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


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Gahhh!  I watched the new Kelly Pickler movie -- The Mistletoe Secret-- and they all keep talking about the "mistletoe ornament" at the end of the movie.  The darned ornament is HOLLY.  Yeesh.  You'd think that's one even the Hallmark writers could get right. 

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On 11/20/2019 at 5:17 PM, Dani said:

I think this is why it’s important to bring in more diversity behind the camera. There are ways to infuse smaller bits of culture that still work within the Hallmark format. Of Hallmark’s 40 Christmas movies all of the directors are white and all but 6 are men. That lack that of different viewpoints is taking it’s toll. 

I would wager that their writing staff is also not the least bit diversified.

Although there are probably only a handful of them because they just seem to recycle the same themes over and over: prince/princess, dead but not really, amnesia or waking up in an alternate life, missed plane resulting in a cross country drive, big city bad and little town good, failing farm or orchard or family business with evil big entity threatening a takeover, current boyfriend/girlfriend bad and new acquaintance perfect.  That about covers it.  Throw in some bland, look alike Caucasian actors and you've got yourself a bland Hallmark movie. 

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Really  liked "Christmas Under the Stars". Jesse Metcalf was terrific. Working with a legend like Clarke Peters made hi m rise to the challenge, i think. The story wasn't the same ones that they keep writing. 

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On 11/20/2019 at 8:54 PM, seasons said:

Ugh. Is it just me that cringes during the promo for "Our Christmas love Song" when alicia Witt and brendan hines sing? 🙉

Not just you! I’m planning on going to bed early rather than accidentally catching a moment of this one. 

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I enjoy seeing the posts and who everyone really likes / dislikes — the different tastes are fascinating to me!

I’ll always watch:  Autumn Reeser, Marc Blucas, Jill Wagner, Kristoffer Polaha, Sarah Lancaster, Andrew Walker, Victor Webster, Julie Gonzalo, Paul Campbell, Nikki DeLoach, Alison Sweeney, Michael Rady

I quickly change the channel:  Kellie Pickler, Alicia Witt, Jessica Lowndes, Peter Porthe, Erin Krakow, anything royal (except Paul Campbell’s old one Once Upon A Holiday)

Not wild about:  Mark Deklin, Danica McKellar, Ashley Williams

Who are your always and never??

Edited by MerBearHou
You’ve reminded me of others!
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5 hours ago, MerBearHou said:

I enjoy seeing the posts and who everyone really likes / dislikes — the different tastes are fascinating to me!

I’ll always watch:  Autumn Reeser, Marc Blucas, Jill Wagner, Kristoffer Polaha, Sarah Lancaster, Andrew Walker, Victor Webster, Julie Gonzalo

I quickly change the channel:  Kellie Pickler, Alicia Witt, Peter Porthe

Not wild about:  Mark Deklin, Danica McKellar

Who are your always and never??

Definitely! It's quite refreshing actually.

My likes are pretty similar to yours. I enjoy Autumn, Jill, Kris, Sarah, Andrew, Victor, and Julie but I also don't mind Alicia (had a soft spot for her since she's been part of my childhood with Dune) and old school CCB. I liked Danica but her last few entries have put her on the iffy list for me (and this year's doesn't look too interesting, sorry Dolly fans). Though these are my faves, I also weigh if the movie appears interesting. I also don't mind Ryan P, Luke M.,  Paul Campbell, Rukiya B, sometimes Lacey, Emilie U, Peter P., Bethany JL, Paul Greene, Tyler Hynes. Though Jessica Lowndes and Taylor Cole have grown on me. Funnily enough, my top fave current Hallmark movies feature one time actors that haven't returned.

I skip: Kellie Pickler, Leighann Rhimes, current CCB, Kevin McGarry, Erin Krakow

Don't care for: Chad Michael Murray, Nikki DeLoach, Jesse Metcalfe, Brooke Nevin, Merritt Patterson



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7 hours ago, MerBearHou said:

I enjoy seeing the posts and who everyone really likes / dislikes — the different tastes are fascinating to me!

I’ll always watch:  Autumn Reeser, Marc Blucas, Jill Wagner, Kristoffer Polaha, Sarah Lancaster, Andrew Walker, Victor Webster, Julie Gonzalo

I quickly change the channel:  Kellie Pickler, Alicia Witt, Peter Porthe

Not wild about:  Mark Deklin, Danica McKellar

Who are your always and never??

This is a fun topic, MerBearHou!

