy Awards, and the film is rated 6.8 here.

Mandela and de Klerk stars Sidney Poitier as Nelson Mandela and Michael Caine as the South African president F. W. de Klerk, in the years of negotiation that led from a prison cell to a shared peace prize. The Reagans follows Ronald and Nancy Reagan, played by James Brolin and Judy Davis, from Hollywood to the White House. Margaret Thatcher: The Long Walk to Finchley is a witty British account of the future prime minister's ten-year search for a parliamentary seat in the 1950s, with Andrea Riseborough.

The struggle for civil rights is the subject of three films suitable for older children as well as adults. The Ernest Green Story follows the eldest of the nine students who entered the high school at Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957, played by Morris Chestnut. Selma, Lord, Selma sees the marches of 1965 through the eyes of an eleven-year-old girl, played by Jurnee Smollett. Walkout, directed by Edward James Olmos, recounts the 1968 protest by Mexican-American pupils in the schools of East Los Angeles, with Alexa PenaVega and Michael Peña.

British history is represented by A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia, which gave Ralph Fiennes one of his first leading parts as T. E. Lawrence at the peace conference of 1919, and American letters by Mark Twain and Me, in which Jason Robards plays the elderly author befriended by a young admirer on an ocean crossing. Warning: Parental Advisory dramatises the Senate hearings of 1985 on labels for record albums, and The Crooked E: The Unshredded Truth About Enron the collapse of an energy company as seen by a young recruit.

True stories: sport and courage

Sport makes natural television drama. When Billie Beat Bobby recreates the tennis match of 1973 in which Billie Jean King, played by Holly Hunter, faced the former champion Bobby Riggs, played by Ron Silver, before a vast audience in a Houston stadium. Rocky Marciano stars Jon Favreau as the heavyweight who retired undefeated, with George C. Scott as his father. The Man Who Lost Himself tells the story of the Canadian football star Terry Evanshen, who had to relearn his own life after an accident.

Ice Bound is the remarkable account of Dr Jerri Nielsen, played by Susan Sarandon, the only physician at the South Pole research station in the winter of 1999, who had to treat herself for a serious illness with supplies dropped from an aircraft. When You Remember Me stars Fred Savage as a teenager with muscular dystrophy who campaigned for the rights of young people in care homes. The Whale, a British production with Martin Sheen, retells the last voyage of the Nantucket whaling ship Essex, the event that inspired a famous novel.

Two British films celebrate lives in the arts. The Road to Coronation Street shows how a writer of twenty-two, Tony Warren, created the world's longest-running television serial in 1960 and fought to get it on air; it won the British Academy award for single drama. The Boy with the Topknot, from the memoir by the journalist Sathnam Sanghera, follows a young man home to Wolverhampton to tell his Punjabi family about his life in London, and to learn their story in return. The true stories page lists all thirty-one.

Music films

Fourteen films are about singers and songs. The Beatles appear twice. In His Life: The John Lennon Story covers the years in Liverpool and Hamburg up to the group's first American television appearance, and The Linda McCartney Story follows the photographer Linda Eastman from the pages of a music magazine to her marriage to Paul McCartney. Take Me Home: The John Denver Story stars Chad Lowe as the singer of mountain anthems.

Country music is honoured in Dolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors, based on the song about the patchwork coat her mother sewed for her in the Tennessee mountains in 1955, with Jennifer Nettles as the mother and the young Alyvia Alyn Lind as Dolly; and in Naomi & Wynonna: Love Can Build a Bridge, the story of the mother and daughter who became one of the most successful duos in the genre. Just Jake is a fictional cousin, about a rising star with a blank page.

The birth of rock and roll is the subject of Mr. Rock n Roll: The Alan Freed Story, with Judd Nelson as the Cleveland disc jockey who gave the music its name, and of Shake, Rattle and Rock!, a lively comedy of 1950s teenagers with a young Renée Zellweger. Later decades are covered by Man in the Mirror: The Michael Jackson Story, Britney Ever After, Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B and Love Under New Management: The Miki Howard Story. The music page arranges them by style.

