schmaltzy

The rest of episode—the scenes taking place in the present—alternated between brilliant and schmaltzy.

But then, just when we feared that the Cox we suspected we knew was about to get too schmaltzy, too idyllic, she adds a caveat.

Cancer-struggle stories can all-too-often veer towards being schmaltzy.

And the song would be just as schmaltzy were it not for the her roaring delivery.

Franzen is just as critical of self-consciously tricky fiction as he is of “schmaltzy, one-dimensional” fiction.