Will always watch: Autumn Reeser, Bridget Regan, Taylor Cole, Nikki DeLoach, Julie Gonzalo, Kimberly Sustad, Colin Ferguson, Tyler Hynes, Antonio Cupo, Andrew Walker, Victor Webster, Paul Greene

Channel-changers: Candace Cameron-Bure, Brendan Penny, Alicia Witt, Jessica Lowndes, Brendan Fehr, Alexa PenaVega, Carlos PenaVega, Daniel Lissing, Kellie Pickler

There are lot of others I like--Michael Rady, Kristoffer Polaha, Rachel Boston, Niall Matter, Jill Wagner, Jen Lilley--but it depends on how good the potential plot seems and who they're paired with.

Edited by kirinan
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9 hours ago, MerBearHou said:

I enjoy seeing the posts and who everyone really likes / dislikes — the different tastes are fascinating to me!

I’ll always watch:  Autumn Reeser, Marc Blucas, Jill Wagner, Kristoffer Polaha, Sarah Lancaster, Andrew Walker, Victor Webster, Julie Gonzalo

I quickly change the channel:  Kellie Pickler, Alicia Witt, Peter Porthe

Not wild about:  Mark Deklin, Danica McKellar

Who are your always and never??

Fun topic. 

 I’ll always watch- Andrew Walker, Kristoffer Polaha, Jill Wagner, Jen Lilley, Julie Gonzalo, Wes Brown, Allison Sweeney

Will never watch - Kellie Pickler and Leann Rimes

Not wild about - PenaVega’s, Erin Krakow

Everyone else I’ll give a chance but it depends on the movie. 

The biggest thing that makes me turn off a movie is when the leads are overly antagonist for no reason. It’s so common I have to suck it up but if it continues for too long can’t finish. There’s at least one movie everyone else raves over that I hated so much I found myself wishing someone would push the lead in front of a bus. 

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32 minutes ago, Dani said:

Fun topic. 

 I’ll always watch- Andrew Walker, Kristoffer Polaha, Jill Wagner, Jen Lilley, Julie Gonzalo, Wes Brown, Allison Sweeney

Will never watch - Kellie Pickler and Leann Rimes

Not wild about - PenaVega’s, Erin Krakow

Everyone else I’ll give a chance but it depends on the movie. 

The biggest thing that makes me turn off a movie is when the leads are overly antagonist for no reason. It’s so common I have to suck it up but if it continues for too long can’t finish. There’s at least one movie everyone else raves over that I hated so much I found myself wishing someone would push the lead in front of a bus. 

Well now you have to tell us which movie it was.

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6 hours ago, Sara2009 said:

Well now you have to tell us which movie it was.

Love at the Thanksgiving Day Parade. Autumn Reeser is a very good actress and she plays uptight and rude too well. I’ve never made it through the whole movie. 

I know there are others but that’s the only one I can think of at the moment. 

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On 11/21/2019 at 9:53 PM, seasons said:

Really  liked "Christmas Under the Stars". Jesse Metcalf was terrific. Working with a legend like Clarke Peters made hi m rise to the challenge, i think. The story wasn't the same ones that they keep writing. 

Just finishing it off the DVR now. The Autumn character's money issues made little sense--why is she on the hook for her father's medical bills? Being on the hook for his medical bills: why is she in bitch mode for everything where people try to help--from a tree for the son she claims to care about to getting a chance to work overtime?

If Jesse's dad is such a big shot, why would the firm can him? The rich and powerful have different rules.

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Making the deal with Graceland to shoot some movies there was a great idea, but it's time to retire it. We need to move on. Nobody spends that much time there, especially not "Miss Priscilla Presley."

I watched The Mistletoe Promise as well yesterday and I really hate how Jamie King's character is such an ice queen to Luke McF. Like, she doesn't deserve him to be honest.  Of course it all worked out in the end, but I didn't understand why she was still so hurt after 4 years and seeing her jerky ex everyday. I mean, he was such a loser!

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3 hours ago, sistersledge said:

I watched The Mistletoe Promise as well yesterday and I really hate how Jamie King's character is such an ice queen to Luke McF. Like, she doesn't deserve him to be honest.  Of course it all worked out in the end, but I didn't understand why she was still so hurt after 4 years and seeing her jerky ex everyday. I mean, he was such a loser!

It made more sense in the book by Richard Paul Evans. There were other issues in their marriage.

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1 hour ago, seasons said:

Alicia Witt has such beautiful hair and coloring. But I'm not liking her hairstyle at all in this new movie. Too blunt or something.

Totally just posted the same thing in the other thread. I cringe when she does serious movies but love her in the comedies. And yes her hair was awful... she needed bigger hair!

