Happywatcher

Finishing up Over the Moon in Love off the the DVR. Not happy with the trick the 2 females leads pulled. As noted above, Jessica's character confessing helped redeem her. Miranda, who is usually the second female in Hallmarks, or the police chief in Hallmark mysteries, really needs to get promoted to lead. She plays an engaging character and is good at acting. Jessica also wrote this, so except for the stunt, great job. I liked the 90s flashback scene. They nailed the hair. Adding extra: Complete agreement with the 'This is not fall' comments. I liked the park scene, but all the plants were flowering-- this was all summer all movie

No. She was in Defying Gravity, which was Grey's Anatomy in space, only it had aliens with mind control. It was a silly scifi show but a fun cheesy soap opera. We were mad when ABC cancelled it and then hid the second half of the season from US viewers.

Sat morning, Oct 5, at 8:30am est, Good Morning America had all three Deck the Hallmark hosts on, in their Deck the Hallmark shirts. They looked and acted just as you would think. Except the GMA hosts only asked about The Joker, The Breaking Bad movie, and Elton John. Then they started pushing tacos.

They have 40% chemistry where they had 10% last time. And Taylor had better hair. I was military police. I was never an MPI (detective) or CID (major felony detective). I did work with/for them on some investigations. 90% of real robberies and murders are checklist crimes. Crime scene, look for obvious lies by people involved with the victim, check their bank account, phone, and credit card... In addition, crime detective stories need a lead we can identify with, either Ruby the scrappy consumer reporter who wants the crime beat, or Dr Watson. Adding this before I head out for a long drive... The point I am trying to make is that real investigation is about following guidelines and rules. Insurance adjusters with subpoena and warrant powers and the same or better interview skills. When they have an actual stranger murder (or rape) they consult with specialists in profiling or insects or something. We had what the CID thought was a stranger rapist hitting overseas military bases, one of which was the area I worked. The system kicked into high gear, including literally cutting the doors he jimmyed open out of the walls, frames and all, and crating them up and sending them to the main crime lab, skipping the regional one. Just so that everyone would now what sort of tool to watch for on auto stops and suspicious person stops. That is what solves crimes. It also makes for a boring drama.

Had a really long drive for work today, fired up the Deck the Hallmark podcast with guest Jill Wagner from two weeks ago. We had seen her on Wipeout, Blade, and Stargate, before. But her story was interesting. She was supposed to run her family tire store, got her degree in business, but got 4 grand from her grandparents as a grad gift and went out to LA where a friend sent her to an audition where she got a pilot right off, but got let go for the series. After that it was action girl actress, punked, and wipeout. Anyhow, her Grandmother asked if she could do a Hallmark because she loved them, Jill's agent called the channel....boom. Lots of inside baseball, but she also said there were no firm plans for new Mystery 101s, and she didn't know the ratings for number 4, but she would be shocked if they don't get more. She also said she and costar/friend Kristoffer Polaha were surprised the romance hasn't kicked up in the series yet. She said he is playing the series as a cop from a hard cop show like NYPD Blue dropped into a Hallmark town

I know the fall movies start this week, but the Balsam Hill ads just hit on tonight's showing. I did have to chuckle

I forgot about the mixed couple. Funny because those were the subject of so much debate here 2 years ago. Likely forgot because they were the tier 3 couple, because the father was also getting married.

Watching Christmas Bells are Ringing off the DVR from last night, with some wine. Confusing holidays, we just assembled a Halloween Castle for the cats. Emilie Ullerup brings her flawless TV American accent to the role of a city girl photog who goes to small town home for her dad's Christmas wedding. Lots of positives. The 'winter driving on snow almost car crash' is the fault of the love interest, and she avoids it. She is great at her job and only her grief at being home where her mom died slows her down. She blazes past her love interest's past high school awkward blunders like an adult. It is a Hallmark, so she has to cute s***, but it wasn't annoying. They have the lead and her father's new wife use the same hair dye, so that was a little weird. One of the better ones. We listened to Emilie's Deck the Hallmark interview a while back, her background and observations on the movies are very interesting. podcast

In my head, Hallmark calls Lacey/Candace/Taylor/Alex/Jen... in LA. "Can you make a movie the next two weeks? We have a murder [Christmas/Wine/Fall harvest] script." She flies into Vancouver, and jumps into a 32 pax bus. A few semi trucks with snow and Balsam Hill stuff and cameras follow. They go from house to house grabbing Canadian level C actors and crew. "Jump in, we are making a move."

Agree

Watching the new Jill Wagner off the DVR. Pretty good plot and pacing. Only two issues are the dad character's over reaction in his first scene-- and the silly European fan club president. Jill and the love interest/police have good chemistry, and sell a natural 'interested/casual dating but not spending the night together' vibe

We missed A Gift to Remember 2 years ago. Darcy chick is biking in philly trendy hood and smokes a handsome boy so bad he falls into a coma and loses his memory. Yikes. She gets the hots for his trendy coat and hair so she assembles the scooby doo team and tries to figure out his life. Completely jacks up her conclusions because she is vapid, plus the lack of christmas decorations could have been due him being a Jew or Muslim or something... The team lacks a Velma so she can't figure anything out. And for some reason no one at Ohio State (59,000 students) answers the phone or emails in December. The sad part is she keeps trying to gauge if he meets her checklist for true love the whole time, while pretending to help him. Yea for the filmmakers, they didn't have the actor attempt the (realistic) movement and vocal issues attendant on head injuries, because that would make this go from a slightly creepy romance straight into a horror movie. The lead's puppy is great.

