Maudlin Show

From the Olde English for Mary Magdalene, virgin mother of The Christ, a term for gratuitously dramatic and, often, comically tragic theater. The maudlin tradition first developed in London during the medieval period and continued through to the early 20th century. In contemporary culture the term is used colloquially to mean anything marked by a sense of shallow but emotionally manipulative melodrama and/or saccharine sentimentality.