October 20, 2025 • 24 mins
We were thrilled to see Mistletoe Murders make its Hallmark Channel debut on October 17! After a smash-hit run on Hallmark+, the Sarah Drew–led mystery kicked off Countdown to Christmas 2025 in style. If you missed the premiere, now’s the perfect time to catch up - Season 2 is coming soon, and you won’t want to miss what’s next in this fan-favorite series! Enjoy our review of Mistletoe Murders episodes 1 and 2.
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Follow us on Instagram!
Subscribe to our Patreon for more Megan and Wendy
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, friends, Happy countdown to Christmas season. We originally recorded
these reviews of the Mistletoe Murders season one episodes over
the summer, and we are re airing them in honor
of their debut on the Hallmark Channel as part of
the Countdown to Christmas lineup. We will of course be
reviewing the new episodes in season two when those drop
(00:21):
as well. Enjoy the reviews. This is a bramble Jam podcast.
(00:45):
Welcome to Girls Gone Hallmark, a Hallmark review podcast. I'm
Megan and I'm a longtime Hallmark fan. I'm Wendy. I'm
a former Hallmark hater. Today we are starting the second
semester of the Girls Gone Hallmark Summer School series, and
we are beginning our reviews of Mistletoe Murder and we
are starting with combining episodes one in two Poison and
a Paratree Parts one and two. A little more on
(01:07):
that in a minute. Hang out with us when the
podcast is over. The best place to find us first,
it's probably Instagram, where we are Girls Gone Homark. Hey.
We are on Facebook in Facebook groups in particular, if
you are looking to join a Hallmark friendly Facebook group
with cool people who like to talk Hallmark and they
(01:28):
know their stuff over there. Yeah, it's called Girls Gone
Hallmark in Facebook groups. As mentioned, just a quick schedule adjustment.
We had initially planned to review each episode of Mistletoe
Murders separately, and then upon watching them, we thought maybe
that wasn't the best idea because we realized I didn't
know this ahead of time, that each mystery spans two episodes. Yeah,
(01:51):
I didn't know either, and we thought we would just
combine them and do them kind of like a movie.
So minor schedule adjustment. Yeah, this will only run for
three weeks as opposed to six weeks. Right, so the
episodes every other week? Oh, is that what we're gonna do? Oh?
You want to do him back to back? Yeah? I
just figured we would just drop them the first three weeks,
(02:13):
the first three Thursdays, Oh interesting, okay, And in August
we'll just leave those Thursdays empty because you guys be
kind of scenes. August is busy. It's busy, but we're
also preparing for the onslaught of Christmas content, so we're
(02:33):
gonna take a little break. Great, let's start with a synopsis.
Christmas shop owner Emily Lane investigates a murder at a
tree Farm. That's all I Got. Missletow Murders was created
by Ken Cooperis, and he is credited with writing the
first two episodes of the series. He was executive producer
(02:55):
of the Mistletoe Murders podcast series, which the TV was
based on. He's also been a writer and a producer
on the Hallmark adjacent series Hudson and Rex Hudson and
Rex Sarah It Is Again. Grant Harvey directed the first
two episodes of Mistletoe Murders for Hallmark. Grant has also
directed fourteen episodes of The Way Home. His additional directing
(03:16):
projects include Heartland and Orphan Black. The One and Only.
Sarah Drew plays Emily Lane, our shop owner with a
missteria's past. Sarah has fifty three acting credits, including two
hundred four episodes of Grey's Anatomy as April Kepner. For Hallmarks,
she has appeared in Branching Out One Summer and Guiding Emily.
Peter Mooney plays Detective Sam Wilner. Peter must have big
(03:38):
cop energy because among his acting credits That was Really
Good Megan includes roles like Ricky Blue and Burden of Truth.
Sierra Marilyn Riley plays teenager Violet Wilner. This was her
very first acting project, and she has since appeared in
the series Motorheads. Kylie Evans play's Town busybody Brook Carmichael.
You might recognize Kylie s Stephanie from the series Good Witch.
(04:02):
Lara Amercay plays June Hubble murder suspect and Emily's best Ye.
Laura has had roles in Work and Moms, as well
as the Prime video series Cross David who Litt plays Ray,
the furniture sales person with a shady side hustle. David
has a deep resume. His longest running role was on
Stargate Atlantis, where he has appeared in ninety nine episodes.
(04:23):
Steve Lund plays Marcus Donovan. Steve was in all four
Hearts Around the Table movies and is appearing in season
three of Sullivan's Crossing. Mistletoe Murders is based on the
Audible original podcast by the same name. We are going
to take a quick break and we're gonna come right
back with our first impressions. Hey, Wendy, what is your
(04:51):
first impression of Mistletoe Murders? Quid in a pear tree? Oh? Sorry,
this mystery did not come to play, and neither did
Emily Lane, who My first impression is I've heard the
term cozy mystery tossed around, and I think Hallmark nailed
it here a great can I tell you hold on
a second. I really want to make an edit. I
have to ask my seventeen year old how to exactly
(05:13):
do that, But I want to make an edit of
like Emily Lane to this song. Do you know what'sngbo? No,
it's I did something bad by Taylor Swift from their reputation. Oh.