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1 hour ago, seasons said:

Alicia Witt has such beautiful hair and coloring. But I'm not liking her hairstyle at all in this new movie. Too blunt or something.

I think it’s the bangs. 

Also I’m in the middle of Our Christmas Love Song and shouldn’t the lawsuit plot have ended 45 minutes in when the male lead   reminisced about performing it at a Christmas concert. How is old sheet music better proof than a large group of people who heard it performed live?

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Actively seek out:  Michael Rady, Nikki DeLoach, Jodie Sweetin, Fiona Gubelmann, anyone from One Tree Hill, Alicia Witt, Meredith Hagner

Actively avoid:  Erin Krakow, Ashley Williams, Ashley Newbrough, Jill Wagner

Everyone else falls somewhere in the middle, at varying points along the spectrum between love & hate. lol

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Just got caught up on Christmas in Graceland 2. Priscilla was in it, so it was cool, and seeing the inside of Graceland was cool. The storyline wasn't horrible. Kaitlin Doubleday didn't have anywhere near the vocal range of Kellie, even though she is a slightly better actor--so the penultimate song wasn't wonderful.

The 'you are our new Nashville curator so you must live in London' plot point made exactly zero sense. Maybe, just maybe, the Met or Guggenheim stations someone in Europe full time, but ain't no Nashville place roughly the size of a big city bus terminal doing that.

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I liked last night's movie - although I've already forgotten the name - Christmas Inn perhaps? Rachel Boston was the female lead

Anyway - the reason I enjoyed it:

No dead bodies - no young widow/widower coping on his/her own

No divorced or abandoned spouses coping on his/her own

No too cute, too young children actively engaged & loving the soon-to-be new stepparent

No silly misunderstanding that is solved in the final 10 minutes of the movie - even the generations old family feud seemed more of a friendly annoyance than a real fight

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1 hour ago, Marathonrunner said:

I liked last night's movie - although I've already forgotten the name - Christmas Inn perhaps? Rachel Boston was the female lead

Anyway - the reason I enjoyed it:

No dead bodies - no young widow/widower coping on his/her own

No divorced or abandoned spouses coping on his/her own

No too cute, too young children actively engaged & loving the soon-to-be new stepparent

No silly misunderstanding that is solved in the final 10 minutes of the movie - even the generations old family feud seemed more of a friendly annoyance than a real fight

Agree...but Rachel’s false eyelashes looked terrible!

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2 hours ago, Marathonrunner said:

I liked last night's movie - although I've already forgotten the name - Christmas Inn perhaps? Rachel Boston was the female lead

I tried, because I really like Rachel Boston (Christmas in Angel Falls is one of my all-time favorites), but I only made it halfway through The Inn Movie (I can't remember the name either). I like Wes Brown, too, and the two of them had good chemistry, but I just couldn't keep watching. 

My quibble with it is that they seemed to throw EVERY SINGLE CHRISTMAS CLICHE into the script. Christmas Trivia! Snowball Games! Hot Chocolate! Bad Developer! Over-Achieving Dads! Eggnog! Clark Griswold-Level Decorating! Baking! Grandma Baking! It was just too much.

I fear I may be Christmassed out already; I'm starting to tense up every time I see a mug of hot chocolate. I guess watching Christmas movies starting October 25 and on multiple channels can do that to you. Which is why I'm watching Captain America: The Winter Soldier tonight instead. 

Edited by kirinan
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1 hour ago, kirinan said:

My quibble with it is that they seemed to throw EVERY SINGLE CHRISTMAS CLICHE into the script. Christmas Trivia! Snowball Games! Hot Chocolate! Bad Developer! Over-Achieving Dads! Eggnog! Clark Griswold-Level Decorating! Baking! Grandma Baking! It was just too much.

They do that with every single solitary one of their endlessly repetitive movies.  Get some new writers for the love of all that is holy.

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The Christmas Inn had a good cast and the "save our town" wasn't as annoying as it is in other movies largely because both families had good chemistry between them.

But it ended with the woman getting the job she wanted so much at the beginning of the movie and turning it down at the end to stay in her small town with her dude who gets to do his dream.

1 hour ago, Kohola3 said:

Get some new writers for the love of all that is holy.

I don't think it's about the writers but rather Hallmark has a very specific formula and they want their movies to fit that formula.  I can't think of any examples right now but there have been books that didn't have some of the Hallmark tropes that, when adapted, were retrofitted to add in the tropes.  Books do change when they're adapted for movies but when they're all done in the same way to fit a Hallmark formula, there's usually an edict from above.

