JasmineFlower

Has anyone heard about plans to do another version of this soon? I'm not sure why this would be called "Great American Baking Show: Holiday Edition". It's a "holiday edition" every year, so I'm not sure why you'd add it to this season unless there's plans to expand the series and add another version.

I'm a little confused about the questions on where this is being filmed. I didn't see the first couple of minutes. In seasons past they've very clearly shown the UK setting and been very open about that. Did that not happen this season? I don't watch the British version, but always assumed it was the exact same studio/setting.

Gas cooking in general is greatly preferred. If you know of a cooking or baking show in recent years in the US that uses electric, please share. I certainly don't watch everything that's on, so I'd like to know that it's really a thing that there's several more well known chefs or bakers that are using electric cooking. Because I've seen it stated repeatedly that gas cooking is the preference and there's a reason all the cooking, baking, and competition shows use gas and there's barely even an HGTV episode of any show that passes without someone saying they like to cook and requesting gas cooking in the next breath. And I'm definitely blanking on the Food Network personality in recent years for instance, that uses electric. Given the timing issues with going from gas to electric, I can easily see this being the cause of the many missteps that are rather perplexing on this show with people who have very clearly been given an idea if not specific detail of what they are baking ahead of time unlike many competition shows.

A lot more replies than I was anticipating. So, just an observation. There's a lot of timing mistakes and not baking right, etc. on this show on each season. It strikes me as different than I've seen on other cooking/baking competitions, like they run of out time on here, but many times they seem to have started out with seemingly good time management and something was off with their assumptions on how the baking would occur even though they've clearly been practicing. And then I realized, and I'm not sure why it never jumped out to me before now, this is the only competition show I've ever seen that uses electric and not gas cooking, which is greatly preferred by professional and amateur cooks and bakers alike in the US. I'm definitely thinking it's hampering results.

Freeform's first (and only) movie last year was Angry Angel. Easy to seem like the best when they barely make any and nail it when they do. My guess is that they would continue to be a favorite like ABC Family was with the quality and tone of movies they put out, they're back at it again this year. They were always the best year-round as well if you ask me, but they need to get back in the game more than they are. They don't need to become a machine like Hallmark, they always beat them even with only like 5-8 new movies a year, but give people something. They've really bailed and ceded the crown to Hallmark, when they were very clearly in the driver's seat for everyone's favorites over the years. Hallmark can pretend all they want that they started this Christmas movie thing, but it was ABC Family that started the 25 Days of Christmas event featuring seasonal movie premieres years before them. Christmas in Boston is a favorite and it's been a few years since I've seen it. Last time I caught it was a random showing that basically wasn't on the schedule and I saw it by accident. Not on the 25 Days schedule they released yet again. I'm probably even more confused about why they never air Desperately Seeking Santa, but do air 12 Dates of Christmas since they were both made around the same time a bit more recently. But in general, the channel sucks now movie-wise for me since Disney has decided it's there to show major Disney movies on repeat and largely bail on the channel's original movie library. Don't know why, they are not killing it in the ratings with their big budget repeats.

Just like the rest of the season, I'm didn't like this episode much, but honestly, was that ending supposed to be funny? That's just twisted, not hilarious. What in the world has happened to this show this season? And who is Carly (Vivian) related or married to that she's being used this much?

Ugh! That was Four Christmases and a Wedding. That was so awful when they slid that in there. I think they mentioned like Miracle on 34th Street and It's a Wonderful Life or movies of that caliber at the festival in their trivia game and then threw in Dear Santa like it was comparable perennial Christmas classic. What a freaking joke that was.