I think about while I'm watching this is like Emily
has this sort of like baddie energy. Yes, and I'm
(05:36):
loving it. I love love love. Let's talk about Sarah
Drew and the character she plays Emily's. First of all,
I'm all in on Sarah Drew. It was really the
movie One Summer that we recently reviewed that like was
the tipping point for me. Yeah, she's so good in
(05:56):
Guiding Emily Though. She is very good. She's very good
in that movie quite frankly as April Koepner. Like, she's good.
I didn't watch Grays oh know her as that character
at all. She's a good actor. I have a suggestion
for you new TikTok fanatic, Just search April Kaepner on
TikTok and you'll get some of her iconic Gray's anatomy.
(06:20):
I mean, she has this heartbreaker of a storyline. She's
so good. Oh I'm excited, I will, but she's so
good in this. She's so good in this. The way
she delivers dialogue is like how you and I would
talk to each other. I feel like there's she's of course,
(06:40):
she's like natural and warm, but she's just a little
bit sarcastic too. And the way it's delivered is like
chef's kiss. So good. Yeah, here's one thing I like
about her. Look, we are familiar with this setup, right,
We've got the cop Sam and then we've got the
amateur sleuth. But Emily Lane is not your average Ridge
(07:00):
Hallmark heroine. Yes year, we know she's got some sort
of mystery past. She clearly knows her stuff. I mean,
look the hidden briefcase moment with the passports, her lock
picking skills, the explosion. I love her, and I love
that her character's got a lot of depth. She's not
(07:22):
just like I'm a Christmas tree shop owner who happens
to be crime a Jason, and I'm going to solve
this crime because it involves my friends. She has a reason. Yes.
So my notes about Emily Lane are that I think
she's Hallmark's most intriguing lead. Like ever, oh uh huh.
When I was watching it, I was like, Okay, she's
(07:42):
giving me Alias energy. Yes for that, you know, like,
of course she's not a spy. I don't think she's
a spy, but like the lead character in Alias was
a spy, and like it's that sort of kind of
like I mean that briefcase with the multiple passports is
giving spy something. And what I also find super intriguing
is is she hiding in plain sight here? I'm a
(08:05):
Christmas shop owner? Yeah, Like, what's the backstory here? I
love it. I love it so much. I have in
my notes that she's not just like a nosy amateur
sleuth here, like she brings a skill that we're not
fully aware of yet. It's more Amy Winslow than Hannah Swinson. Yes,
(08:29):
and I love that. This is a good thing. Question
are you more anxious for the reveal of Emily's backstory
or were you more anxious for the Emily and the
Amy and Travis Kiss. I'm more anxious to learn about
Emily Lane's backstory because and this is no shade to
(08:54):
mystery one on one, I it was a series I
really enjoyed, But with that said, it was very Hallmark.
Mistletoe Murders to me, feels elevated to a level of
in quality terms similar to The Way Home. Production wise,
director wise, like that kind of level. And also I
(09:16):
think that because it's based off of a successful podcast,
the storytelling was already there. The storytelling is already there.
But I also I don't feel like they're trying to
dumb anything down from the audience. And sometimes I feel
like Hallmark might be a little watered down in terms,
(09:37):
especially with the mystery stuff. This felt different level to me.
I think one thing they do nicely is balancing the
tone in this movie, Like there is some sinister stuff, gambling,
dead's blackmail, shade business deals, and yet they balance it
and they've found the piece that makes it Hallmark. And
(09:59):
I have not listens to the podcast, but you have
you know your hot Chocolate tastings. You have Emily runs
this shop that would go to business ten and a
half months out of the year, but still manages to
be her bread and butter somehow, and part of me
is knowing a little bit about her backstory, and like,
it is it a front? Is it a sham? I
don't think it is. I think, you know, Hallmark is
(10:21):
the only place where this could work. But I think
they are balancing the mistletoe and the murder piece of
it nicely. I agree. And while watching this, you know,
I'm not a huge fan of Christmas, and I know
it's called mistletoe murders, it feels to me like it's
(10:41):
just operating like during the holiday season. It's not like
a part of this not bashing you over the head
with it. Yes, I it could stand alone, even if
it removed the holiday element from it. I agree. I
imagine it's not going to I imagine season two is
going to pick up during the holiday season. Sure as well.
