Happywatcher

We attended our friend group's annual Hallmark Christmas movie drinking game and bingo party this last weekend. Last year we hosted--being a guest is more fun. Anyway, this year we used the Bingo cards Hallmark sold, and they got filled fast. The commercial ones were more simple and way faster than the older online informal ones. We also used the online drinking game rules at the same time. When you got a bingo you had to drink a whole glass, but your card was entered as another chance for the drawing. Oddly enough we got through the second movie and the third one played as the party wound down. Everyone lyfted--obviously.

Catching up on some of the movies we missed-- A Homecoming for the Holidays. Still confused on the time jump at the start. Did they jump up 3 years and it was the brother's second deployment and then he was about to get out out but was thinking of reenlisting? How else was he getting out to take over the business? Why did the unit rotate up from Kansas to "Montana" Vancouver to go overseas? Some people bitched online about the brother wearing his uniform getting out, but it was for a party at the Legion and that is a little different. On the plus side: The lead is a great singer and good at acting, and puppies

But ABC Disney will maybe peel off some family viewers back to the train wreck ABC Family and Disney channels--which is the point of them attacking Hallmark. We ended up watching the Descendants movies with some teens. I would never allow a preteen to watch Disney now, they are really bad

Ashley Williams. I carefully watched the Lights movie because I really wanted to know why her character was wearing Navy Aviator wings. No explanation was given

ABC Disney just did a 2 minute push piece on their Good Morning America show to force Hallmark to do gay movies. They really want to destroy the brand.

Enty is saying Jodie Sweetin's Hallmarks didn't do well. I didn't like them, but that may have been colored because I don't like her personal life choices. Anyhow, he says everyone is worried she will get back on the drug train. If Hollywood is gossiping, she must be done at Hallmark https://www.crazydaysandnights.net/2019/12/blind-item-6_4.html

Plus the B-roll shots were great. It is nice to see places you recall fondly or have always wanted to go to in these destination movies. I did chuckle that Lacey's date dress was the exact shade of red as the wreath ribbons and table candles. It was nice that the lead put her big girl panties on right away and got on board with setting up her own company and turning down her old boss flat and adult like.

Evergreen was almost the perfect storm of Hallmark. They just needed Candace to come by for a cameo. They need to recast Holly's mystery movie love interest for her LI in this movie, they were way better.

I agree with the 'she is always on the edge of being annoying'. Then I remember that according to the LA Times, her father raped her 2-3 times every week when she was 13, until he was caught. He was sentenced to life back when most father rapists only got 10-15 years, so horrific was what he did to her. From that perspective, her professional success is a real triumph, even if she hypersexualized so much Rachael dubbed her the BJ Queen

Agent Simmons from Marvel Agents of Shield played a slightly reserved comic book secret agent undercover as a historian with the right amount of comic book awkward. Except her character was supposed to be an actual historian in a romance movie. The male lead plays a police detective on soap operas. He was also slightly awkward and didn't really fit. So the female lead's boyfriend is a hard working tenure track prof where she is drifting on BS side jobs with her PhD, and he is kept late 20 minutes for drinks because his committee goes long...so she starts flirting with a new guy without saying anything to her BF. A few weeks before their big trip to meet the BF's parents. It was unsettling.

Just got caught up on Christmas in Graceland 2. Priscilla was in it, so it was cool, and seeing the inside of Graceland was cool. The storyline wasn't horrible. Kaitlin Doubleday didn't have anywhere near the vocal range of Kellie, even though she is a slightly better actor--so the penultimate song wasn't wonderful. The 'you are our new Nashville curator so you must live in London' plot point made exactly zero sense. Maybe, just maybe, the Met or Guggenheim stations someone in Europe full time, but ain't no Nashville place roughly the size of a big city bus terminal doing that.

Just finishing it off the DVR now. The Autumn character's money issues made little sense--why is she on the hook for her father's medical bills? Being on the hook for his medical bills: why is she in bitch mode for everything where people try to help--from a tree for the son she claims to care about to getting a chance to work overtime? If Jesse's dad is such a big shot, why would the firm can him? The rich and powerful have different rules.

So after a while summer of intense therapy Lizzie is meaner and dumber.

Jill Wagner has gone public with her pregnancy, due in April. As she is a Hallmark princess, if not a full queen, of course she found out at her infertility appointment. Anyone heard how this effects the mystery series schedule?

I had an unkind thought watching Anna in the barroom kissing drama scene. About 30 years ago when Finola started they had Anna wear scar makeup around her eye. Now the wrinkles look a little like the 'shocking' scar back then. Seriously, I was thinking the May December pairing was a bit far fetched, then I remembered we wouldn't think twice if it was the other way around. And this plot/triangle isn't the worst thing on the show, the last 7 years or currently.

It started about 10 years ago. It is a great sweet taste, as long as you have a light hand. We have switched almost completely to vanilla paste--I still use split beans to long term flavor sugar, and for vodka and flavoring cheap bourbon. About a year ago I switched to toothpaste style tubes we get through amazon.

Why are the bad guys always smarter in this?

I grew up near a Chabad Jewish area. There are a lot of cultural issues. Each subgroup has a different rabbi, and he calls a lot of shots--some of which are really marginal, and pretty much all of them get excluded from a lot of mainstream American things. The serious issues are that some rabbis won't let them get vaccines, and they try to marry off the girls at 16. However, none of them are allowed to celebrate Christmas or Halloween at all (there is a Jewish candy night, Purim, but it didn't sound 10% as cool as modern Halloween for kids.) They attend their own schools, the girls in particular will never be near non fundamental Jewish people So if the character transitioned from that world into mainstream America and a regular college (grad school), she could very well be a fish out of water trope. Side note: They cut a deal with the power company to let them staple white pipes onto the poles, as notional city walls, so the women could haul diaper bags and push strollers to the services on Saturday. Otherwise they can't go.

That given the 4 basic storylines and messages in these movies, they can be acted by any pairing of skilled actors no matter their skin color. Maybe a throw away line relating to some ethnic grandparents for color (pun intended), but otherwise they should be based on lead chemistry

Just caught up with A Christmas Miracle off the DVR. I know there was a fair amount of discussion here because the leads are some of the few minority Hallmark leads this season. I thought the male lead may have been Hispanic seeing him on the ads, but watching the whole movie he is Black or maybe Caribbean island. Tamera being pregnant wasn't a big issue, they dressed her so that she looked normal size (for non movie stars) and she blended in. The race thing didn't add or take anything away from the story. The distraction was the son--why was he sleeping on the couch? The bitch boss trope character was easy to hate, which made the mild work struggle plot driver more interesting than it would have been otherwise. So, my point, race had no effect on the movie. They literally could have plugged any lead from the Hallmark stable into the movie. Which is probably the way it should be for Countdown to Christmas.

Did Monica not learn anything in the last 40 years? Her advice is no bueno

Two Turtle Doves. We like Nikki, and have so many questions. Is she a psychologist, neurologist, or psychiatrist? Why is she spazzing about the will? Why is the lawyer so into her right off? Why is his office so cool looking? Who thought the sister character needed a pregnancy appliance so huge she appear to be having 10 babies at once?

Holy Cadoodles. The organizer of the Christmas Con. Check out the edits. Hallmark needs to run far from this train wreck.

However, if season 3 is Jack back at HQ and Mike November out running field ops, sign me up for bingeing it all the first night. He was a strong and likable character, and the on and off ex wife thing would be great

With the sole exceptions of figuring out the ship slightly before Greer and figuring out the mining plot before the professionals in DC would have, Jack literally made every single part of the season worse.