The 1990s: stars on the small screen

Forty-two films date from the 1990s, the last decade in which the big American networks made television films in quantity and filled them with famous names. The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn gave Sidney Poitier a fine late role as an elderly craftsman and farmer in Georgia whose land is wanted by developers, with Dianne Wiest as the psychiatrist sent to assess him. For Richer, for Poorer stars Jack Lemmon as a self-made millionaire who gives away his fortune to teach his idle son the value of work. Montana, written by Larry McMurtry, casts Richard Crenna and Gena Rowlands as ranchers divided over an offer for their land.

Neil Simon's comedy The Sunshine Boys was filmed in 1996 with Woody Allen and Peter Falk as the two old vaudeville partners, long at odds, who must reunite for one broadcast. Seasons of the Heart pairs Carol Burnett and George Segal as a busy publisher and her husband who find themselves raising a grandson. A Cooler Climate brings together Sally Field and Judy Davis as a housekeeper and her employer on the coast of Maine, and Journey of the Heart stars Cybill Shepherd as a mother determined that her gifted, blind son shall have a musical education.

Lighter entertainment of the decade includes The Counterfeit Contessa, with Téa Leoni as a shop assistant mistaken for an aristocrat; Working Tra$h, with George Carlin and a young Ben Stiller as cleaners at a brokerage who start reading the wastepaper; Crazy From the Heart, with Christine Lahti as a school principal who surprises her town; and Bandit: Bandit Goes Country, one of a series of television adventures for a famous trucker's friend. The 1990s page picks out the highlights.

The West on television

The western moved to television in the 1990s, and several good examples are here. Cheyenne Warrior, rated 7.4, is the surprise of the shelf: Kelly Preston plays a young woman left alone at a remote trading post in the 1860s, who nurses a wounded Cheyenne man, played by Pato Hoffmann, through the winter; out of mutual need comes respect and affection. Geronimo, made in 1993 with a largely Native American cast, tells the life of the Apache leader from youth to old age.

The Cisco Kid revives a hero of early television, with Jimmy Smits as Cisco and Cheech Marin as his companion Pancho, riding through Mexico in the time of the Emperor Maximilian. King of Texas is the boldest experiment: Shakespeare's King Lear moved to the Republic of Texas in the 1840s, with Patrick Stewart as the cattle baron John Lear, who divides his ranch among his daughters, and Marcia Gay Harden as the eldest.

The modern West appears in Mending Fences, in which a television journalist returns to her Nevada home town and to a quarrel over water, and in The Real West, Little John and Plainsong, already described. The westerns page gathers them.

From books and plays

Television has always raided the library. Jane Austen is represented by Sense and Sensibility, a 2024 version with Deborah Ayorinde as Elinor Dashwood, and Louisa May Alcott by The Inheritance, filmed from the novel she wrote at seventeen, about an orphan companion in a great house and a horse race that decides her future. The Sea Wolf, from Jack London, stars Charles Bronson as the tyrannical sealing captain Wolf Larsen and Christopher Reeve as the gentleman he drags aboard.

H. G. Wells's The First Men in the Moon was adapted by Mark Gatiss, who also plays the eccentric Professor Cavor, with Rory Kinnear as his partner in a voyage of 1909. The Making of a Lady, from a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, follows a penniless but educated woman who accepts a practical proposal from a widowed lord. Homecoming, from the prize-winning novel by Cynthia Voigt, is about four children who walk the length of the eastern seaboard to find a grandmother who is a stranger to them, played by Anne Bancroft.

The bestseller lists supply Danielle Steel's Zoya, the saga of a Russian countess who rebuilds her life in Paris and New York, with Melissa Gilbert; Changes, with Cheryl Ladd as a television reporter and Michael Nouri as a heart surgeon; and Mixed Blessings, about three couples hoping for children. From the stage come The Sunshine Boys and Dancin' Thru the Dark, Willy Russell's Liverpool comedy about a bride and groom whose separate parties end up in the same dance hall. The books page lists them by author.