(11:03):
I really enjoyed the story where we have all these
clues the baseball, Like all these clues start to reveal themselves, right,
and they're almost they're coming to Emily. I know she's
out in pursuit of information, but it's like these clues
are falling into her lap a little bit, like when
(11:24):
she's at the bank, and she sees the baseball and
then she puts the name the player names, the fake
name together, and when Lizzie comes in and Lizzie's looking
for a specific cookie, and she's starting to put like
the pieces together of Oh, Lizzie must have been with
Marcus that night, et cetera, et cetera. It's like enough
to keep me like interested, but I'm not like trying
(11:47):
to piece it together and put it together myself. I
think a huge piece of that is the voiceovers, because
we don't have to guess what she's thinking. She's like, Oh,
that means x Y and Z. I think one of
our complaints about mysteries is they give us so much
information that's sometimes it is hard to follow. And because
she is piecing it together in her head and we
hear that inner monologue, it helps us keep up with
(12:09):
what's going on. Yeah, so you don't need the big
explanation at the end of the episode. Yeah, yeah, I
want to talk about Violet, the daughter Violet. Yeah, scene
stiller for me. I loved her. She makes She has
this line when her dad comes into the Christmas shop
and they're talking about perhaps maybe a killer on the
(12:30):
loose and she says, do I look like Final Girl
material to you? I just was like, I love the writing,
I love this actor. I can't believe this is like
her first project. I thought she was really good. She
vibes nicely with the guy that plays her dad, and
she's a not She doesn't feel the role of best
friend and like, obviously Emily has like the best friend
(12:53):
who gets in trouble in this episode, she doesn't get
in trouble, but is suspected in this episode, but she's
you know, the the sounding board at work, yep, and
it just works. Yeah, she uses the line resting cop
face great, it's great. I love it. Speaking of supporting character.
Is a big fan of Detective Sam. I like his
(13:15):
dry wit, but it's also balanced by the fact that
he's really warm with his daughter and very actively participating
and trying to make it so that like their life
has changed, but her life doesn't have to, and then
takes the chance to listen to her when she's like, look,
we can adapt, we don't need our life doesn't need
to be a carbon copy of what it was before,
(13:35):
and he hears her and adapts to what she needs,
and obviously you see him kind of warming to Emily
and the skills that she brings. Like he's mildly annoyed
that she's running her own investigation, as he should be,
quite frankly, but acknowledges, you know, the help that she's
(13:56):
offering kind of softens towards her. Obviously we see where
this is headed. I'm really enjoying Detective Sam. I agree
with you, he's attractive. I don't love the trope of
I'm annoyed at this amateur, amateur sleuthe story. And maybe
(14:17):
it's just because we've watched a lot of mysteries. Yeah,
but she also stops in and she's like, give me
this information. He's like, get the heck. Yeah, no, I agree.
I love when he clocks her and he's like, not
all investigations are an Agatha Agatha Christie you know story
or whatever. Yeah, except bro, you're living in one. Yeah,
(14:37):
exactly exactly. My final like is and we talked about
at the top this two episode arc. Very smart move, yes,
so smart. I love it, and it ties in with
my final link. The final scene we get that kind
of wraps up all of these storyline. It's told without dialogue.
(14:58):
Lizzie's telling Trent the true truth. We see Gordon waking
up in the hospital, Sam and Violet doing their career.
Like we're wrapping up all these storylines. Emily and June
are at the bar. Emily exchanged gifts with Ray. Uh,
you know it gives us like closure, but then opens
the door to the next thing. Yeah, I'm curious to
see because I have not watched episode three yet. Do
(15:20):
we get new characters introduced at all? We would have
to because I can't imagine the cat to the DP.
This pool of people are not gonna have another murder. Yeah,
I would hope not. So. Yeah, I imagine we'll still
see June. Right. Our best friend Tom Kavanaugh joins the
(15:41):
cast in season two. I think, oh in season two?
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Is that what it is?
Speaker 1 (15:45):
I think? So okay? Interesting? That feels like heavyweight. Yeah,
who has a lot of experience. We didn't talk about it,
but the character of Ray and I put this on
our Instagram stories. Yeah, or a few of you who
knew what I was referencing. But is he not Jonesy
from Beverly Hills Niners. As soon as you said it.
(16:07):
As soon as you said it, I was like, shady side, hushole,
good guy. Maybe doing some not so good things. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I loved it. I loved it too. I loved it.
I really like him. Let's talk wishes, Let's talk wishes.
I know very few. Yeah, me too. My first one
(16:30):
is it's kind of a yes I do, but no,
I don't. I want more information about Emily's backstory, But
then again I don't. I'm like, give it to me
just in breadcrumbs. It makes it more enjoyable that way.
