Featherhat

Oh, yes I forgot to mention that Jen/Alice "Do I hate her or do I want her phone number?" "Same" convo. So yeah all or almost all of the cast being non straight seems true. I think What We Do In the Shadows is one of the only other current shows where all the main cast are queer. Are there any others I should be aware of?

I thought 5 Year Christmas Party was okay. I do like both leads though I thought they worked better as friends supporting each other growing into their careers than people who were each other's "one that got away". I think if you're going to do pining and time jumps there needs to be a very good reason why they're still interested after so long or why they haven't just gone for it and I didn't think they really conveyed that here. I presume that quite a few actors enjoy playing parts where they're struggling actors because most of them have experienced it. Just like there's nothing TV/movie writers seem to like more than writing about genius writers. I do think Hallmark changing up some of the usual formats is a good thing though. Again none of the ratings are really setting a high benchmark for Hallmark right now, I think they really are starting too early, the ones before C2C started got better numbers. http://www.thetvratingsguide.com/search/label/Hallmark movie ratings?max-results=5

It took me a rewatch to realise it but Mulder's parents knew Samantha was going to be taken that Thanksgiving and went out to a party, leaving the kids alone together. Maybe it was to give themselves an alibi, maybe it was because they couldn't bare to deal with what was going to happen but they dropped all the guilt on their 12 year old son. They never explained what happened and let him go his whole life blaming himself. And he was also old enough that there would be rumours in their small island community that he killed his own sister and his parents covered it up. Obviously CSM was the worst but all of his parents were monsters to him.

Ok so I have to mention Agatha All Along here, which has a variety of queer characters. There's Teen/William/Billy and his boyfriend Eddie who had a significant chunk of ep 6 exploring their story and how Eddie is supportive no matter the crazy stuff "William" is saying. Helps to live in the MCU I guess. He was first shown as having a boyfriend in ep 2 (on the phone) and so far it has been relatively natural and low key whilst also making it clear that whoever Teen is he loves Eddie and that his parents are supportive. Then there's the chaos of Agatha and Rio who are confirmed to be exes with a terrible break up. Obviously Means that even under ideal circumstances there's no real way they can be any kind of regular couple but Ep 5 showed us Rio sticking up for Agatha against her mother and whilst there's a lot of violence, snark and jokes it is being taken seriously by the writers (see also ep 4). I know it's not for everyone but I think the mix of taking LGBT themes seriously and also having queer characters making snarky jokes about being queer "Queer-ent" and "If you want a straight answer ask a straight lady!" is a big deal for Marvel who have otherwise been more tentative and tepid, even with gender fluid, pansexual Loki who was in love with himself. It's not perfect but with ep 7 it does seem to have even silenced those critics who were saying "no one cares". Paul Tassi from Forbes even wrote an article about Agatha defying those who thought it was just "another woke project" from the start, as though he hadn't been saying that the last week.

Not sure I can really imagine him as young Gibbs, not that I've been watching it anyway. I feel like SA often has a bit of a victim complex going about things like this. Like the only reason he didn't get the part is that someone blocked him. It might be true but it's also possible that Austin Stowell had an audition later that week and blew everyone away.

Oh, I didn't see this thread before! I enjoyed Holiday Crashers okay. I liked the fact that there was a strong friendship between Lyndsey and Daniella Monet's characters and that it wasn't all talking about guys, there was some real connection there. However I'm not a fan of the crashing parties trope, it just seems silly. There are so many other ways to "change your life" or have fun over the holidays than that. Toni even said in the beginning they're all the same because she had to go to them to network in law school. And they would certainly have attracted the attention of the hosts with the insane stories they were coming up with every time. I know there was a Hannukah party in there but they could have taken the opportunity to show case a wider variety of winter holidays. Sorry, I'm on a Diwali would be perfect for an early Hallmark C2C movie. I know they had the wedding at the end, which was beautiful and was partly what made me think about it. I thought it was a lot better than Operation Nutcracker that I also watched yesterday. I usually like Ashley Newbrough but this one was just stupid with the switching suitcases and not double checking. Meta calling out the romcom/Hallmark tropes they were using didn't make it any funnier, just more awkward for me.

Does this go here? Netflix have released the trailers for their Christmas/holiday movies 2024. It features the last of Lindsay Lohan's movies with them among others. As a side note I didn't even realise she'd done "Irish Wish" with them in March: Netflix Christmas Movies 2024

Maybe but this is also the company that does Christmas in July so.... But it's interesting that the movies in the run up to the start of C2C did better than the official kick off. Mid October really is too early IMHO. Add to that that there seems to be a lot of paint by numbers going on and it's not surprising everything is quite low. I'm sure it will pick up closer to December though.

Well if we count Hallmark+ it's one movie, one of the Cherry Lane sequels. And if we're talking non Christmas movies it's one of the Groomsmen movies also on Hallmark+ so it's still crumbs even behind a paywall. I would say it's because Wonya Lucas stepped down but they made the announcement of more LGBT+ content coming in 2024 *after* she left. Maybe it's the political climate in an election year but it's depressing. Hallmark hasn't had stellar ratings so far this year: Scouting for Christmas Hallmark 0.07 1.13m Holiday Crashers Hallmark 0.10 1.55m 'Twas the Date Before Christmas Hallmark 0.11 1.19m And this is with mostly their newer, slightly younger stars, apart from Tamera Mowry. I did enjoy the friendship in Holiday Crashers, I thought that was the best part and it was definitely a Hallmark movie which passed the Bechdel test and the sexy lamp test which doesn't always happen. I thought the side romance between Bri and the valet was cuter than the main romance with Lyndsey Fonseca.