British television films

Seven films come from Britain, where the single play has been a glory of television since the 1960s. The gem is Pat and Margaret, written by Victoria Wood in 1994 and rated 7.7. Julie Walters plays Pat, a glamorous star of American serials who is promoting her autobiography on a British chat show when the producers spring a surprise: the sister she left behind twenty-seven years ago, a motorway cafeteria worker played by Wood herself. The comedy of their reunion is very funny and unexpectedly moving.

My Summer With Des is a romantic comedy set during the European football championship of 1996, with Neil Morrissey as a fan whose luck changes when he meets a mysterious woman, played by Rachel Weisz, who seems to know the result of every match. Coming Down the Mountain, written by the novelist Mark Haddon, is about two teenage brothers, one of whom has Down's syndrome, and a journey to Snowdonia that changes how each sees the other; Nicholas Hoult plays the elder.

From Australia comes Da Kath & Kim Code, a feature-length outing for the suburban mother and daughter whose mangled sayings made them national favourites. The British page gives the full list.

Films for younger viewers and families

Several films were made for family viewing. Three are television remakes of well-loved studio comedies: The Shaggy Dog, in which a boy who longs for a pet finds his older brother turning into one; The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes, with Kirk Cameron as a student who absorbs an entire encyclopedia by accident; and Frankenstein: The College Years, in which a medical student inherits a professor's laboratory and its tall, gentle occupant. Journey to the Center of the Earth is a 1993 adventure on a Jules Verne theme.

Sweet 15, made for a children's drama series, follows a Mexican-American girl in Los Angeles preparing for her quinceañera, the celebration of her fifteenth birthday, who learns that her father's papers are less secure than she thought. Dolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors, The Ernest Green Story, Selma, Lord, Selma and Mark Twain and Me are all excellent for a mixed audience, and Love at First Bark, in which a designer adopts a dog and hires a trainer, and Girl's Best Friend, with Janeane Garofalo and a terrier named Binky, will please anyone who likes animals. The family page suggests titles for each age.

Comedy of everyday life

Seventy-five films are comedies, and beyond the romances there is a strand of gentle comedy about ordinary households. It Must Be Love stars Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen, husband and wife in real life, as a couple who decide to divide their belongings like adults and rediscover each other in the process. Family Plan, with Tori Spelling, has an ambitious executive who claims a husband and daughter at a job interview and must then produce them for a weekend. Tom, Dick and Harriet gives an advertising man who has lost his post a younger partner with fewer scruples.

The Seven Year Hitch is about two lifelong friends who share a house and discover that, under the law of their state, they may already be married. Husband for Hire turns on an inheritance with a condition attached. 7 Things To Do Before I'm 30 sends a woman home to Colorado with a childhood list in her hand, and Mid-Love Crisis gives Teri Hatcher a fiftieth birthday and two suitors. Lead with Your Heart, with William Baldwin, looks at a long marriage tested by a job in another city; Baldwin also stars in Be My Valentine as a firefighter and single father.

Two films stand out for their warmth of observation. Everyday People follows the staff of a Brooklyn diner in the days after they learn it is to close. Good Fences, with Danny Glover and Whoopi Goldberg, is a comedy-drama about a lawyer and his family who move to a wealthy Connecticut suburb in the 1970s.

A short history of the television film

The film made for television is a little over sixty years old. American networks began commissioning feature-length dramas in the middle of the 1960s, when the supply of cinema films they could afford to broadcast started to run short, and by the 1970s each of the three networks had a weekly slot for a new one. The form suited subjects the cinema avoided: illness, family strain, events from that year's headlines. It also suited performers, since a television film could be made in a month and seen by thirty million people in a night.

The 1980s and 1990s were the high summer. Sponsors funded prestige anthologies, among them the long-running series of quality dramas from which The Magic of Ordinary Days, Plainsong, Little John, The Locket and The Echo of Thunder all come. Cable channels joined in, and their freedom from advertising breaks allowed films as ambitious as George Wallace and Walkout. Networks aimed at families remade old studio comedies such as The Shaggy Dog, and music channels discovered the appeal of the pop biography.

After 2000 the networks largely withdrew, and the form found a new home on channels devoted to romance and family entertainment. They learned to make films economically in Canada, to build loyal casts, and to release new titles every weekend, and the streaming services have since followed their example. The result is the lively cottage industry behind most of the films here dated after 2010, from Recipe for Love and The Seven Year Hitch to Married by Mistake.