So yeah, I mean that final scene in the first
episode where they show the flashback to her all in
(16:51):
black and the explosion behind her, Like, that's great, that's
super interesting. It was the end of the episode two
when she like pulls out that Yeah, the gift from Jonesy,
it's right, gun, right, I know, that's what it's My
wishes too, Like what is it? Is it a gun?
Is it a burner phone?
Speaker 2 (17:08):
I don't know? Yeah, what is it?
Speaker 1 (17:10):
I don't know. I'm dina no, but I feel like
a gun's too obvious and what could it be? I
don't know. But yeah, I'm really enjoying her backstory. I'm
enjoying the slow reveal. Another thing I want more of.
I want more Brooke and more Sue. I'll be shocked
if we don't find Brooke Carmichael at the center of
(17:31):
one of these mysteries this season. She plays the perfect
little town busy body. We didn't really get enough of her,
in my opinion, in these first two episodes, but they
do set her up nicely to be kind of getting
in the middle of something sticky coming up. I thought
so too. So I also like Sue, you know, the
diner owner. I think she could be involved in a
(17:54):
bigger way as well. I like her. She's real funny,
she's real dry. So here's the thing that we see
in a lot of mysteries, and that is that the
murder is someone who often we don't know a lot about.
Not always the case, but sometimes they'll introduce this character
and then we won't see them or they'll be like
really peripheral and so we don't suspect them. And they
(18:16):
did that in this case, and it's Rowan, And I
felt sometimes I find like it's maybe maybe too easy,
like it felt a little bit like he came out
of nowhere, Like I did feel like he was suspicious
from the moment. Yeah, he shines her in the woods. Yeah,
but we don't get enough about him until we, you know,
(18:36):
discover that he's sleeping in the loft and all of that.
So you just just came out of nowhere. Do you
wish it was somebody more obvious, maybe somebody who is
like a bigger player in the maybe in the story. Yeah, yeah,
I hear you, I hear you. That's it. Well, let's talk.
Did you see that moment I have to okay and
(18:58):
they're not to Did you see that? They were just
stand out moments? Yeah. Same. The first one is when
Emily is pressing Anna the daughter about your dad is
tech challenge. He wouldn't know how to send an anonymous
And it's a really it's an acting choice that Sarah
(19:24):
Drew makes like she's asking her a question, and then
she goes like this with her eyes like and you
guys obviously were on a like an audio podcast that
I just did. But her, I said, go ahead answer me.
You don't have any answer. I just thought it was
a really good, good scene. What do you have to
say to that? Yeah, it was just so good. She
(19:45):
just like it's almost like when you like make oh
my daughter are so long, when you like make a
person flinch, like yeah, you know what I mean, It
just it was really good. It was really good. The
other scene has to do also with Emily, and it's
when she's confronted with Rowan up in the barn rafters
(20:05):
and Rowan says, you shouldn't have come up here, and
she Emily looks possessed to me in this moment and
she's like, he says you shouldn't be here, and she says,
I should say the same thing to you, and she
like goes for him, and then that's when she crashes
through the rafters. I was like, what is happening? I
need to know the backstory of this battie. Yeah, that's great,
(20:29):
because what's funny is that scene. To me, The remarkable
thing to me was the fall was so good. It
was so well executed, the way she hits the ground
and comes out of that. But you're right, it's like
we're starting to get a hint of who she is
and what she's capable of, but she's interrupted by the
floor giving away. That's great. Yeah, you know, like you
there's not a lot of real dig you see that
(20:50):
moments for me. But I would like to say one
thing I noticed I found the inside of Ray's office
to be very incongruous with the outside. Like his office
is very nice, it's well a point, it's clean, everything's organized.
The front of his building is like dilapidated and falling down.
You know, this discount furniture is kind of like a
front for whatever other shady dealings he's got going on.
(21:11):
I just found the two to be an interesting contrast
to each other. Interesting. Is he running guns through his business?
Is that what's happening? Guns and passports? And I don't know.
I don't know because to me, I'm like he's kind
of like the bad guy with a heart of gold.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Like when he talks to Emily and he's like, how
did you know what I was into? And she says
game recognizes game, and he goes, I don't know what
that means, but I'll take it. Like he just he
doesn't give me like sinister, you need to be afraid
of me, bad guy vibes. I'm afraid of Emily. Yeah,
That's who I'm afraid of. Yeah, I'm like, please don't
be like a terrible bad person that I can't you
(21:49):
know that show you were oh uh huh. Joe Goldberg
is a murderer, but you're like, I'm enamored with Joe
the murderer because he's so charming. Yes, I'm like, is
that what's going to happen with Emily here? Are? Is
she going to be like a Robin Hood situation? I
don't know. Hey, what did you rate this first two episodes?
(22:10):
I gave it four point seven five stars.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
I gave it.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Five stars, acknowledging that my patients for Emily's backstory and
the Emily and Sam Slowburn might run out, but evaluating
these two in a vacuum, thought it was great, so good.