I watched Christmas Contract. I liked it a bit less than others, but still not bad. The problems are not plentiful. Hilarie is a known quantity in these and delivers once again. Robert is always nice to see and we do get some brief shirtless action in this, and isn't that when he's at his most appealing if we're being honest? Cheryl Ladd needs to lay off the plastic surgery, fillers, botox or whatever she's doing lately. It's becoming too much and she's going to start being hard to recognize. Danneel has also done something to her face and mostly looks like herself, but very clearly doesn't look exactly like she used to and it's not merely aging unfortunately. Now, she really needs to stop, too young and pretty for that nonsense. The writing. Why are you going to the trouble to make a big production of the contract, but you don't even once make sure you have a story to tell your family? Even if these two weren't bright enough in the moment to think of it, how about Danneel? She came up with the plan, let her lead that part so she's in the movie a bit more. The ex-boyfriend is just suddenly back in love and willing to move to NYC? I had whiplash from that part. Not sure where that came from and it just proved to be a bit strange. I also found that when his girlfriend was introduced she came off regular and suddenly we see her later with a complete shift in tone. It's like they decided as they went, we need to make her a bit more unlikable. The casting. Why is this Northern VA girl being cast in multiple "Bayou" movies? What about Hilarie screams Louisiana? She's good in this don't get me wrong, but this is her second Lifetime movie where she's from the Bayou. They need to stop with that. Jason London is in this and if you walk out of the room more than once during the movie, you may miss his speaking lines. Huh? WTH? Why is he being used so little? What's more perplexing about his use is the casting of the ex. He is truly nothing special and next to Robert? Let's get serious. Even if we're not going on looks, let's get real here, still a hard pass. What was the thinking here? He's not a viable other man in this trio. It makes me wonder why you don't use Jason, a cleaned up Jason not the scruffy one we see here, in that role instead. It'd be a more believable, more tempting alternative. At least you'd see a guy who you actually believe Hilarie was gone over and got her heart broken by. Cause this guy? No. I did enjoy the movie overall. This is a familiar and likable cast. Just not going to be a fave as I had assumed it would be. Possibly I expected too much and in the future, I'll like it more when those expectations are removed. But always happy to see Hilarie, Robert, Cheryl, and Bruce. Christmas Cupid's Arrow. This is an ION movie and stars Elisabeth Harnois and it's not one to avoid, but isn't one I'd go out of my way to catch either. I missed most of the first half, but I saw enough where I'm not going to seek out what I missed for a better impression. I think the general storyline had promise. The acting is good, though I'm not crazy about Elisabeth's character and how she was written here. The Cyrano storyline works. I just think in many ways, it was so obvious this guy couldn't be who he was presenting himself to be and she was definitely smart enough to figure that out sooner than she did. I also wish they had skipped the oh he's talking to a woman so let me assume he's dating her cliche. I liked the lead guy. I would've preferred a good deal more time spent between the lead girl and guy here, though maybe that was covered more fully in the first half. I wish this had been a Lifetime or Hallmark movie. With increased production values and some script editing, I think this could've come off a good deal better for me than it did. Because I didn't mind many parts of this movie and yet it still felt lacking by the time the ending rolled around.

Christmas Perfection was incredibly similar storyline wise to Snowglobe. The feel and tone were different to me and not nearly as youthful (Snowglobe was an ABC Family movie and felt like it to me), but definitely agree that's what this is like. If you can access Freeform online or the app, their movies are available to stream that way. Older ABC Family movies have started popping up on Hulu recently and with Disney (aka ABC) set to take a greater ownership in Hulu, this could become more regular in the future but maybe not recent stuff. For instance, Angry Angel from last year is up in their own app, but not on Hulu. So for the time being, if you want to stream, the app does a pretty good job of making things available. The Truth About Christmas is already up.