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24 minutes ago, Irlandesa said:

I don't think it's about the writers but rather Hallmark has a very specific formula and they want their movies to fit that formula.  I can't think of any examples right now but there have been books that didn't have some of the Hallmark tropes that, when adapted, were retrofitted to add in the tropes.  Books do change when they're adapted for movies but when they're all done in the same way to fit a Hallmark formula, there's usually an edict from above.

You nailed it, IrlandesaThis article about what it’s like to write for Hallmark gives a really good look at their restrictions.

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3 hours ago, kirinan said:

I fear I may be Christmassed out already; I'm starting to tense up every time I see a mug of hot chocolate. I guess watching Christmas movies starting October 25 and on multiple channels can do that to you. Which is why I'm watching Captain America: The Winter Soldier tonight instead. 

I hear ya.  When I’ve had a little too much Christmas in my tv viewing or I’m cranky at seemingly every thing offered on those channels, I go for a little original Law & Order marathon and it clears it right up!

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kirinan, that is a fascinating article.  Some things that jumped out at me that "Merry" and "Christmas" said:

  • Everything goes through a mildness filter.
  • Any sexual is too sexual.
  • The woman basically has to be a saint, but she still has to be a take-charge kind of female until she basically submits to the guy at the end.
  • On our end, we just write everybody as white, we don’t even bother to fight that war.

Stuff like that is why I'll just never get into these movies.  I saw the head of Hallmark was on a podcast recently where he danced around the issue of LGBTQ characters.  They love to use the "it all depends on the scripts we get" excuse for not featuring more diversity, but this article kind of shows that it's a chicken-and-egg kind of thing.  They don't get LGBTQ scripts (or scripts featuring people who aren't white) because they flat out tell the writers they don't want them.  It's pretty lame that they blame their lack of diversity on the writers when the writers are given very specific restrictions.

I watched The Nine Lives of Christmas recently and it really was pretty good!  It wasn't over the top with the Christmas-ness, there wasn't any snow (!!!) or hot chocolate or cookies everywhere, the characters didn't seem like pod people.  But that was made 5 years ago, and it sounds like things have changed, and not for the better.    

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10 hours ago, Kohola3 said:

They do that with every single solitary one of their endlessly repetitive movies.  Get some new writers for the love of all that is holy.

Some writers revealed that Hallmark requires them to throw in all thise Christmas activities 

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1 hour ago, dubstepford wife said:

I watched The Nine Lives of Christmas recently and it really was pretty good!  It wasn't over the top with the Christmas-ness, there wasn't any snow (!!!) or hot chocolate or cookies everywhere, the characters didn't seem like pod people.  But that was made 5 years ago, and it sounds like things have changed, and not for the better.    

And we didn’t have to wait until the end for a kiss. 

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Couldn’t get into “Christmas at the Plaza” and switched to the Alibi channel 🙂

The dialogue was poorly written and conversation seemed stilted between the two leads. I thought they were dubbed. The actress in particular I didn’t find likeable and the whole plot was a snooze. 

Wondering what others thought? 

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4 hours ago, Rabithed said:

Couldn’t get into “Christmas at the Plaza” and switched to the Alibi channel 🙂

The dialogue was poorly written and conversation seemed stilted between the two leads. I thought they were dubbed. The actress in particular I didn’t find likeable and the whole plot was a snooze. 

Wondering what others thought? 

I’m in the middle of it right now. I almost gave up on it in the beginning but I do think it’s getting better. I think she was struggling with her American accent through the first few scenes. I don’t know if it’s better later or if I just stopped noticing. I don’t understand Hallmark insistence that all the female lead characters be American. 

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9 hours ago, Dani said:

I’m in the middle of it right now. I almost gave up on it in the beginning but I do think it’s getting better. I think she was struggling with her American accent through the first few scenes. I don’t know if it’s better later or if I just stopped noticing. I don’t understand Hallmark insistence that all the female lead characters be American. 

Because people outside the US celebrating Christmas is too diverse for Hallmark.

Ryan Paevey can't act worth a damn so his movies are automatic skip for me. Plus the only Christmas at the Plaza type movie I want to watch is Eloise at Christmastime. 