Britain took a different road. There the single play, written for television and often shown only once, was for decades the most admired thing on the schedule, and writers such as Victoria Wood and Willy Russell made their names in it. Pat and Margaret and Dancin' Thru the Dark belong to that tradition, as do more recent one-off dramas such as The Road to Coronation Street.

Places on screen

The collection can be explored as a map. The American South is the setting of The Beach House on the Carolina coast, The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn in Georgia, and George Wallace and Selma, Lord, Selma in Alabama. The plains and mountains of the West appear in Plainsong and The Magic of Ordinary Days in Colorado, Montana in the state of that name, Mending Fences in Nevada and King of Texas and Little John in Texas. New York is home to Everyday People, The Sunshine Boys and Hearts in the Game, and Los Angeles to Walkout and Sweet 15.

New England has A Cooler Climate and Edge of the Garden in Maine, and the small harbour town of Fishing for Love. Canada appears as itself in Falling in Love in Niagara and The Man Who Lost Himself. Across the Atlantic, Dancin' Thru the Dark is set in Liverpool, The Boy with the Topknot in Wolverhampton, Coming Down the Mountain in London and Wales, and The Road to Coronation Street in Manchester, while To England, With Love tours the countryside.

Further afield are the Paris of A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia and Danielle Steel's Zoya, the South Africa of Mandela and de Klerk, the Australian bush of The Echo of Thunder, the suburbs of Da Kath & Kim Code and the Antarctic ice of Ice Bound. Typing a place into the search field will usually find a film set there.

By decade

Four shelves divide the films by date, and each has a character of its own. The 1990s shelf, with forty-two films, is the place for stars, westerns, literary adaptations and network comedy. The 2000s shelf, with thirty-four, is strongest in true stories: When Billie Beat Bobby, Ice Bound, The Reagans, Walkout and the music biographies all belong to it, along with The Magic of Ordinary Days and King of Texas.

The 2010s shelf, with forty-one, shows the modern romance finding its form, in films such as Undercover Bridesmaid, Recipe for Love, The Beach House and Love at First Bark, beside British dramas such as The First Men in the Moon. The 2020s shelf, with thirty-seven, is almost wholly given to love stories and weddings. Working through the decades in order is a pleasant way to watch thirty-five years of popular taste go by, and the A to Z page shows them all at once.

Choosing for an evening

With 154 films to hand, it helps to choose by mood. For something light after a long day, the modern romances are the safest ground: Recipe for Love, It Had to Be You, Love at First Bark and A Slice of Romance all run for under ninety minutes and ask very little of the viewer except goodwill. For a weekend afternoon with relatives of several generations, Dolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors, Mark Twain and Me and The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn are warm and unhurried.

When the household wants something with more substance, the true stories repay attention, and George Wallace, Mandela and de Klerk and Walkout each leave plenty to talk about afterwards. For laughter, Pat and Margaret, The Sunshine Boys and Da Kath & Kim Code offer three very different national styles of comedy. And for a quiet evening alone, Plainsong and The Magic of Ordinary Days are the two films here most likely to stay in the memory.

Stars to follow

Because the collection draws on thirty-five years of television, it is rich in famous names. Sidney Poitier appears twice, in The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn and Mandela and de Klerk, both made when he was past seventy. Judy Davis has three films: The Echo of Thunder, A Cooler Climate and The Reagans. Patrick Stewart, Vanessa Redgrave, Susan Sarandon, Holly Hunter, Sally Field, Anne Bancroft, Gena Rowlands, Jack Lemmon, Jason Robards, Michael Caine and Charles Bronson each have at least one.

Part of the fun is spotting stars at the start. Ralph Fiennes in A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia, Renée Zellweger in Shake, Rattle and Rock!, Angelina Jolie in George Wallace, Rachel Weisz in My Summer With Des, Nicholas Hoult in Coming Down the Mountain, Ben Stiller in Working Tra$h and Kiernan Shipka in Smooch were all on their way up. The stars page suggests where to start, and typing any name into the search field gathers that performer's films.