I haven't told my husband. I was like, numerous times,
I go, this is really good. This is really really good.
(22:35):
Uh huh, he won't watch it. No, my husband wasn't
interested in watching it either, but I was like, I
think you'd like it. Hey, thank you for listening to
this episode of Girls Gone Hallmark. We'll be back next
week with our reviews of Mistletoe Murders episodes three and four.
We'll see you next time.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Goodbye bye.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
All right, friends, before we go, just a quick heads up.
You're about to hear some ads. These little gems help
us keep the show running and the Hallmark love flowing.
So do with that info what you will, Grab a snack,
hit the skip button, or maybe just maybe listen in
and discover your new favorite product.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Bye.
Hey, friends, Happy countdown to Christmas season. We originally recorded
these reviews of the Mistletoe Murders season one episodes over
the summer, and we are re airing them in honor
of their debut on the Hallmark Channel as part of
the Countdown to Christmas lineup. We will of course be
reviewing the new episodes in season two when those drop
(00:21):
as well. Enjoy the reviews. This is a bramble Jam podcast.
(00:45):
Welcome to Girls Gone Hallmark, a Hallmark review podcast. I'm
Megan and I'm a longtime Hallmark fan. I'm Wendy. I'm
a former Hallmark hater. Today we are starting the second
semester of the Girls Gone Hallmark Summer School series, and
we are beginning our reviews of Mistletoe Murder and we
are starting with combining episodes one in two Poison and
a Paratree Parts one and two. A little more on
(01:07):
that in a minute. Hang out with us when the
podcast is over. The best place to find us first,
it's probably Instagram, where we are Girls Gone Homark. Hey.
We are on Facebook in Facebook groups in particular, if
you are looking to join a Hallmark friendly Facebook group
with cool people who like to talk Hallmark and they
(01:28):
know their stuff over there. Yeah, it's called Girls Gone
Hallmark in Facebook groups. As mentioned, just a quick schedule adjustment.
We had initially planned to review each episode of Mistletoe
Murders separately, and then upon watching them, we thought maybe
that wasn't the best idea because we realized I didn't
know this ahead of time, that each mystery spans two episodes. Yeah,
(01:51):
I didn't know either, and we thought we would just
combine them and do them kind of like a movie.
So minor schedule adjustment. Yeah, this will only run for
three weeks as opposed to six weeks. Right, so the
episodes every other week? Oh, is that what we're gonna do? Oh?
You want to do him back to back? Yeah? I
just figured we would just drop them the first three weeks,
(02:13):
the first three Thursdays, Oh interesting, okay, And in August
we'll just leave those Thursdays empty because you guys be
kind of scenes. August is busy. It's busy, but we're
also preparing for the onslaught of Christmas content, so we're
(02:33):
gonna take a little break. Great, let's start with a synopsis.
Christmas shop owner Emily Lane investigates a murder at a
tree Farm. That's all I Got. Missletow Murders was created
by Ken Cooperis, and he is credited with writing the
first two episodes of the series. He was executive producer
(02:55):
of the Mistletoe Murders podcast series, which the TV was
based on. He's also been a writer and a producer
on the Hallmark adjacent series Hudson and Rex Hudson and
Rex Sarah It Is Again. Grant Harvey directed the first
two episodes of Mistletoe Murders for Hallmark. Grant has also
directed fourteen episodes of The Way Home. His additional directing
(03:16):
projects include Heartland and Orphan Black. The One and Only.
Sarah Drew plays Emily Lane, our shop owner with a
missteria's past. Sarah has fifty three acting credits, including two
hundred four episodes of Grey's Anatomy as April Kepner. For Hallmarks,
she has appeared in Branching Out One Summer and Guiding Emily.
Peter Mooney plays Detective Sam Wilner. Peter must have big
(03:38):
cop energy because among his acting credits That was Really
Good Megan includes roles like Ricky Blue and Burden of Truth.
Sierra Marilyn Riley plays teenager Violet Wilner. This was her
very first acting project, and she has since appeared in
the series Motorheads. Kylie Evans play's Town busybody Brook Carmichael.
You might recognize Kylie s Stephanie from the series Good Witch.
(04:02):
Lara Amercay plays June Hubble murder suspect and Emily's best Ye.
Laura has had roles in Work and Moms, as well
as the Prime video series Cross David who Litt plays Ray,
the furniture sales person with a shady side hustle. David
has a deep resume. His longest running role was on
Stargate Atlantis, where he has appeared in ninety nine episodes.