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Oh wait she wasn't American? That explains her weird accent and she felt very uptight to me. Idk, it was boring and pretty unbelievable. How far out of NYC did she live to have a house like that? (Pretty far as I know the area very well bc I lived there for most of my life). Just traveling in and out of the city at all hours at night? No issues w parking? (Side note: they would not have driven downtown and parked, they would have taken a cab or Uber) I get that we needed a house decorated scene but that was pretty far fetched. So was having a full time job as a solely-Christmas decorator in the NYC area (I mean, he would have to do other decorating the rest of the year). So was Ryan being so in the know, as to have been hired by the Plaza. So was having the academics despise her bc of her job at the plaza. So was her her job at the plaza. Something like that would have been started in the spring at the least. So was her turning down the job to work full time as the historian at the plaza and instead teach. I mean, I'm not an archeologist and even I would take that job. 
 

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2 hours ago, sistersledge said:

Oh wait she wasn't American? That explains her weird accent and she felt very uptight to me. Idk, it was boring and pretty unbelievable. How far out of NYC did she live to have a house like that? (Pretty far as I know the area very well bc I lived there for most of my life). Just traveling in and out of the city at all hours at night? No issues w parking? (Side note: they would not have driven downtown and parked, they would have taken a cab or Uber) I get that we needed a house decorated scene but that was pretty far fetched. So was having a full time job as a solely-Christmas decorator in the NYC area (I mean, he would have to do other decorating the rest of the year). So was Ryan being so in the know, as to have been hired by the Plaza. So was having the academics despise her bc of her job at the plaza. So was her her job at the plaza. Something like that would have been started in the spring at the least. So was her turning down the job to work full time as the historian at the plaza and instead teach. I mean, I'm not an archeologist and even I would take that job. 
 

I think the character was supposed to be American but Elizabeth Henstridge is British. I think the writers at least tried to explain some of the issues with dialogue with the lines about her parents being diplomats and in real estate or something like that. I think the movie fell victim for the need to make everything overly Christmasy. 

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21 hours ago, Rabithed said:

Couldn’t get into “Christmas at the Plaza” and switched to the Alibi channel 🙂

The dialogue was poorly written and conversation seemed stilted between the two leads. I thought they were dubbed. The actress in particular I didn’t find likeable and the whole plot was a snooze. 

Wondering what others thought? 

Agent Simmons from Marvel Agents of Shield played a slightly reserved comic book secret agent undercover as a historian with the right amount of comic book awkward. Except her character was supposed to be an actual historian in a romance movie. 

The male lead plays a police detective on soap operas. He was also slightly awkward and didn't really fit.

So the female lead's boyfriend is a hard working tenure track prof where she is drifting on BS side jobs with her PhD, and he is kept late 20 minutes for drinks because his committee goes long...so she starts flirting with a new guy without saying anything to her BF. A few weeks before their big trip to meet the BF's parents.

It was unsettling.

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23 hours ago, Rabithed said:

Couldn’t get into “Christmas at the Plaza” and switched to the Alibi channel 🙂

The dialogue was poorly written and conversation seemed stilted between the two leads. I thought they were dubbed. The actress in particular I didn’t find likeable and the whole plot was a snooze. 

Wondering what others thought? 

I loved it.  First of all, it was set in New York at The Plaza!! 

Second, I think that Ryan's acting is perfectly OK for a Hallmark lead.  His acting has improved.  I don't think that any of the other actors are noticeably better than him, but maybe that's because I think he is handsome beyond belief.

Third, is Elizabeth Henstridge any relation to Natasha Henstridge?

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20 hours ago, Dani said:

I don’t understand Hallmark insistence that all the female lead characters be American.

I don't know who their audience is exactly, but it's easier to imagine yourself in the lead character's role if they are like the viewer. 

One of my favorite holiday movies at the moment is The Flight Before Christmas with Mayim Bialik and Ryan McPartlin. Oh, nevermind, I don't think it's from Hallmark. 

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Christmas at the Plaza wasn't good, but I am thinking about head canon from it. Dr. Robert Hartley was traveling through New York and met Amanda Clark, his basis for Stephanie Vanderkellen, the terrible maid on Newhart.

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10 hours ago, susannot said:

Third, is Elizabeth Henstridge any relation to Natasha Henstridge?

No, she’s not. I was curious, too, because it doesn’t seem like that common a last name, but I guess it’s more common than I thought.

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On 11/27/2019 at 11:54 PM, MerBearHou said:

I hear ya.  When I’ve had a little too much Christmas in my tv viewing or I’m cranky at seemingly every thing offered on those channels, I go for a little original Law & Order marathon and it clears it right up!

Yep.  L&O or Snapped.

Two minutes into Christmas at the Plaza the old concierge guy (I didn't even recognize Bruce Davison -- my God) sees the female lead (who he doesn't know from Eve) walk into the hotel and he starts talking to her about HOT COCOA.

I....just....can't......

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