Hallmark Movies: Small Town Royalty Magically Celebrating Rekindled Love! - General Discussion

[MissyPoo]

17 minutes ago, JenMD said:

I'm sad that two of my perennial Christmas favorites, A Season for Miracles and A Dog Named Christmas are both missing this year.  I even checked the lineup on the new Hallmark Drama channel online (I don't actually get it, just wondering if it had been dispatched over there).  With less than 2 weeks to go I guess I have to finally give in to not seeing them.

Yeah, they've been kicked off the island to the Hallmark app. A lot of the classics are over there that I was also hoping to see. I guess we gotta hand over more money to see them now.

[JenMD]

Oh, that is a bummer!  Thanks for the info @MissyPoo.  I'm not an app person, so I'd have never figured that one out.

[AnnaRose]

I recorded and watched Mistletoe Inn yesterday after reading some positive reviews here.  Alicia Witt was fine, but I really liked the guy who played Zeke (David Alpay) and also Samantha (Lucie Guest) the new friend at the writers' conference.  She seemed like she would do well as the lead in one of these movies. 

Has anyone scene any of David Alpay's other Christmas movies?  Sleigh Bells Ring with Erin Cahill or Ice Sculpture Christmas with Rachel Boston?  Are either of those recommended?

[twoods]

Ice Sculpture Christmas is very good- I recommend it. Sleigh Bells Ring is okay and would work as a background movie when you're doing stuff.

[tvchick]

Another POV on the Hallmark Channel's Christmas movies...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/we-cant-take-any-more-of-2017-so-weve-turned-to-the-hallmark-channel-in-desperation/2017/12/07/1ad3dab6-d6ca-11e7-b62d-d9345ced896d_story.html?utm_term=.a45ab953907d

[Kaoteek]

Took me three days, but I finally finished Karen Kingsbury’s Maggie's Christmas whatever. Didn't care at all for the movie, mostly because I didn't care at all for "Maggie", for the way the character just kept avoiding conflict, the way she treated her semi-boyfriend colleague and never even bothered to explain the situation to him, the way she was more preoccupied by her love life than by her best friend & client's divorce during billing hours, the way Jill Wagner went into overacting mode with dramatic pauses & glances during the big dramatic moment... in short, I didn't care for the main character, and it killed the movie for me. And that's with the friggin kid writing letters to God at Christmas (Santa wasn't available, apparently), and the dumb predictable twist at the end, which kinda annoyed me already.

On another note, Luke MacFarlane deserved better, it was nice seeing (mostly) real snow outside, and we've got two, yes, two "ethnic bffs", one for each lead ! Yay, progress ! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[susannot]

I agree with that WaPo article.  Can't take the real news so Hallmark is soothing and happy.

[VartanFan]

Quote

An interesting critique of the franchise. Full disclosure: I agree completely.

Hits the nail on the head.  I continue to watch many of the movies because it's brainless.  I can do other things and still follow them but don't have to commit much more time than the 1.5 hours it takes to get through them.  It's not a reality show that I need to give 2-4 hours per week to and it's not a series that will inevitably be canceled.  (Side note - I will forever miss The Grinder.  It was a pretty brilliant show.)

[EyewatchTV211]

With all of our talk about CCB, plus some of us having mentioned how there should be more Hanukkah movies, this tweet by Samantha Bee amused me: 

[JAYJAY1979]

On 12/12/2017 at 8:00 AM, Qoass said:

An interesting critique of the franchise. Full disclosure: I agree completely.

And yet the vast majority of these movies aren't even filmed/produced in America, but in Canada.  #irony

[twoods]

I don't know why, but Danica's Coming Home to Christmas is like my Crown for Christmas last year- I've already watched it twice and absolutely love it. The story isn't even that compelling, but I loved the chemistry and the family. Haven't found a Hallmark movie this year that I've liked that much. 

Finally got around to watching The Christmas Train, and while I appreciated that it was a different storyline than the others and the production was definitely better, it sort of bored me. At least it got me to dust and clean the kitchen.

[voiceover]

More Crown for Christmas notes:

There's a straight line from the witchy hotel assistant who fires Allie to Miss Wick, the witchy Royal housekeeper who'd love to do the same.

Missed opportunity: Ally never gets to call him "Max"!  He makes such a big deal about that -- twice -- that I wonder if that was filmed, then edited out.