Christmas Perfection on Lifetime I basically don't know anyone in this cast from other projects, but some of you might know the lead actress. Apparently she plays Madison on This Is Us. Not sure if she's a fan fave since she hardly got that role based on talent (she's married to Dan Fogelman) but if you like her at all, then consider checking this out. I found this movie to be better than I was expecting, but not a favorite. If you are someone who likes things that are Irish or finds Irish things and accents charming, I think you'll like this more than me. Basically this girl had a "bad childhood" and used Christmas as a time to escape and got interested in Christmas decorations and getting them just right, but especially this Christmas village she creates, which is apparently an Irish Christmas village. She basically wakes up one day in her dream village and it's this perfect Irish town that celebrates Christmas everyday. She loves it and her dream guy is there, her parents are happily married, and she can eat whatever she wants and never gain weight and if she needs money, it's just magically in her pocket. It's truly a perfect place. But it's missing her best friend, who we meet earlier and know that he's likely in love with her and most who know them think he's perfect for her. But she doesn't think of him that way and is interested in her co-worker (the dream guy who shows up in the village). Christmas everyday is her ideal since it's been her escape forever, but even though each day is a new day in the village, every day is Christmas. But not in Groundhog Day way, it's just they consider every day Christmas. So every day has the same qualities the way that every Christmas sort of unfolds in a familiar pattern, but from my take, every day isn't a repeat of the one before. It can be December 26 and still be Christmas in this movie was how I interpreted it. But this gets old fast and she slowly begins to see the problem with this setup. The best friend shows up in the village eventually, through movie magic basically and you just kind of need to go with what they are selling at that point. But he's what I'd consider the male lead here, so he did have to get to that village somehow to be in the majority of the movie. It's very watchable. I didn't love it, but enjoyed it enough. Her childhood wasn't bad enough for the setup imho, just arguing parents who eventually divorce and roll their eyes at memories of them bickering at their shared Thanksgiving with their daughter (yes, this movie features the now rare Thanksgiving scene). So for me at least, it's a weak setup for this adult to have such juvenile wishes like she missed her entire childhood due to unspeakable trauma. It may not have been ideal, but also didn't seem to be the worst ever, just some rough spots that many can relate to and still manage to not act like this woman. So, because of that part, some of this feels like it would've worked better as a 13 Going on 30 kind of setup where she gets trapped in this world dreaming of it as a teenager, not a grown adult as she actually is, if that makes sense. But the lead girl and the best friend have a nice chemistry. I really enjoyed his character in this movie. The dream guy was kind of perfectly wooden. I didn't get it early on, he just seemed kind of underwhelming and why is he the dream guy exactly? But as it went on, he was exactly what the role called for and so that worked as well. There are several small issues I had besides what I've said, but they are relatively minor. Worth watching if you see that it's on. I would especially think it's worth catching if you love all things Irish, there's a lot of accents and village charm that I'm guessing are particularly appealing. Also, I caught Christmas on the Coast and I completely agree with @Irlandesa about it being a pleasant surprise. Really enjoyable and not at all religious as I had feared. Some truly fun and funny moments in this one and though I'm getting a late start on holiday movies this year and haven't watched a ton, this will be among my favorites this year. I think Julie Ann Emery is one of those people whose names you don't necessarily know but you'll recognize her immediately because she's been in so many things. The lead guy (Burgess Jenkins) is probably the same way as he's definitely been around, he was Billy on Y&R a few years ago, and he has been in several of these Hallmark type movies before just not too recently to my knowledge. So while maybe the actors names doesn't jump out at you outside of Bonnie Bedelia, it's a very solid cast all the way around and that contributes greatly to this being a good movie.

Poinsettias for Christmas with Bethany Joy Lenz and Marcus Rosner on Lifetime. Let's start with the cast - it's one of the strongest we'll see all season most likely. It's smaller, but all are good actors. Her father is played by John Schneider, her mother by Sharon Lawrence, and Marcus' girlfriend/Bethany's tepid rival is played by Lauren London. Now, the acting may be good, but the premise is rather ridiculous. And let me also say, these adult children who barely visit their parents and their farms, but get up in arms when they think about selling is not a storyline I like and I think they need to revamp that thinking a bit since it seems to be one that is going to be used in these movies. Because honestly, running a farm is a ton of hard work, very long grueling hours, and these adult kids living in the city acting like showing up for short visits over the years and then for 2 weeks to help get them out of a tough spot is not remotely the dent they keep acting like it is. But even if I didn't mind that family/farm owning setup, we have the actual premise of the movie here - that the poinsettias aren't growing properly, delivery to all of their vendors and contracts is just a few weeks away and we need to call our daughter to come home to save this year's crops since she's always had a special touch with growing them. Now, what do I know about poinsettias besides where's the best place to buy them locally? But Bethany's character tells us in the beginning at the holiday party that the growing process is like 8-9 months. Bethany arrives at her parents house with Christmas decorations up around the house and property. It's literally a few weeks away. And she goes and makes these green leaves sprout red magically in 2-3 weeks? Come now. This is a ridiculous premise. They shouldn't have been so Christmas obsessed setting everything in December, had the mom call Bethany in like September or October when things weren't looking quite right and then done a fast forward and let this movie play out in a somewhat more reasonable and realistic timetable. To think that she could speed up the 9-month growing process in 2-3 weeks was oh so ridiculous and the unveiling of the perfect poinsettias even more so. It was just eye rolling ridiculousness. So, there's a true storyline issue here. But Bethany and Marcus are a cute pairing, they play well off one another. Lauren London's face makeup in this is awful, whether incompetence or intentional, I'm not sure, but more often than not, she looks a good deal lighter than she actually is, which is a light caramel complexion. Her character is a lot, but that's intentional. For what they were going for, she's actually a more tolerable version than what we've been given other times. Despite how her character is, there is no real drama here in the relationship, it's all handled rather dignified. This is not a hard movie to watch. There is enough surrounding the budding friendship/relationship between Bethany and Marcus that is somewhat apart from the growing poinsettias to enjoy watching this for the most part. But you are going to roll your eyes at the rest of the storyline. I'm not even clear on why you go ahead and tell us it takes 9 months to grow and then set the revival of your plants, which is about twice the size of your regular crop given an increase in contracts for them, to about 2 weeks. Sounds like a great plan! 🙄