The 2020s

Thirty-seven films date from 2020 to 2025. They are nearly all romances, made quickly and brightly for the streaming services and cable channels that now commission them by the dozen, and they travel further than their predecessors: To England, With Love sends its heroine on a treasure hunt through the English countryside, Identical Love is set at a clinic overseas, and A Honeymoon to Remember at a beach resort. Love's Fast Lane has a mechanic for a heroine, Make Me a Match and The Perfect Wedding Match both turn on matchmaking applications, and 10 Truths About Love and Advice to Love By on columnists who must follow their own counsel.

The decade has also produced a few films of a different kind. Sense and Sensibility is part of a recent run of classic adaptations with fresh casting, and The Love Club: Nicole’s Pen Pal belongs to a set of linked films about four friends who promise to help one another in matters of the heart. The 2020s page lists them by year.

Top rated

The Top rated shelf holds the sixteen films with a TMDB rating of 6.3 or more from at least fifteen votes. Strength of a Woman leads at 8.2, followed by The Magic of Ordinary Days at 7.5 and Cheyenne Warrior at 7.4. Identical Love and The Real West stand at 6.9, George Wallace and Geronimo at 6.8, and One Perfect Wedding at 6.6. Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B, Twist of Fate, Change of Heart, Dolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors, For All Time, Love at First Bark, Love by the 10th Date and A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia complete the list.

Several films with fewer votes have high marks too: Pat and Margaret at 7.7, Mark Twain and Me at 7.5, Plainsong and Selma, Lord, Selma at 7.2, and Homecoming, Dancin' Thru the Dark and The Road to Coronation Street at 7.1. Television films attract few ratings, so these figures are best read as friendly recommendations.

A few words worth knowing

A handful of terms help in reading about these films. A movie of the week was the networks' name for the new film shown in a regular evening slot. A miniseries is a longer story in two or more parts; The Reagans was first shown that way. A docudrama is a dramatised account of real events. A back-door pilot is a film made in the hope that it will lead to a series. A meet-cute is the charming accident by which a screen couple first cross paths.

Fans of the modern romance speak of tropes, the familiar situations the films reuse: the inherited farm, the rival who becomes a partner, the honeymoon for one, the return to a home town. Typing one of those words into the search field will usually turn up a small shelf of examples.

Search and the A to Z

The search field looks through titles, actors, directors and summaries as you type. Typing a name such as Poitier or Sarandon brings up a performer's films; typing a subject such as wedding, ranch, chef or tennis gathers films on that theme; a year such as 1997 lists that season's releases. Common extra words such as "watch", "movie" or "streaming" are set aside. The finding titles page describes all four routes.

The A to Z page lists all 154 films in alphabetical order with a row of letters for jumping ahead, and four decade shelves, linked from the page of collections, divide the catalogue by date.

My List

My List is your own queue for the evenings ahead. Press Add to My List on any film page and it joins the queue; the My List link in the top bar opens it, where each entry has its poster and a Remove button. The queue is stored by your browser on the device in front of you, so it is waiting on your next visit, and the list page will export it to a file to keep or to carry elsewhere. The My List page explains each step.

How Watch now works

Each film page has a country selector and a Watch now button. Choose your country from the fifteen offered and press the button. JustWatch opens on the page for that film and shows which subscription services include it, where it can be rented or bought, and any free services with advertising that carry it. Older television films in particular move between services and are often found on free channels, which is why Fastflix points to a live source.

A first fortnight

For a newcomer, here is one way to spend two weeks. Begin with The Magic of Ordinary Days, then lighten the mood with Recipe for Love and The Seven Year Hitch. Give an evening each to George Wallace and Cheyenne Warrior, and laugh with Pat and Margaret.

In the second week, try The Beach House and The Real West for romance, When Billie Beat Bobby and Ice Bound for true stories, and Dolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors with the family. Finish with King of Texas and The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn, two reminders of how good a television film can be.

Questions and answers

The questions below are those most often asked about Fastflix, with short answers. Fuller help is on the help pages named throughout this guide.

Questions