I demand a Director's Cut!

On 12/11/2017 at 5:39 PM, deaja said:

I watched this today and came back to this thread specifically to talk about how much I loved [Crown for Christmas].  Was it super predictable? YES. But did I enjoy every second of it? Also a resounding yes. One of the best ones I’ve watched in ages.

Welcome to the club!

A friendly reminder: Rupert's mine.  You can check the thread -- I called dibs ten years ago.

eta: Sorry for the double post.  I thought I was merging!

[twoods]

Hey, I bought Persuasion just because of him. It's the holidays, a time to share the love. I don't think this movie would have been so awesome if he wasn't in it. Still waiting for Hallmark to put him in another movie. Maybe a snobbish English actor who falls for the homely small town girl over a summer vacation. I think we would do a better job writing these movies with the thousands of hours of cheesy movie viewing  under our belts.

[Kaoteek]

Something tells me most of us would probably be overqualified for that job or die buried under tons of notes from Hallmark execs.

(unrelated, but what ? Netflix has another original Christmas movie scheduled for tomorrow ? And they've greenlit a Chris Colombus-produced Christmas family movie for next year, with Kurt Russell as Santa !? Man, they're really going for it, aren't they ?)

[voiceover]

1 hour ago, twoods said:

 Still waiting for Hallmark to put him in another movie. Maybe a snobbish English actor who falls for the homely small town girl over a summer vacation. 

Make. This. HAPPEN!

In the spirit of the holidays, consider him "shared".  

But Jan 2, he's all mine again.

[EyewatchTV211]

8 hours ago, twoods said:

I don't know why, but Danica's Coming Home to Christmas is like my Crown for Christmas last year- I've already watched it twice and absolutely love it. The story isn't even that compelling, but I loved the chemistry and the family. Haven't found a Hallmark movie this year that I've liked that much. 

Finally got around to watching The Christmas Train, and while I appreciated that it was a different storyline than the others and the production was definitely better, it sort of bored me. At least it got me to dust and clean the kitchen.

Same. I think Neal Bledsoe really helped with making the movie better, just like Rupert did with Crown for Christmas. He was good at playing the stuffy guy who was actually warm and playful underneath. Those sweet grins got me.  

[mikeb]

Here's a podcast episode devoted to Hallmark Christmas movies.   First half is an interview with Alicia Witt about making them - she mentions that she is writing the one she will starring in next year.  The second half is the host and her friends discussing their favorite ones.

http://www.anniefdowns.com/2017/12/13/2017-christmas-party-episode-4-hallmark-christmas-movies-alicia-witt/

[Karen885]

I watched Naughty or nice recently.  Loved it.  What I liked most was she had a platonic male friend with no hint of romance to it.  If this movie was made this year she would be breaking up with her nice boyfriend for her new friend.  

[AnnaRose]

1 hour ago, Karen885 said:

I watched Naughty or nice recently.  Loved it.  What I liked most was she had a platonic male friend with no hint of romance to it.  If this movie was made this year she would be breaking up with her nice boyfriend for her new friend.  

I totally agree!  Naughty or Nice was the movie I watched last year and again this year that got me watching all kinds of Hallmark holiday movies.  I LOVED that platonic friendship.  The whole movie was great!

Another nice platonic male/female friendship was in Best Christmas Party Ever.  The male lead had an old friend who was a very attractive female, and even though she had a little bit of a crush on the cute lead, after observing that her friend seemed to really like the female lead, she was very gracious about stepping aside and even went out of her way to help get them together. 

Edited December 15, 2017 by AnnaRose

[Kaoteek]

So... last week's Sharing Christmas... yikes.

When it was first announced & cast, under the temp title "The Christmas Shop", it was your standard "Corporate, uptight woman has to shut down a shop around Christmas, but falls for the smiling, charming owner, and ends up getting her Xmas spirit back".

Somewhere along the way, they apparently noticed that it was basically the pitch for Lifetime's Tatyana Ali/Brendan Fehr movie (also an Hybrid production, what a coincidence !... And they have the same director and writer, what are the odds ! ^^), and that their own Maggie's Christmas Miracle was awfully close, too, minus the shop closing part. So they gender-switched the movie once it was cast... which is probably why everything just seems off, from the writing to the awkward jazz commercial mid-movie, to the resolution, to the lead actors and their parts.