(04:23):
Steve Lund plays Marcus Donovan. Steve was in all four
Hearts Around the Table movies and is appearing in season
three of Sullivan's Crossing. Mistletoe Murders is based on the
Audible original podcast by the same name. We are going
to take a quick break and we're gonna come right
back with our first impressions. Hey, Wendy, what is your
(04:51):
first impression of Mistletoe Murders? Quid in a pear tree? Oh? Sorry,
this mystery did not come to play, and neither did
Emily Lane, who My first impression is I've heard the
term cozy mystery tossed around, and I think Hallmark nailed
it here a great can I tell you hold on
a second. I really want to make an edit. I
have to ask my seventeen year old how to exactly
(05:13):
do that, But I want to make an edit of
like Emily Lane to this song. Do you know what'sngbo? No,
it's I did something bad by Taylor Swift from their reputation. Oh.
I think about while I'm watching this is like Emily
has this sort of like baddie energy. Yes, and I'm
(05:36):
loving it. I love love love. Let's talk about Sarah
Drew and the character she plays Emily's. First of all,
I'm all in on Sarah Drew. It was really the
movie One Summer that we recently reviewed that like was
the tipping point for me. Yeah, she's so good in
(05:56):
Guiding Emily Though. She is very good. She's very good
in that movie quite frankly as April Koepner. Like, she's good.
I didn't watch Grays oh know her as that character
at all. She's a good actor. I have a suggestion
for you new TikTok fanatic, Just search April Kaepner on
TikTok and you'll get some of her iconic Gray's anatomy.
(06:20):
I mean, she has this heartbreaker of a storyline. She's
so good. Oh I'm excited, I will, but she's so
good in this. She's so good in this. The way
she delivers dialogue is like how you and I would
talk to each other. I feel like there's she's of course,
(06:40):
she's like natural and warm, but she's just a little
bit sarcastic too. And the way it's delivered is like
chef's kiss. So good. Yeah, here's one thing I like
about her. Look, we are familiar with this setup, right,
We've got the cop Sam and then we've got the
amateur sleuth. But Emily Lane is not your average Ridge
(07:00):
Hallmark heroine. Yes year, we know she's got some sort
of mystery past. She clearly knows her stuff. I mean,
look the hidden briefcase moment with the passports, her lock
picking skills, the explosion. I love her, and I love
that her character's got a lot of depth. She's not
(07:22):
just like I'm a Christmas tree shop owner who happens
to be crime a Jason, and I'm going to solve
this crime because it involves my friends. She has a reason. Yes.
So my notes about Emily Lane are that I think
she's Hallmark's most intriguing lead. Like ever, oh uh huh.
When I was watching it, I was like, Okay, she's
(07:42):
giving me Alias energy. Yes for that, you know, like,
of course she's not a spy. I don't think she's
a spy, but like the lead character in Alias was
a spy, and like it's that sort of kind of
like I mean that briefcase with the multiple passports is
giving spy something. And what I also find super intriguing
is is she hiding in plain sight here? I'm a
(08:05):
Christmas shop owner? Yeah, Like, what's the backstory here? I
love it. I love it so much. I have in
my notes that she's not just like a nosy amateur
sleuth here, like she brings a skill that we're not
fully aware of yet. It's more Amy Winslow than Hannah Swinson. Yes,
(08:29):
and I love that. This is a good thing. Question
are you more anxious for the reveal of Emily's backstory
or were you more anxious for the Emily and the
Amy and Travis Kiss. I'm more anxious to learn about
Emily Lane's backstory because and this is no shade to
(08:54):
mystery one on one, I it was a series I
really enjoyed, But with that said, it was very Hallmark.
Mistletoe Murders to me, feels elevated to a level of
in quality terms similar to The Way Home. Production wise,
director wise, like that kind of level. And also I
(09:16):
think that because it's based off of a successful podcast,
the storytelling was already there. The storytelling is already there.
But I also I don't feel like they're trying to
dumb anything down from the audience. And sometimes I feel
like Hallmark might be a little watered down in terms,
(09:37):
especially with the mystery stuff. This felt different level to me.
I think one thing they do nicely is balancing the
tone in this movie, Like there is some sinister stuff, gambling,
dead's blackmail, shade business deals, and yet they balance it
and they've found the piece that makes it Hallmark. And
(09:59):
I have not listens to the podcast, but you have
you know your hot Chocolate tastings. You have Emily runs
this shop that would go to business ten and a
half months out of the year, but still manages to
be her bread and butter somehow, and part of me
is knowing a little bit about her backstory, and like,
it is it a front? Is it a sham? I
don't think it is. I think, you know, Hallmark is
(10:21):
the only place where this could work. But I think
they are balancing the mistletoe and the murder piece of
it nicely. I agree. And while watching this, you know,
I'm not a huge fan of Christmas, and I know
it's called mistletoe murders, it feels to me like it's
(10:41):
just operating like during the holiday season. It's not like
a part of this not bashing you over the head
with it. Yes, I it could stand alone, even if
it removed the holiday element from it. I agree. I
imagine it's not going to I imagine season two is
going to pick up during the holiday season. Sure as well.
