TV Talk: Lifetime explores more V.C. Andrews’ stories with ‘Dawn’

Disney+ has Marvel and “Star Wars” brands. AMC has “The Walking Dead” and Anne Rice series (“Interview with the Vampire,” “The Mayfair Witches). HBO has “Game of Thrones” shows as its primary intellectual property.

Lifetime’s entry in the IP sweepstakes is more down market and tawdry by comparison: Movies based on novels by V.C. Andrews.

Lifetime’s latest is a series of four TV movies based on V.C. Andrews’ Cutler family saga beginning with “Dawn” (8 p.m. Saturday with subsequent installments at 8 p.m. July 15, 22 and 29). And, wow, is it bad, stuffed with really awful dialogue and even worse performances (though, to be fair, the dialogue is so on-the-nose it would be difficult for any actor to make it convincing. Did Chat GPT write this thing?).

The story begins in the 1970s as Dawn (Brec Bassinger) and her brother Jimmy (Khobe Champ), who sleeps in the same bed as Dawn and looks at her a little too longingly, move with their parents to Richmond, Va., for her father (Jesse Metcalfe, speaking in an actorly Boston accent) to take a new job at a boarding school for rich kids.

Through a series of plot contortions, Dawn’s life is upended, and she winds up working as a maid at a hotel owned by nasty old Lillian Cutler (Donna Mills, “Knots Landing”).

“This worthless domestic is not your mother!” Lillian yells at Dawn before forcing her to work as a maid. “Did you expect to be treated like some long-lost princess?”

“Dawn” nearly crosses the line from just bad to camp, particularly in a scene where a woman is in bed having a conversation while a taxidermy cat stares at her from the corner of the frame without explanation. This goes on for what seems like an eternity before any human in the scene acknowledges the weird, unmoving cat.

Andrews, best known as an incest romance purveyor through “Flowers in the Attic,” began writing “Dawn” prior to her death and the novel was completed by ghostwriter Andrew Neiderman. Four sequels followed though Lifetime has opted to adapt the first four and skip the final book, a prequel.

The prospect of incest arises in “Dawn” in a couple of ways but the film replaces a rape scene in the book with an attempted rape.

For viewers who appreciate so-bad-its-entertaining movies, “Dawn” may hold some promise. But unlike, say, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” which knew it was camp, it’s completely unclear if “Dawn” is trying to be campy. The first film in the series walks a fine line between just plain bad and occasionally wacky enough (the taxidermy cat!) to rise slightly above its low-rent station.

‘Horror of Dolores Roach’

Attend the tale of Dolores Roach, an Amazon Prime Video series inspired by Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd,” though “Dolores” began as a one-woman play (“Empanada Loca”) and then became a Spotify podcast by writer Aaron Mark, who is co-showrunner on the Prime series.

Streaming Friday, “The Horror of Dolores Roach” delivers a compact (30-minute episodes), eight-episode meditation on love, betrayal, gentrification and cannibalism.

After seeing her life turned into a hit Broadway play, Dolores (Justina Machado, “Six Feet Under”) goes backstage to tell the actress playing her what really happened: After a 16-year stint in prison for selling marijuana, Dolores returns to a gentrified Washington Heights and gets a helping hand from old friend Luis (Alejandro Hernandez), who lets her live in the basement of his empanada shop and work out of that space as a masseuse.

When her newfound stability is threatened, Dolores goes off the rails. Empanadas with a secret ingredient (it’s people!) wind up on the menu.

Machado is excellent as the ferocious Dolores but the show is aimless and predictable with no big twist at the end. Amazon’s “Swarm” from earlier this year was a better, more effective and more entertaining horror entry.

Kept/canceled

MGM+ renewed “From” for a third season.

FX-produced series “Reservation Dogs” will end with its third season, premiering Aug. 2 on Hulu.

FX’s “Breeders” will end with its fourth season (10 p.m. July 31).

“The Other Two” will not return for a fourth season on Max.

Freeform canceled “Single Drunk Female” and “The Watchful Eye.”

Unsurprisingly — I never got a release announcing the show’s premiere date/trailer/anything — Apple TV+ canceled Patricia Arquette’s “High Desert” after one season.

WQED entry in PBS fest

Pittsburgh’s WQED-TV will have an entry in this year’s “PBS Short Film Festival,” the 12th annual event showcasing short-form independent films that will stream July 10-21 on all PBS digital platforms, including on their website.

WQED’s entry, “New Beginnings,” follows Sofia Caloiero, the college-age daughter of WQED producers/director Frank Caloiero, as she spends an afternoon making biscotti with her grandmother Vittoria, who shares stories of her immigration from Italy to the U.S. and her life as a new bride raising a family.

Sofia Caloiero is a film student at Chatham University and originally made the film as a class project. “New Beginnings” previously aired on WQED-TV’s “Filmmakers’ Corner.”

This year’s “PBS Short Film Festival” theme, “Stories in Bloom,” features stories around growth and creating new perspectives while celebrating identity, culture, family, society and the environment. A panel of seven jury members will select their favorite film of the festival for the juried prized.

Channel surfing

Fred Rogers’ Productions shows “Alma’s Way,” “Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood” and “Donkey Hodie” are among the nominees in the outstanding children’s programming category in the Television Critics Association’s 2023 TCA Awards, where adult series “Succession,” “The Last of Us” and “The Bear” have five nominations each. … While actors’ contract with Hollywood producers was set to expire June 30th, SAG-AFTRA will continue negotiating with Hollywood producers through July 12. … Cable network NewsNation is off DirecTV in a retransmission dispute.

You can reach TV writer Rob Owen at rowen@triblive.com or 412-380-8559. Follow Rob on Twitter or Facebook. Ask TV questions by email or phone. Please include your first name and location.