It's awfully bland, the romance feels forced - the lead would have made a decent corporate uptight developer, and her love interest would have been fine as a charming, joke-cracking Christmas shop owner - and overall, it kinda feels like Hallmark just gave up on that one before filming even started. 

[EyewatchTV211]

The shop also didn't seem that special to me.

[twoods]

It feels as if the quality of movies has gone downhill from the start of the holiday movie season. Some promising movies in November, but the last few weeks have been total duds. They should keep the better quality movies towards Christmas. Even this weekend's offering doesn't seem appealing. I love Jesse Metcalfe, but a movie about an annoying neighbor harassing a guy for not decorating for Christmas doesn't sound interesting at all. What a waste with the lead from Sharing Christmas- I really liked him in Snow Bride and they put him in a bland movie with an annoying lead character.

Edited December 16, 2017 by twoods

[Irlandesa]

12 minutes ago, twoods said:

I love Jesse Metcalfe, but a movie about an annoying neighbor harassing a guy for not decorating for Christmas doesn't sound interesting at all.

I agree with you about the quality of the movies dropping.  There were some movies I actually enjoyed in November.  I don't know if I've even finished a whole movie in December.  I do like Fiona Gubelmann and Jesse so I'll cross my fingers. 

[EyewatchTV211]

[MissyPoo]

17 hours ago, Kaoteek said:

So... last week's Sharing Christmas... yikes.

When it was first announced & cast, under the temp title "The Christmas Shop", it was your standard "Corporate, uptight woman has to shut down a shop around Christmas, but falls for the smiling, charming owner, and ends up getting her Xmas spirit back".

Somewhere along the way, they apparently noticed that it was basically the pitch for Lifetime's Tatyana Ali/Brendan Fehr movie (also an Hybrid production, what a coincidence !... And they have the same director and writer, what are the odds ! ^^), and that their own Maggie's Christmas Miracle was awfully close, too, minus the shop closing part. So they gender-switched the movie once it was cast... which is probably why everything just seems off, from the writing to the awkward jazz commercial mid-movie, to the resolution, to the lead actors and their parts.

It's awfully bland, the romance feels forced - the lead would have made a decent corporate uptight developer, and her love interest would have been fine as a charming, joke-cracking Christmas shop owner - and overall, it kinda feels like Hallmark just gave up on that one before filming even started. 

1

Wow. That explains so much about that movie. I couldn't quite put my finger on it but this nails it. 

I notice the Thanksgiving weekend is their superbowl run. After and until the last movie, it's throwaway movies. HMM has been doing well for me but these last few movies don't seem interesting at all. Esp with the leads they have lined up. (I'm looking at you, Reindeer Lodge) 

Some these last few movies seem like last minute-ers. The Rocky Mountain Christmas one especially which feels like Marry Me At Christmas meets the Winterfest Luke Perry movie from a year or so ago. I notice they moved the date twice and didn't have a poster until like a week ago. Was that thrown together in the past month or so? Anyone know?

[Kaoteek]

According to social media, filming on Rocky Mountain Christmas was still going on around Nov 19/20th. This explains that, I guess.

[AnnaRose]

I watched my recording of 12 Gifts of Christmas with Katrina Law (who also starred in Snow Bride) and mostly really enjoyed it.  Donna Mills played the love interest's mother and was around 75 years old when the movie was made.  (It was a 2015 release.)  Holy cow she looked amazing!  Even her neck looked great, and she didn't have any of those unfortunate after effects of cosmetic enhancements that many actresses seem to suffer.  The only thing that looked weird to me were her lower lashes, (maybe too much mascara or fake lashes?) but that was a minor nit-pick.

[7-Zark-7]

In the list of Hallmark Christmas Movie tropes, has anyone mentioned "the male lead pings your Gaydar like a pinball machine in Vegas"? I'm starting to think Hallmark does it on purpose in order to keep a chaste vibe.

[In2You]

Who in real life have you seen strong popcorn on their tree?

And why would some grown ass adults be concerned with someone not putting up decorations.

[shoregirl]

18 minutes ago, In2You said:

Who in real life have you seen strong popcorn on their tree?

And why would some grown ass adults be concerned with someone not putting up decorations.

My family used to string popcorn and cranberries when my sister's and i still lives at home .  We haven't in like 10 years or so .