Her Funko just says "Death" but it's possible that they aren't making the distinction in the show.

I read somewhere else that *this* is how a show about magic and witches sticks the landing. Not with big CGI colour blasting or a fight scene but by laying out a character's powers, strengths and weaknesses and then using them in the final battle and I couldn't agree more for this episode. I just hope that the same holds true for 8&9. I'm looking forward to watching it on Halloween evening. It wouldn't necessarily surprise me to see Lilia again because as her younger self at the end implied, she's still around living out her time traveller life even though she now knows and accepts where it "ends". Like if a companion of the Doctor dies it doesn't mean that they aren't going to show up at the places they went to in the future, just that they didn't live linearly. Jen had some awesome lines. I liked her before because I thought the "potions witch" selling terrible GOOP products was a great choice but Sasheer Zamata was also awesome this ep. I'm not from the US so I've never seen her in SNL. "Damn, using his full name!" Amazing. Also Chloe Camp made a great young Lilia in her very limited screen time. I mean by her very nature Rio is the final boss.

Absolutely the need to develop new stars and I think it's unclear from the lawsuit whether the Lisa Hamilton Daly wanted to replace them right away or was simply recognising that the current favourites won't be around forever. A lot of people are running with the former, especially because some of those mentioned don't have Christmas movies this year or are significantly down on the amount they've been in recently. But it doesn't say they want to scrap them immediately. I do think trying to fit a 40 something in a role most suited to a 20 something doesn't work but as I said, it's not hard to come up with scenarios for people in their 40s and 50s along side the "new class". @MissyPoo is right that traditionally they've recruited from recognisable faces to each generation and I think Janel Parish, Skyler Samuels, Hunter King, Amiee Teegarden etc are an attempt to do that. Amy Groening has "come through the ranks" as a supporting player now given her shot. Whether they become popular remains to be seen. I also don't think we can talk about this without mentioning the fact that Hallmark has gone back on it's December 2023 commitment to more LGBT+ diversity and in terms of holidays there's one Hannukah movie and less POC in leading roles than two years ago. No Kwanzaa movies, no Lunar New Year movies, no Diwali movies (got a bee in my bonnet about this one, would be so awesome to do). They're also playing it safe with less movies with interesting premises like Round and Round or Biltmore Christmas etc. Ok fine, if that's what you think will sell this year but it doesn't jive with trying to get younger viewers. Or with what they actually promised. https://www.gaytimes.com/films/hallmark-announces-plans-to-feature-more-lgbtq-holiday-films-in-2024/

Some of the men were also mentioned in the lawsuit: https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25248682/perry-hallmark-lawsuit.pdf There's quite an age range between the actors mentioned here as well. Hunter King was mentioned specifically as someone they wanted: I think the actresses mentioned are too old to play the ingenue so why not write stories that makes sense for their ages? I also don't think Hunter King particularly works in ingenue parts either for that matter. One of the "newer" actors in Janel Parish who is 36 next week, although she can definitely play younger but one of the best things about "Haunted Wedding" was that they were already together and instead of the meet cute it was the cute proposal and (mostly) outside forces causing the problem. That works for any age. One actor they've given a chance to as a new leading lady, Amy Groening from last week's movie is nearly 35 so it seems they're going 6-10 years younger than Lacey for some of the potential new "queens".

I can see why they're interested in the "next generation" of big name Hallmark actresses for the same reason every studio is always looking for the next big name to make money out of. The current popular leading ladies (and men) won't be around for ever. That said I don't think they should be kicked off Hallmark and there's certainly room for a variety of stories and ages. The can always adjust the story so it's not always a 40/50 something finding true love for the first time ever but more love after divorce or married couples dealing with stuff. Interestingly if you look at some of the newer Hallmark leading ladies like Janel Parrish and Kim Mantula they're both 36 so not a million miles behind Lacey Chabert, who can definitely play younger, as can they. I think it might be difficult for Hallmark to recruit a 20 something with name recognition to lead the channel because many of those will want to try their luck elsewhere before committing to a career as a "Hallmark actor" which still has something of a stigma attached I think, although not as much as previously. Also if Hallmark is worried about its aging demos and wants to attract a younger audience why is it scaling back diversity and leaning more into straight white people and the same handful of plots again?

Well that was both banana's nutso (in a good way) and heart breaking at the same time. I like "life lived out of order" stories and Patti LuPone was awesome in this. So we finally got the reveal that Rio is Death, I think they did a good job with the hints leading up to this. "If you want a straight answer, ask a straight lady!" Heh. I'm glad that they're actually anticipating fan theories and questions and actually asking them in text like is Teen Billy or William and questioning whether Agatha had actually ever walked the road. I feel like I'm going to have to watch it again to catch most of it.