AnnaRose

I was watching something on the DVR the other night and the TV channel was set to Hallmark, so I caught a minute or two of that movie and immediately thought of A Christmas to Remember. I recorded Falling for Vermont out of curiosity, but haven't watched it yet... and I suppose I don't need to since I already saw it with the other cast and title. I may watch it just to see how similar it is. Was there a pancake scene in A Christmas to Remember? That's the bit that I caught the other night in this remake and it seemed super familiar.

I totally agree! And since TBBT didn't always have the best continuity, I don't see why Young Sheldon should have to adhere to the backstory presented on TBBT, especially when it will diminish the show.

Thanks so much for letting me know!! :)

Oh, thank you for mentioning that. I didn't realize that was tomorrow. I have to set my DVR. I have been wanted to see Pearl in Paradise, but haven't caught it yet. Last night I did watch the similarly titled Love in Paradise though, with Luke Perry as an actor who is famous for starring in Westerns. He agrees to leave his safe, cushy, boring life in NYC for a weekend to do a promotional appearance at a dude ranch in Montana. Luke was quite funny in this film, and it just flew by compared to many Hallmark movies I've watched. I really liked Emmanuelle Vaugier also - she played his love interest - and the rest of the cast including Tom Butler as her cowboy father and Matt Frewer as the large animal vet.

I agree with your whole post, and I too would like to see some nicer sides of Joey in the future. Although he did help fix the light fixture William broke and he covered for Eddie when he talked his dad into not going inside for his lunch when there were some dicey things going on inside. There were a few other humanizing moments for him so far too. Plus, it's a sitcom so I expect things to be exaggerated. And yes! to the bolded part about Eddie... he was very sweet in this episode, looking out for his little brother! (I also liked him hugging Frank at the end.)

It seemed to me that Frank had a crush on Wendy in last week's episode... I don't think Joey had to push him very hard.

I'm not sure who I like/love the best, but I definitely enjoy Joey and what he brings to the show. I think it's good that they have somebody on the show who likes to "stir the pot" for his own amusement. And mine. Pat is high on my list too. Everything with him in the mailbox was hilarious!

I would be very happy if the writers do that!

Original Airdate: January 22, 2019

What is the Kitten/Cat Bowl? Is that just a marathon of Hallmark movies that include cats, like Nine Lives of Christmas you mentioned, or is it something else? I'm also wondering about the dog special you mentioned.

Yes, I was so surprised I liked her so much in Elevator Girl. Actually the only movie I saw her in was A Royal Christmas, which I really enjoyed, but I felt like she was kind of a weak link. She also stars in All of My Heart, which I'm planning to watch. That was from 2015. Have you seen that one?

Don't they shoot a lot of these movies in the Vancouver area? I think the black population there is about 1 in 100 people... so yeah, I'm not surprised that they have to reuse a lot of the actors. Same with their background actors... It seems like they have such a tiny number of people of African decent who are available to work as extras, that it can be very noticeable the way they frame each background shot to make sure one such person is included in each camera angle. There have been times where it seemed like they made such a concerted effort in framing their shots with that objective, that it actually becomes distracting. I think they put a lot of effort into making their locations look more diverse than the the populations of their filming locations actually are. The extreme lack of competition must be a goldmine for black actors who live in the area and want to work in the industry. You should go up there and try to get in some of these films and then report back. It would be like having a mole on set. :D Then again, Hallmark reuses so many of their white actors too. It seems like they like working with certain people, and it's kind of cool that if they hire somebody and they do good work, with a good attitude and are easy to work with, they are loyal and hire them for other projects. Rehiring the same actors/actresses is also probably a natural outcome of shooting movies in Canada instead of Hollywood where they have a huge pool of talent to choose from. They work with a lot of the same leads in different movies, but the actors/actresses who play the secondary characters show up repeatedly in various movies. I often wonder how many of them live in Canada full time. Well, that's lame. I would have liked to have watched Winter Love Story from the beginning, assuming they showed it during the countdown, but I wasn't able to watch it since they kept the time a secret. MissyPoo, my Hallmark Guru!! I just watched A Taste of Romance and LOVED it! The acting was terrific, especially Teri Polo and Bailiee Madison who played the young daughter of the male lead, played by James Patrick Stewart - he seemed to be a bit of a jerk at the very beginning of the movie, but that was very quickly remedied and I ended up enjoying this one so much. I loved the story, the acting, the French food and language, the romance, some of the funny shenanigans, and especially the relationship between Teri Polo's character and the young girl who lost her mother. Bailee just killed in those scenes. I also watched Elevator Girl the night before and loved that one too. I probably would have skipped it because Lacey Chabert didn't particularly appeal to me... but her character and the lead male character were both so great. This movie was from way back in 2010. I also loved Rosemary, the lawyer's assistant who was kind of a sweet mother figure to him and played a role in helping him get together with Lacey's character. I also really enjoyed Wedding Bells! I think the only (very slight) annoyance was the reaction of the two protagonists and their best friends when they arrived at that gorgeous inn and acted like it was so awful. I wonder if the barn they used for the wedding was the same one they used in Country Wedding? It looked to me like it could have been. That was another recent MissyPoo recommendation that I loved, and otherwise never would have watched. I have one more of these recommendations already recorded that I haven't had a chance to watch yet - I think it's Surprised by Love, if I'm not mistaken. I missed recording Love by Chance and All of My Heart, but they will be aired again this Wednesday and Tuesday the 29th. respectively.