[susannot]

Christmas Next Door.    I like Jesse Metcalf and he is a good Hallmark movie male lead.  But that female lead actress--I just can't.  Is anyone really that over the top giggly and bubbly?  And does anyone really go so all in with Christmas?  If I had been Jesse I would have moved out of that neighborhood once the neighbors decorated his yard whether he liked it or not.

Edited December 17, 2017 by susannot

[In2You]

1 hour ago, susannot said:

Christmas Next Door.    I like Jesse Metcalf and he is a good Hallmark movie male lead.  But that female lead actress--I just can't.  Is anyone really that over the top giggly and bubbly?  And does anyone really go so all in with Christmas?  If I had been Jesse I would have moved out of that neighborhood once the neighbors decorated his yard whether he liked it or not.

That's why I ended up changing the channel. Lead grated my nerves and so all into the commercialization of Christmas which she was trying to force onto others.

[EyewatchTV211]

15 minutes ago, In2You said:

That's why I ended up changing the channel. Lead grated my nerves and so all into the commercialization of Christmas which she was trying to force onto others.

The lead is definitely super perky, but she and Jesse worked together better than I thought. And it actually wasn't her trying to force Christmas on others - at least not the decorations. That ended up being 

Spoiler

one of his male buddies.

I was glad they went that route instead of it being her or I would have been annoyed. She only really helped out when he asked for it to please his niece and nephew. I enjoyed this movie more than I expected to. 

Jesse's overly slicked hair bugged me, though. Who does that with their hair, particularly if he is spending most of his time home trying to write a book on a laptop?

Also, that spray snow they use is ridiculous. I get so distracted by how it gets all over the actors' footwear and even pants. And Jesse went sliding in it twice. 

Edited December 17, 2017 by VMepicgrl

[Enero]

On 12/15/2017 at 10:22 PM, Kaoteek said:

So... last week's Sharing Christmas... yikes.

When it was first announced & cast, under the temp title "The Christmas Shop", it was your standard "Corporate, uptight woman has to shut down a shop around Christmas, but falls for the smiling, charming owner, and ends up getting her Xmas spirit back".

Somewhere along the way, they apparently noticed that it was basically the pitch for Lifetime's Tatyana Ali/Brendan Fehr movie (also an Hybrid production, what a coincidence !... And they have the same director and writer, what are the odds ! ^^), and that their own Maggie's Christmas Miracle was awfully close, too, minus the shop closing part. So they gender-switched the movie once it was cast... which is probably why everything just seems off, from the writing to the awkward jazz commercial mid-movie, to the resolution, to the lead actors and their parts.

It's awfully bland, the romance feels forced - the lead would have made a decent corporate uptight developer, and her love interest would have been fine as a charming, joke-cracking Christmas shop owner - and overall, it kinda feels like Hallmark just gave up on that one before filming even started. 

Aw. That explains it. The leads were cute enough and in the commercials looked as if they may pop, but they just didn’t. 

I only made it through 30-40 minutes before I just turned it off due to boredom. Sounds like that was good choice, based on what has been stated here. 

[TVFan17]

20 hours ago, Kaoteek said:

According to social media, filming on Rocky Mountain Christmas was still going on around Nov 19/20th. This explains that, I guess.

 

Yes -- Rocky Mountain Christmas (formerly titled Unbridled Love) was one of a handful of Christmas movies still filming -- or even beginning production -- in November this year.   I think that Rocky Mountain Christmas (filmed in Vancouver and surrounding areas of B.C.) might have been the absolute last 2017 Hallmark Christmas movie to wrap up production this year, around November 22nd-ish, and it's already premiering this coming Friday.   But Romance at Reindeer Lodge (filmed in Connecticut and New York), Christmas Connection (filmed in Winnipeg) and Royal New Year's Eve (filmed in Vancouver/B.C.) were late productions as well, wrapping up only a couple of days before Rocky Mountain Christmas wrapped up.

Having several active November shoots for Christmas movies airing in December was kind of unusual, based on Hallmark's usual filming patterns and timelines, but I suppose that, as long as they continue making as many new movies (or more) as they did this year (there are 36 new Christmas movies, including the 2 from July), they will continue to run into those late-in-the-year shoots.

