Jenniferbug

@GaT, I liked The Likeness, Faithful Place, and Broken Harbor. In The Woods was ok, but I didn't enjoy The Secret Place at all, and I barely remember The Trespasser. So I guess I should say that I really enjoyed most of those books, but not all. I don't think you would like The Witch Elm- so far the whole damn thing has been angsty inner monologue!

I've been busy reading! I finished The Queen Con, and am anticipating a 3rd book in the series. Then I finished Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield. Now I'm about 120 pages into The Witch Elm by Tana French. I really like her Dublin murder squad books, so I'm hoping I'll like this one too even though it is not part of that series. So far it has been very slow and I'm hoping the main plot will get going soon or I may give up on it.

I'm not quite halfway through The Queen Con by Meghan Scott Molin. It's a sequel to The Frame Up. So far it's a little slower to grab me than the first book, but I'm still enjoying it a lot! These books are nerdy, mystery fun and I love it.

I don't think I've seen Pearl in Paradise or I do, I do, I do. I'll have to watch for them to air again. The ones that come to mind for me are One Winter Weekend/Proposal (I love them both), Falling For You, Flip That Romance, Love to the Rescue, Taste of Romance*, and Paris, Wine, and Romance. *Was just looking through my DVR and realized that I meant Just Add Romance, not Taste of Romance. I do wish Hallmark would put more effort into distinct titles.

So to piggy back off the question about what we do like, I'm wondering: what are some of your recent non-Christmas favorites from Hallmark? Let's say within the last 3 years or so. We talk a lot about the old ones we like (Magic of Ordinary Days- yes!!), but less about the new ones. So if you had to pick 3-5 recent favorites that aren't Christmas themed, what would they be?

I agree with what @TVFan17 said above. I have anxiety, so I worry all the time about everything. I often enjoy the predictably of Hallmark movies. No harm will ever befall a pet or child, they are guaranteed to end happily, and sometimes I just want to see pleasant people behaving pleasantly. But I can get those things while also getting diversity and a well written story, so I do think Hallmark can improve. If I find myself getting burned out, I can easily watch something else, but I like knowing Hallmark is there if I want some mindless pleasant fluff to watch.

Trading Christmas is my favorite. I adore it so much!

7 minutes? That's it? Yeah, that's not enough to get me to buy another $8 ticket, but nice try Marvel. I think I may be one of the few people on the planet who have not seen Avatar.

I'll admit, I have a DVR of Hallmark movies from this summer that I haven't watched yet and some left from spring too. I can't decide if I should just delete them all since I haven't gotten around to watching them yet. I feel like at Christmas, I love the formulaic feel good movies, because the holidays can be stressful and so these movies are kind of my happy place to get help get through that. Also by the time warm weather rolls around, I'm outside more and my kids have more activities so I'm less likely to be sitting around watching TV. I may need to burn though a few movies this week while working just to get through them so I can get some of them off my DVR.

I LOVE Trixie Belden books! My mom used to read them to my older sister and I at bedtime- they were simple enough for me to follow along with and mature enough for my sister (who is 6 years older than me). We always checked them out from the library, but I bought as many as I could find when they did a reprint of some a while ago (like maybe a decade? 15 years?). I think I have the first 10 and then couldn't find any and they're always so expensive when I find them at used book stores. But man, I would love to have a complete set of them.

I'd like to see Emily Van Camp. I like her and was never completely ok with how they ditched her character. I could see her having good chemistry (in general, not necessarily romantic) with Mackie and Stan. I'm not sure how they'd bring Daniel Bruhl in, unless he escapes? Or somehow rehabilitates?

You are probably right! For some reason I was remembering a lot of talk at the time about him missing friends and family back home, but it does seem like the growth spurt is the accepted reason for them writing him off. Which is also kind of ridiculous of the writers- paralysis and cancer can be healed "just because" of the island, but a growth spurt can't possibly be explained? Ok, then, writers! Or maybe they shouldn't have cast prepubescent children knowing that the show's time span was going to be small. I do wonder if today's TV audience would be more accepting of them killing Walt than they would have been in 2006. I know I probably sound like a major Walt fan or something. I'm not, I just really don't like plot points that go nowhere and are never resolved. I'm sure I'll probably watch it again sometime! Maybe this summer. I still have my season DVDs (aside from the last season which I never bought). I'm sure binge watching helps too. I used to scrutinize every details on message boards after each episode and during every hiatus and I think doing that probably hurt my enjoyment of the show in the long run when so much ended up either being not answered or very vaguely addressed (the "sickness", for example). It was a helluva lot of fun dissecting everything at the time though!

I've been thinking about rewatching Lost lately, but I'm not sure I have it in me. Mostly when I think about the show, I remember the frustration and rage I felt about all the dropped plotlines/characters and the unanswered questions. But I also remember how much this show consumed me and how it had so many genuinely good and surprising moments, so that may balance out more for me on rewatch. I do wish that Lindelof/Cuse would do a series of interviews or blog posts or something to discuss what the original plans were for characters and how that changed. For example, so much is made of Walt being special...then the actor gets homesick and wants off the show so that all gets dropped. And I absolutely agree that it would have been cruel to hold a miserable child to a contract just for the plot of a show, but that doesn't make me less curious about what their original intent was for him (and by extension, Michael). Likewise with Ana Lucia and Libby who were both suddenly killed off after being arrested for DUIs. I don't think they were originally supposed to leave the show so early, so what was intended for them long term? I believe a similar situation also happened with Eko (he wanted off the show, got a DUI, and was killed off). Abd I also wonder how much network interference may have happened (for better or worse). It would be interesting to see this show rebooted someday, with new showrunners who would have the opportunity to learn from the mistakes made here. I'm fascinated by The Others and the Dharma stuff and what the hell was going on with them, and it's never satisfactorily explained. It would be interesting to see answers for them or how characters would have evolved differently with showrunners who had a grander plan in place (or a network who wasn't trying to push love triangles). But that will likely never happen, and if it does, they'll probably make a whole new set of mistakes for fans to complain about.

@Ms Blue Jay, I'll have to look again and see if I can find them on Amazon in the US. I'd like to watch it again! I work from home so have a lot of shows as background noise!

I was wanting to watch this show the other day and I couldn't find it streaming anywhere! I also looked for the DVDS and couldn't find them on Amazon. It made me really sad as this was a show that I really enjoyed- it used to be on in reruns when I was getting ready for work.