Grace is so very, very unlikable. How did she not hear Cal speaking another language he doesn't know multiple times??? I get that what Ben said might be hard to believe, but you asked him to be straight with you and you were holding Cal when he was speaking a foreign language. This should not have been the hard sell she made it into. I don't know how to get rid of her and keep Olive, but I'm open to suggestions, she's dragging the show down. I'm really not into this Cal being the center of this entire thing, he's nowhere near a strong enough actor to pull that off. On the bright side, I didn't mind Michaela this episode for once, felt like this was one of her strongest episodes.

They've been shooting since at least early August. It's just a coincidence.

I turned it off a little after the start. I just can't take Caitlin anymore so when she started yelling at Thunderbird for not "rescuing Andy" even after knowing he attacked Lauren, I had just had enough. I haven't been liking the direction of this season at all anyway. I'll check back and see what others think. I'll also try next week, see if it feels better than this did for me. But definitely feeling like I'm nearing the end with this show.

I like the show unlike apparently almost everyone else who posts on here. I do, however, find Lena exhausting. I'm not confused about why Martin got upset with Lena's wishy washy turn at the end, it's a 180 from where they were like two days ago on their "honeymoon". It was really presumptuous of her to think she'd take time away and he'd just wait for her. And they are already divorced, it was a very strange leap. Hey Martin, while I date some more guys and decide what I want, you sit there and wait while I decide what I want, which after my journey of self discovery, may not be you. It was a strange thing for her to assume. And she's not the prize she continues to view herself as. She better go find that cute young artsy guy who may still be looking for a project. The current timetable on the show is definitely off. The kids suddenly there in the middle of summer when they were supposed to be at camp. And seemingly back at camp next week. Not making a ton of sense, but hopefully more understandable next week. There was either no mention or almost no mention of the kids last week, so I'm not sure they didn't just bring them back to remind the audience, hey, they have 3 kids by the way. I preferred the approach to the sister more last season, I hope they ditch this guy even though it's nice to see Travis again. She was a real plus last season and isn't so far to me. But I'm not mad that there's less focus on the daughter, who was really hard to like last season, especially the first half. But that could just be the camp problem and she'll be back to having a lot more screen time once "summer" is over. Guess we'll see. I'd love for them to figure out a way to make that waiter a regular. A friend? A coworker? I don't care. He was the best part of this episode for me. "Work on your backstory!"

Still iffy on this show. This was definitely better than the pilot, but with the absence of the ultra bullying captain and the racist and sexist comments from Eric Winter, how could it not be? It was a low bar it had to clear and it did that easily. I still think there's entirely too much going on in a single episode. Are they going to catch at least one kidnapper and one murderer every other day basically? One would think so given how these first two episodes are going and that is highly ridiculous. Last week we had crazy dad with kid about to die in car, domestic abuse gone wrong that ended in murder, drug bust shootout with a standoff that ended with cop shot. This week we've bride to be about to take a jump, roided up guy, bad dude attacking police officer, random woman who turns out to be a murderer, and accident victim is actually kidnapped woman and we find her kidnapper and fellow victim. Good grief, this is following just 3 rookies. This is a ridiculous level of activity. I like Lucy's character. But having her miss her rude, sexist and racist spewing TO? That was a mega stretch for me. Sure, she might want to see more action than what the replacement guy who likes going home to his family safe and sound likes to do on the regular. But she was livid at his treatment in the last episode, she was boiling underneath even if she couldn't express it, you could see the outrage on her face at everything he did. Now she misses him? Give me a damn break.