 

Contrary to what a lot of people think, the Hallmark Christmas movies are not all filmed in the summer.  There are simply too many to film all in one single season, especially when they have other non-Christmas movies to shoot as well.    They shoot the Christmas movies all year long -- sometimes starting as early as January or February, as was the case with Love Always, Santa from 2016 (filmed in Minnesota) and the Chicago production of The Perfect Christmas Present from this year, respectively -- and there are certainly some filmed in the summer, of course.   I have noticed that they will shoot a random one here or there,  in the first few months of the year (such as Christmas Festival of Ice, Christmas in the Air, Marry Me At Christmas, A Song for Christmas, Christmas Cookies, or Operation Christmas), and then start picking up the pace with more Christmas movie shoots in June and July.  Then they slow down the Christmas shoots a bit in late July and August as they turn their attention towards the Fall Harvest movie shoots.

I have found the biggest concentration of Hallmark Christmas movie shoots to be in the September-October time frame (and now November too).  That's when a bunch of Christmas movies are in production at the same time, in Vancouver, in Ontario, in Winnipeg, in Utah, sometimes in Georgia, in Connecticut, etc.

So this is why, depending on the time of year a movie was shot, as well as the specific filming location, sometimes you will see real snow.  Sometimes you will see a combo of real snow and faux snow.  And other times, it's all fake snow.  A movie that shoots in Minnesota in January is much more likely to have an abundance of real snow, as opposed to a movie that films in Utah in July (Enchanted Christmas) or something like that.

 

[Pickles]

Christmas Next Door. I really liked the lead actress and enjoyed her perky personality.  Did not find Jesse's slicked back hair attractive. Enjoyed the lead actress's relationship with her sister. 

[dcinmb]

HuffPost: Women Journalists In Rom-Coms Are Trainwrecks. Here’s Why That Matters.

[Irlandesa]

I'll take a perky lead over a bland lead any day--which is what we get more often than not.  I fell asleep during Christmas Next Door but mainly because I had an exhausting day and didn't start it until 12:30 a.m. (I did the Lifetime and ION movie first.)  I finished it this morning. Overall, I thought it was enjoyable.  I found both characters likable and worked well off of one another.  

Overall, it was one of the better Saturdays for movies of the season. I didn't fast forward through any of them. 

[TVFan17]

I was OK with Christmas Next Door for almost the whole movie.  It wasn't the greatest lead coupling of all time, but Jesse Metcalfe and Fiona Gubelmann were cute enough together.   I thought they were a better match than, for example, Emilie Ullerup and Aaron O'Connell in With Love, Christmas.    And I liked the whole premise of the movie.  I liked that the lawn decorations kept appearing even after he tossed them (I was hoping they would go even further with that in the story, putting up a whole elaborate display on his lawn overnight, instead of copping out at just 3 figures!!!!).

Now, we all know that there always has to be a dreaded misunderstanding in these movies, to tear our lovebirds apart for a minute, leaving them to happily reunite at the end.  So I cannot say that I was surprised there was one such misunderstanding in this movie.  However, I didn't feel that there was enough of a reason for Fiona's character to not listen to Jesse when he tried to talk to her.  It seemed odd that she was shutting the door in his face, since it's not like they'd already been involved in some great romance or even officially dating yet, really.   It seemed to be a bit of an overreaction to what she misunderstood.

Likewise, Jesse running in to interrupt her violin playing and dramatically explain himself and win her back seemed a bit premature -- again, they were barely even just starting to turn their friendship in a romantic direction, and there he was, putting on this 'show' for the onlookers, like Richard Gere climbing up the fire escape in Pretty Woman -- but all of these plot developments are par for the course, so I know to expect them and embrace them.

I just wish there had been more mysterious lawn decoration deliveries!  I wanted to see a whole Christmas village on the lawn by the end of the movie and it never arrived.

[Shanna Marie]

Still working my way through the DVR, and yesterday was Mistletoe day, since I watched The Mistletoe Promise (which I think was from last year, but I guess I missed it then) and Mistletoe Inn.

I rather liked The Mistletoe Promise. It helped that both of them were Christmasphobes instead of the usual "Work! Work!" "Christmas! Christmas!" conflict. They also weren't jerks about it. They'd had experiences that made them less than enthusiastic about Christmas, but they didn't act like they thought Christmas was stupid and nobody should be into it. And their bad Christmas experiences were enough to really explain the way they felt (unlike that movie from a few years ago in which the woman asked a mall Santa for a boyfriend for Christmas when she was 12 and didn't get one, and so she refused to have anything to do with Christmas, even as an adult). You could see them getting together because they actually came together out of mutual worldviews. It was their personal issues, not their issues with each other, that complicated the relationship. The one thing I feel like I missed was that they seemed to be setting up something with him offering to look at the business contract for the company she shared with her ex, and that just vanished somewhere along the way without any resolution.

