Last night, I finally watched the latest Lifetime “original” film, The Good Mistress.

Why Was I Watching It?

When the Good Mistress originally aired, I was in Austin celebrating Valentine’s Day.  As a result, the film had been sitting on my DVR for four days before I finally got a chance to watch it last night.

As for why I recorded it in the first place — well, you know I can’t ever resist the temptation of a good Lifetime film.

What Was It About?

Recovering alcoholic Sandy (Annie Heise) is looking to start a new life after being involved in a tragic car accident.  She moves to a small town where her best friend from high school, Karen (Kendra Anderson), get her a job.  Sandy also meets handsome and smooth politician David (Antonio Cupo).  After Sandy sleeps with David, she discovers that he also happens to be Karen’s husband!  And, it turns out, the women he has sex with have a habit of turning up dead.

Can Sandy still start her new life and expose David without losing Karen’s friendship and giving into the temptation to start drinking again?

Will David respond to everything Sandy says with a devilish smirk?

Will the nice and well-meaning sheriff fall in love with Sandy?

Most importantly, will there be a huge twist at the end?

If you’ve ever watched a Lifetime film, you already know the answer.

What Worked?

This was pretty much your typical Canadian-made Lifetime movie.  A woman with a past moves to a small town, reconnects with an old friend, sleeps with a handsome man, and then discovers that he’s married and her life is in danger.  It happens at least three times a day on Lifetime.  Yes, it’s totally predictable and rather silly but, to quote Icona Pop, I don’t care.  I love it.

Was the Good Mistress a good movie?  No, not really.  However, it was an enjoyable and entertaining way to waste two hours of my life.  It was a Lifetime movie and that was good enough for me.

What Did Not Work?

The film’s title, while obviously meant to make viewers like me associate this film with The Good Wife, is totally incorrect.  First off, just because you accidentally have a one-night stand with a married man that does not make you a mistress.  If it did, there’d be a lot more mistresses in the world.

Secondly, even if Sandy could be considered a mistress, she could hardly be considered a good mistress.  After all, she not only threatened to reveal David’s infidelity but accused him of murder as well.  If anything, she would be a very bad mistress.

“Oh my God!” Just Like Me Moments

Since it’s been a while since I last stood outside a bar and had trauma-induced flashbacks or unintentionally slept with a married man, I worried that I would not be able to relate to Sandy.  However, then I saw the scene where Sandy — in a grocery store parking lot — gets distracted and loses control of her shopping cart.  The same thing happened to me the last time I was at Wal-Mart.  Unlike Sandy, no cute guys jumped out of nowhere to catch the cart for me.

Wal-Mart sucks.

Lessons Learned

Sometimes, it’s better to be bad.