(11:03):
I really enjoyed the story where we have all these
clues the baseball, Like all these clues start to reveal themselves, right,
and they're almost they're coming to Emily. I know she's
out in pursuit of information, but it's like these clues
are falling into her lap a little bit, like when
(11:24):
she's at the bank, and she sees the baseball and
then she puts the name the player names, the fake
name together, and when Lizzie comes in and Lizzie's looking
for a specific cookie, and she's starting to put like
the pieces together of Oh, Lizzie must have been with
Marcus that night, et cetera, et cetera. It's like enough
to keep me like interested, but I'm not like trying
(11:47):
to piece it together and put it together myself. I
think a huge piece of that is the voiceovers, because
we don't have to guess what she's thinking. She's like, Oh,
that means x Y and Z. I think one of
our complaints about mysteries is they give us so much
information that's sometimes it is hard to follow. And because
she is piecing it together in her head and we
hear that inner monologue, it helps us keep up with
(12:09):
what's going on. Yeah, so you don't need the big
explanation at the end of the episode. Yeah, yeah, I
want to talk about Violet, the daughter Violet. Yeah, scene
stiller for me. I loved her. She makes She has
this line when her dad comes into the Christmas shop
and they're talking about perhaps maybe a killer on the
(12:30):
loose and she says, do I look like Final Girl
material to you? I just was like, I love the writing,
I love this actor. I can't believe this is like
her first project. I thought she was really good. She
vibes nicely with the guy that plays her dad, and
she's a not She doesn't feel the role of best
friend and like, obviously Emily has like the best friend
(12:53):
who gets in trouble in this episode, she doesn't get
in trouble, but is suspected in this episode, but she's
you know, the the sounding board at work, yep, and
it just works. Yeah, she uses the line resting cop
face great, it's great. I love it. Speaking of supporting character.
Is a big fan of Detective Sam. I like his
(13:15):
dry wit, but it's also balanced by the fact that
he's really warm with his daughter and very actively participating
and trying to make it so that like their life
has changed, but her life doesn't have to, and then
takes the chance to listen to her when she's like, look,
we can adapt, we don't need our life doesn't need
to be a carbon copy of what it was before,
(13:35):
and he hears her and adapts to what she needs,
and obviously you see him kind of warming to Emily
and the skills that she brings. Like he's mildly annoyed
that she's running her own investigation, as he should be,
quite frankly, but acknowledges, you know, the help that she's
(13:56):
offering kind of softens towards her. Obviously we see where
this is headed. I'm really enjoying Detective Sam. I agree
with you, he's attractive. I don't love the trope of
I'm annoyed at this amateur, amateur sleuthe story. And maybe
(14:17):
it's just because we've watched a lot of mysteries. Yeah,
but she also stops in and she's like, give me
this information. He's like, get the heck. Yeah, no, I agree.
I love when he clocks her and he's like, not
all investigations are an Agatha Agatha Christie you know story
or whatever. Yeah, except bro, you're living in one. Yeah,
(14:37):
exactly exactly. My final like is and we talked about
at the top this two episode arc. Very smart move, yes,
so smart. I love it, and it ties in with
my final link. The final scene we get that kind
of wraps up all of these storyline. It's told without dialogue.
(14:58):
Lizzie's telling Trent the true truth. We see Gordon waking
up in the hospital, Sam and Violet doing their career.
Like we're wrapping up all these storylines. Emily and June
are at the bar. Emily exchanged gifts with Ray. Uh,
you know it gives us like closure, but then opens
the door to the next thing. Yeah, I'm curious to
see because I have not watched episode three yet. Do
(15:20):
we get new characters introduced at all? We would have
to because I can't imagine the cat to the DP.
This pool of people are not gonna have another murder. Yeah,
I would hope not. So. Yeah, I imagine we'll still
see June. Right. Our best friend Tom Kavanaugh joins the
(15:41):
cast in season two. I think, oh in season two?
Speaker 2 (15:44):
Is that what it is?
Speaker 1 (15:45):
I think? So okay? Interesting? That feels like heavyweight. Yeah,
who has a lot of experience. We didn't talk about it,
but the character of Ray and I put this on
our Instagram stories. Yeah, or a few of you who
knew what I was referencing. But is he not Jonesy
from Beverly Hills Niners. As soon as you said it.
(16:07):
As soon as you said it, I was like, shady side, hushole,
good guy. Maybe doing some not so good things. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
I loved it. I loved it too. I loved it.
I really like him. Let's talk wishes, Let's talk wishes.