On the other hand, I hated Mistletoe Inn with a passion, probably because I'm a writer and I've been to a LOT of writing conferences, including romance writing conferences, and I spent the whole movie shouting "That's not how any of this works!" Really, the movie lost me when the pretentious boyfriend broke up with her because he wanted to be with a writer at his own level and she wasn't serious enough. I've known a lot of pretentious male writers, and they'd all love to have a girlfriend who wasn't as serious a writer, since that would guarantee that they'd be more successful than their girlfriends and they could mansplain writing. That kind of guy would be terrified of a girlfriend who was really serious and might get published before he did. Also, that kind of guy would never aspire to being a romance writer. Even if he wrote love stories, they'd be "literary fiction." He would never admit he was writing romance and wouldn't have been caught dead at a romance writing conference. He'd have been more likely to break up with his girlfriend because she wrote romance (she might get romance cooties on him and destroy his literary credibility) than because she wasn't serious enough about her writing. Then there was the conference. Every romance writing conference I've been to was about 95 percent women, probably about 75 percent over 40, not all these hot, young, single people with equal numbers of men and women. I wonder if this movie was meant to promote that publishing arm Hallmark recently announced because it sounded like what they were all writing was Hallmark movies in book form, not the actual romance genre. And then there was leaving a conference to go to New York for a couple of days, in the middle of the conference. I can't imagine anyone doing that. A conference with small-group feedback and critique sessions led by editors and lasting what looked like at least a week would be ridiculously expensive. You're not going to just jaunt away from it, and the keynote speaker would be very irresponsible to just leave like that. I ended up watching the whole thing, mostly as background noise while I live Tweeted my gripes about it, because I had some frustrations I needed to let out, but wow, that one was bad.

Oh, and I cracked up at the scene in which he criticizes her for having put Christmas decorations in her hotel room, but we can see a lighted wreath on the wall in his hotel room behind him, since all the hotels in all these movies decorate each room for Christmas.

I think tonight may be a movie binge because I still have a ton of these piled up on the DVR.

[TVFan17]

I really enjoyed The Mistletoe Inn much more than I expected, to be honest.   It's one I have watched several times since its premiere -- albeit, mainly because I have encountered it on the Hallmark Channel and just decided to watch again, as opposed to pre-planned viewings.    I wasn't sure about the Alicia Witt (Kim)-David Alpay (Zeke) pairing when I first learned that he would be the leading man, but they were better than I thought they would be.    I thought the first hour was very strong.   I loved the humor and the dialogue.  I laughed out loud a few times.    I liked the two main supporting characters played by Lucie Guest and Casey Manderson.  I adored the look and feel of the Inn/lodge at which the retreat was taking place.

However, the movie started to lose me somewhere into the second hour because the humor vanished.  It turned into more of a romantic drama, while the first hour was a romantic comedy.  The tone changed.

I also liked the story that Kim (Alicia) was describing, about the people who pretend to date to get through the holiday season.  She was, of course, describing The Mistletoe Promise.  That was a clever Richard Paul Evans-story-reference-within-another-Richard Paul Evans-story.

I can also completely relate to Kim's feeling of fear and vulnerability as far as wanting to pursue writing in a bigger way, but being terrified of showing her work to anyone and being shot down, and then finally going for it and doing it.  I appreciated that she was told that she had talent, but the people at the retreat did not gush and rave about her work.  They told her it needed improvement -- which is probably a more realistic scenario than what I expected would transpire in the movie.  Even Zeke (David) told her how and where her story needed to improve.  And it was tough for her to hear, but she realized that she needed to hear it.

The reality is that, in this day and age, it seems like many people fancy themselves to be "writers" -- there are many, many blogs and many, many "news" sites or pop culture-types of sites.   There are countless fan fiction writers.    If there is a subject out there that people are interested in, there will be a website about it, or someone with a blog devoted to it.    There are even many people writing about Hallmark movies.  Writers of varying skill levels are everywhere, all over cyberspace.   And... the truth is, a lot of the writing is not good.   Some of it -- from supposedly reputable, established sources and websites that claim to only hire good writers -- is riddled with errors:  typos; misspelled names;  incorrect info;  horrible grammar, etc.  Some of it is just empty, thin, boring or too complicated to follow.