Thanks for mentioning those two criticisms. I agree with both of those, especially the second one. She was so childish walking out of the award dinner at the beginning of his speech. Other than that, I liked it... although I missed the first half hour or so. Oh, and I'm sorry to say that I thought that dog was ugly (and looked like the type that slobbers gross drool over everyone and everything)... but that may be because it looked like a cross between two extremely aggressive dogs with which I had bad experiences. On an unrelated note: what the heck is up with Hallmark's "Countdown" scheduling/marketing ploy? I've never seen it before and I couldn't believe my onscreen TV guide didn't have any of the movie titles listed. I didn't even bother watching any of them because of that gimmick. The whole thing seems crazy to me! Does that actually get them more viewers? Enough to make up for people like me who just skip all of it since there's no movie information listed?

I totally agree. The Fermilab scientists just wanted to strengthen their chances of winning a Nobel phyics prize, that they probably really don't deserve, by submitting it as the discovery of three physicists and including the physicist from the team competing against them. I hate when people interpret everything through a sexism or racism lens, even when those things are not involved at all.

Thanks for reminding me of that. What did Mike say? Something like: "Never buy foods spelled correctly. At Ralph's you pay extra for good grammar!" LOL!

Yeah, poor Frank... but it still made me laugh!

Yes, but it's better than Seafood Fart! I missed that joke the first time I watched it - and it went over my head when Joey's friend said he brought the bag of crabs from Seafood Fart. It wasn't until I watched the episode a second time I saw that was what was spelled out over the restaurant with the wheel missing. So many hilarious lines and bits in this episode, as usual... but I also really liked the conversation between Timmy and Frank, and later between Frank and his mom. Aww... he loves her and she will make him a Hearty Man dinner, because that says even more than that word that makes her so uncomfortable. Their fight and its resolution were great. (And Joey's amusement during their fight was perfect.) I loved the Joey/Godfather stuff. Especially Williams face when Joey's friend had his lips on his ring as the door closed. (I also loved when William told his mom that he's still afraid of her and Mom replied that he always knows just what to say to her. Haha!) Everything in the treefort was gold, especially Dad saluting Joey as he descended. (And his nonchalance about whatever was squirming in that bag.) I'm forgetting tons of stuff. God, I love this show and all of these characters!!

Original Airdate: January 15, 2019

Thank you! Do you know if that's a series or just an individual movie?

I watched The Birthday Wish last night, which was another winner recommended by MissyPoo. It was very enjoyable and the romance was believable. Also, instead of insta-love and the couple getting engaged after a few weeks, it was "One Year Later" and then we even got a little snippet of their life "Ten Years Later". (That's because it was part of the premise that she saw a glimpse of her future and the scene took place ten years later... but still, it was nice.) I also recently watched The Dater's Handbook and had mixed feelings about it. I loved Kristoffer Polaha in it (no surprise there), and the two leads had some cute banter, but Megan Markle's character annoyed me. In particular when she blames Polaha's character for her allergy attack after she eats food off his plate - as if he was supposed to know she had an allergy to honey (and that it was in the wings he ordered) and was supposed to order his meal with that restriction. It further annoyed me that she actually told Polaha's character, who was an incredibly nice guy, that she had to stop seeing him because she needed to date a better class of guy than him. Ugh. He really should have found somebody better. Speaking of Kristoffer Polaha... isn't he supposed to have a mystery series on Hallmark at the end of this month? I thought I saw that advertised, but I don't see it mentioned on his IMDB page.

To what movie is One Winter Proposal a sequel?

Bless you for writing all that out! I thought about trying to mention all the funny bits when I posted earlier this week, but there are so many throughout the entire episode that, as with most episodes of this show, I just throw up my hands and settle for gushing that I loved the whole thing. This show is the BEST! I hope more people continue to find it and love it too.

I recorded Once Upon a Prince last night, mainly for the location porn that was supposed to be St. Simon's Island, Georgia - filmed in Canada, of course - and some made up European country. I generally try to avoid the royal movies, even though there are a few that I either liked or loved, but this one ended up being pretty decent. Megan Park played the main protagonist, who recently earned a degree in landscape architecture and is working in her family's nursery type business. Same old story in that the prince is about to become king and his mother objects to his American love interest... but they had nice chemistry together and I liked that they spent some time getting to know each other. I also recently watched All For Love thanks to the recommendation by MissyPoo and TWoods, and I loved it! It first aired in 2017 and stars Sara Rue as a romance author who undergoes Navy Seal training to increase the accuracy and authenticity of a book she is writing. Steve Bacic, who played the sorta-villain in two Hallmark Christmas movies I watched this season, stars as the retired Navy Seal love interest. I thought they were great together and Sara looks fantastic and just exudes charm. Also, it seemed to have a bit of a Private Benjamin vibe going on when Sara's character begins her training, which was fun. I plan to watch this one again some time.

I read a lot of comments from people who watched the movie and said the exact same thing. But hey, since when does the truth get in the way of greedy people playing the victim/race card and looking for a big, easy payoff? That's so true. I wonder who gave the set dresser the photo? It must have been someone who is a friend or family member.

I think the writers have to rein in Sheldon to some degree or risk the show becoming too unpleasant. I will give him a little bit of leeway in this episode though, because he is an extreme germaphobe who was (in his view) being held "hostage in a bacteria playground" and his was pissed off and powerless to do anything about it. He really wanted to convalesce at home in his own bed. I know, that's no excuse for behaving badly, but at least his acting out was more understandable compared to other episodes. My main issue is that watching Sheldon behave poorly just wasn't particularly funny or enjoyable. It may also have to do with Iain becoming noticeably more mature and thus making Sheldon's intellectual precociousness not as cute as it was at the start of the series.