So the pretend courthouse literally had a saying on the facade that says:" Placed Upon the Horizon (Casting Shadows)" 10 seconds on google shows that is the insufferable chic saying on the VANCOUVER ART GALLERY, Do better with deep fakes, Hallmark

1/3 of the way through the Darrow movie off the DVR. 1. What TH is Claire's problem with being a vague bitch. If she does not want to have a date with geek boy then say 'thanks for asking but no. Friends?' 2. NORINCO, the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army owned gun company which exported a lot of Chinese guns to the US for a few years, literally only exported to the US for about 5 years. They still send guns, including Tokerav TTs converted in 9mm para, into Canada. So good job, Hallmark Canada citizen writers. 3. I have no idea about mandatory disclosure laws in New York, but either way shouldn't she be motioning to send the gun and car and the victims' phones to her defense experts? 4. I was an MP in the US military. I carried one of the pistols the red hair cop carries. It was awful. The gun is great to shoot, light recoil, easy to aim. Back then 16 rounds, now 18 rounds with the new super slick magazines they bought after the pistols started jamming in Iraq because of the powder sand. As shown on the waistband of the detective, they are roughly the size of a paving stone. I would carry a lot of guns before that. Like yikes, in particular on a size zero actress

Why did they make Danny so stupid? Like mind numbingly stupid. I get he isn't a cop or legal genius, but he is so dumb in the last epi...

We watched a few on Labor Day for the countdown and now are getting caught up by watching the new movie. The Hallmark version of the Bachelor, only without the sex, drunkenness, and screeching, is more fun. However, they were pushing the movie countdown with Michelle Vicary, the Hallmark programming VP, as the host. She was pretty good, but then I wondered. Putting the woman exec up as a counter to the judge allowing the Mark Steines lawsuit to go forward? (Mark said he got fired for whistle blowing that the Hallmark male execs were leaning on the women working for/on the daily Home and Family show for sex, and also sexual harassment)

Running around getting the meat and cheese ready for the smoker, and A Taste of Summer is on again. Roselyn Sanchez is the lead, and it is weird because I have seen this movie before, but we also have been watching Grand Hotel on ABC, where she plays a highly cynical second wife with a whole lot of sex and snark. I know I said this last time when this one came out, but they really could have over played her Hispanic features and accent, and turned her into another Charo or Sofia cartoon character, and they didn't. I also think she forgave the love interest too soon given how many times he was a sneak to harm her new restaurant. [Snark mode] I know I am typing now, but how is it the guys starting the smoker have so much time to open beers and stare at the coals?

A friend has been an actress in several Hallmarks and other movies, mostly DTV. She says Hallmarks pay the best, and they treat the lower ranking actors the best. She was in one with Dean Cain and one with Kevin Sarbo, and says they are nice to everyone involved, no matter who they are

Taste of Romance is on while I am doing other things. Teri Polo is so good in this I checked IMDB to see why she isn't a queen of Hallmark. Looks like the last Hallmark she did was 2015 and then she bounced back to doing episodes of broadcast TV.

Great idea. My twist... The lead goes to (awesome beach or mtn resort) with her city fiance. He gets stuck working hard due to the work emergency for 4 days of the week and she ends up going around doing fun activities in super photogenic locations with her old male friend from high school. On day 5 her guy gets done, so she thanks the old guy for being a great friend, and takes fiance to the coolest stuff she did, and they leave even closer.

Spotify bought out Parcast, the podcast network--which has some shows I enjoy--a few months ago. Now in this new movie Alison's podcast within the show is mentioned twice as being on Parcast. Interesting because prior to the purchase Alison went on the real podcast Real Crime Profile to talk about her movie series, and it is on Stitcher, not Parcast

We were at a large park out of town this weekend and people were launching these, we had much the same conversation. Ditto about liking the yacht owner more.

Building on your great point. Why would you hire an engineer without checking his quals? How did the lead get experience running a boat that size? Can you take a wooden hulled boat to the ocean carrying passengers? Why would you waste rentable cabin space so she could live aboard? Why did they make her look old?

Love at Sea is on, Alexa and Carlos Penavega fall in love at sea while working on a cruise ship. I googled to see when they had the new child because they are fairly cute together in this, and they were a little stiff in their mystery movie-- I think because she was having to hide the pregnancy on screen. So google also told me they got a cruise ship sponsorship after this movie, and even did their gender revel party on one of the ships. Interesting

Love at Sea is on regular Hallmark. Alexa and Carlos Penavega are fine on it as the couple on a regular romance arc on ship. I think the Picture Perfect mystery stiffness could have been because she was pregnant. I googled and they had the new baby on July 2. Hopefully they can get them in at least one new one by the end of the year.