So, because of the lack of quality I see in articles around the Internet, I appreciated that The Mistletoe Inn showed people who actually cared about the writing and making the content better -- however unrealistic some of the details may have been.  Not enough people actually care about putting out good work these days.   They don't have to care when their work is somehow inexplicably published anyway (probably more in the non-fiction realm than in the fiction realm).

Edited December 18, 2017 by TVFan17

[AnnaRose]

I know what you're saying TVFan17 about the poor writing that seems to be everywhere these days.  I also understand Shanna Marie's point about the ex-boyfriend (in Mistletoe Inn) and how he would not want to be considered a "romance" writer (nor would the other male writers there, for the most part,) and that he would prefer to have a girlfriend who was much less successful than he was. 

My take was that he had such a high opinion of himself that he thought his girlfriend should be more accomplished, but then when she was actually doing well at the conference he was jealous and threw away her submission... so in a way he really did display that character trait.  He was an extreme narcissist who was hoping to get back together with her because when he thought she would be able to help him because of her friendship with Zeke. (And was surprised she didn't jump at the chance.)  That all actually read pretty true to me.

Like TVFan17, I really liked Mistletoe Inn - watched it twice before deleting it, and would probably watch it again sometime in the future.  It was my second favorite Alicia Witt Christmas movie that I've seen so far.  My most favorite being A Very Merry Mix-Up.

[twoods]

I would like to see a movie where the cliche breakup towards the end of the movie between the lead and "not the right person" wasn't always so cordial. Some of those relationships are years, but it usually ends with an "oh well", and then they disappear. The only movie where the breakup had a somewhat pissed person was on Nine Lives of Christmas, but the breakup wasn't because he was in love with someone else. I guess besides not being allowed to have passionate kisses, there is no room for angry breakups in Hallmark movies. 

[Irlandesa]

Tonight there were two HMM channel movies on, basically.  When I watched Christmas Connection, it felt very dramatic and like it should be on HMM.  And while I still think that since Christmas at Reindeer Lodge was lighter, it too was a fit for HMM.  I like Brooke Burns and Tom Everett Scott but I didn't fall for the charm of the movie.  It didn't work for me.  Christmas at Reindeer Lodge was better, largely because I think Nikki Whelen and Josh Kelly played well off of one another.  But then I made the mistake of going onto his Twitter feed and it made me want to twitter rant respond to one of his tweets which totally missed the point of something...and ugh. I still think they were charming but I did a bit of a skim ahead with my FF button. 

[twoods]

I agree on Christmas Connection. It was pleasant but the chemistry wasn't there with Brooke and Tom. I would have squeed if Liv Tyler was the lead and there was a That Thing You Do reunion. I did like that Sydney was a flight attendant- they changed it around with at least one of the leads.

[In2You]

I have HMM and I really don't see a dramatic difference between the Christmas movies it airs compared to the regular Hallmark channel. At least not this season.

[MissyPoo]

Yeah, the line is disappearing a bit more this year since most of them are variations on the same love story played out. The main difference I see is the tone of the delivery of the movies. HMM is played more dramatic like the old school tv movies of yore whereas Hallmark is more fluffycakes with its leads doing a bit of wide-eyed, gee whiz, overacting for the most part. But I could easily see, say, Magical Christmas Ornaments fitting in with the Hallmark Channel just as it does with HMM. I'm glad it's not because I like how they played it more dramatic than overexaggerated though.

[Mountainair]

Just catching up on some weekend movies. Reindeer Lodge so far isn’t awful. It serves as great present wrapping background noise at the very least. 

My cable guide says this stars Alison Sweeney. I’m only half way through but so far she hasn’t shown up. 

[MissyPoo]

Strange. Sounds like the guide got Romance at Reindeer Lodge mixed up with Christmas at Holly Lodge wiith Alison. 

[Kaoteek]

Christmas at Holly Lodge was originally produced/announced as Reindeer Lodge (and before that, Evergreen Inn), if i'm not mistaken.

Edited December 19, 2017 by Kaoteek