Enjoyed the premiere. Not sure where they are going as a couple at this point. Lena would drive me to drink personally, not because I don't get that the listing was way off but she really gets distracted and obsessed by it, this was just another example of it. She could've made that call in the first hour or two and been done with it and enjoy their pseudo honeymoon if they remained there. I don't see a problem with them getting back together in their current form and going against the concept of the show. I don't see them getting remarried, which would be the real them back together. I think they are showing the messiness of the situation they've set up, and backslides can happen like this. I don't think Lena's modern enough to deal with Lisa Apple's pregnancy and be in a relationship with Martin, but guess we'll see. Lisa's presence is annoying on the one hand, but also when Lena is at her funniest on the other hand. ****ing Lisa Apple and her big fake glasses. I love the bleep of the curses. It's how it was done on Arrested Development and shows since have used it similarly. The bleep is part of the fun, they don't want to say the actual curse.

I kinda feel like a lush answering this question cause I totally know most of this for all the wrong reasons, but no, you don't necessarily have to be 21 to tend bar. It depends on the state but that is a law set by the state, unlike the drinking age set by the federal government. In PA where I went to high school, the bartending age is 18. In CA where I'm originally from and where this show is set, the bartending age is 21, but alcohol serving age is 18 as long as it's a restaurant. I'm not really sure what you'd call Winebrary to be honest, but not sure that's a straight up bar or if merely pouring wine, rather than mixing a drink, is considered bartending. So Miggy's age may still be a question mark, but personally I'm thinking it's fine to assume he's at least 21.

Okay, I had to dig up this thread to ask this. I guess I just forgot some things from last season. What happened to Drew, Jack's closeted cop boyfriend? Where did the new guy come from?

Given the storyline, there was only so much humor to me in that scene, which was not much at all. Those were not willing prostitutes walking into his trap. In another context, I would've been more amused. So had they not graphically told us what the girls had endured when taken and then what they do now to not die and not have their families killed, maybe. But this show has been rather graphic with details, so it cuts down on the possibilities for amusement if you ask me.

Goodness gracious this show is bleak as all get out. They need a jewelry heist, art museum theft or something light quick. A Bernie Madoff white collar crime scheme would qualify as light at this point. Previews for next week show there is no end to this bleak storytelling on the horizon so I'm not sure, but I might just be bailing on this soon. Like many of us said last week, this isn't a bad show, a good deal of it is very well done, but it is sorely missing even a mild lightness to balance it out a bit. It is dark and very real in a depressing way and not feeling like an escape at all.

I'm not sure what to say about this episode. But I'm confused about the direction of the show and rapidly losing interest.

A t-shirt and gray skinny jeans. I was completely distracted by it wondering WTH the deal was with her too casual business casual look next to her partner's suit in particular, but really everyone who was in some form of business attire.

This is a huge problem with this show, they are missing their Lennie Briscoe. And it doesn't matter that it's the FBI, they can add it if they wanted to. I'm not sure how many here watched The Brave last year on NBC, I wish it had gotten an additional season as it was really very well done. It's about an elite special-ops unit going on various covert assignments around the world when our national interests are at risk. There wasn't one episode that wasn't serious and dire in nature because of the kind of work that it entails, much darker than this really. And yet The Brave was much easier to watch than this because they injected moments of levity and camaraderie between the team members in every single episode. Not only is it necessary, but it also makes you like the characters more, shows a bit of their personality when they joke with each other in that manner. This show is sorely missing that.

Caitlin is so annoying with this "my son was taken from me" nonsense when literally everyone, including her, knows that he left on his own. I don't like her character anyway, but this is making her that much worse to take. I saw last week people loving her and I never know why if they are just looking at the character. I have serious trouble believing that all these Amy Acker fans would like this character at all played by another actress. Not only does Andy's hair look a hot mess, I find it very distracting. He's looking as washed out as humanly possibly. Put him in front of a white wall and I dare you to find him. I feel like this show is under the impression that everyone loves Andy or he's a fan favorite or some such nonsense. Are we supposed to care if he dies at the hands of Reeva? They miscalculated on that one. Does anyone like the triplets? The amount of screen time they get is genuinely perplexing.