I know very few. Yeah, me too. My first one
(16:30):
is it's kind of a yes I do, but no,
I don't. I want more information about Emily's backstory, But
then again I don't. I'm like, give it to me
just in breadcrumbs. It makes it more enjoyable that way.
So yeah, I mean that final scene in the first
episode where they show the flashback to her all in
(16:51):
black and the explosion behind her, Like, that's great, that's
super interesting. It was the end of the episode two
when she like pulls out that Yeah, the gift from Jonesy,
it's right, gun, right, I know, that's what it's My
wishes too, Like what is it? Is it a gun?
Is it a burner phone?
Speaker 2 (17:08):
I don't know? Yeah, what is it?
Speaker 1 (17:10):
I don't know. I'm dina no, but I feel like
a gun's too obvious and what could it be? I
don't know. But yeah, I'm really enjoying her backstory. I'm
enjoying the slow reveal. Another thing I want more of.
I want more Brooke and more Sue. I'll be shocked
if we don't find Brooke Carmichael at the center of
(17:31):
one of these mysteries this season. She plays the perfect
little town busy body. We didn't really get enough of her,
in my opinion, in these first two episodes, but they
do set her up nicely to be kind of getting
in the middle of something sticky coming up. I thought
so too. So I also like Sue, you know, the
diner owner. I think she could be involved in a
(17:54):
bigger way as well. I like her. She's real funny,
she's real dry. So here's the thing that we see
in a lot of mysteries, and that is that the
murder is someone who often we don't know a lot about.
Not always the case, but sometimes they'll introduce this character
and then we won't see them or they'll be like
really peripheral and so we don't suspect them. And they
(18:16):
did that in this case, and it's Rowan, And I
felt sometimes I find like it's maybe maybe too easy,
like it felt a little bit like he came out
of nowhere, Like I did feel like he was suspicious
from the moment. Yeah, he shines her in the woods. Yeah,
but we don't get enough about him until we, you know,
(18:36):
discover that he's sleeping in the loft and all of that.
So you just just came out of nowhere. Do you
wish it was somebody more obvious, maybe somebody who is
like a bigger player in the maybe in the story. Yeah, yeah,
I hear you, I hear you. That's it. Well, let's talk.
Did you see that moment I have to okay and
(18:58):
they're not to Did you see that? They were just
stand out moments? Yeah. Same. The first one is when
Emily is pressing Anna the daughter about your dad is
tech challenge. He wouldn't know how to send an anonymous
And it's a really it's an acting choice that Sarah
(19:24):
Drew makes like she's asking her a question, and then
she goes like this with her eyes like and you
guys obviously were on a like an audio podcast that
I just did. But her, I said, go ahead answer me.
You don't have any answer. I just thought it was
a really good, good scene. What do you have to
say to that? Yeah, it was just so good. She
(19:45):
just like it's almost like when you like make oh
my daughter are so long, when you like make a
person flinch, like yeah, you know what I mean, It
just it was really good. It was really good. The
other scene has to do also with Emily, and it's
when she's confronted with Rowan up in the barn rafters
(20:05):
and Rowan says, you shouldn't have come up here, and
she Emily looks possessed to me in this moment and
she's like, he says you shouldn't be here, and she says,
I should say the same thing to you, and she
like goes for him, and then that's when she crashes
through the rafters. I was like, what is happening? I
need to know the backstory of this battie. Yeah, that's great,
(20:29):
because what's funny is that scene. To me, The remarkable
thing to me was the fall was so good. It
was so well executed, the way she hits the ground
and comes out of that. But you're right, it's like
we're starting to get a hint of who she is
and what she's capable of, but she's interrupted by the
floor giving away. That's great. Yeah, you know, like you
there's not a lot of real dig you see that
(20:50):
moments for me. But I would like to say one
thing I noticed I found the inside of Ray's office
to be very incongruous with the outside. Like his office
is very nice, it's well a point, it's clean, everything's organized.
The front of his building is like dilapidated and falling down.
You know, this discount furniture is kind of like a
front for whatever other shady dealings he's got going on.
(21:11):
I just found the two to be an interesting contrast
to each other. Interesting. Is he running guns through his business?
Is that what's happening? Guns and passports? And I don't know.
I don't know because to me, I'm like he's kind
of like the bad guy with a heart of gold.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Like when he talks to Emily and he's like, how
did you know what I was into? And she says
game recognizes game, and he goes, I don't know what
that means, but I'll take it. Like he just he
doesn't give me like sinister, you need to be afraid
of me, bad guy vibes. I'm afraid of Emily. Yeah,
That's who I'm afraid of. Yeah, I'm like, please don't
be like a terrible bad person that I can't you
(21:49):
know that show you were oh uh huh. Joe Goldberg
is a murderer, but you're like, I'm enamored with Joe
the murderer because he's so charming. Yes, I'm like, is
that what's going to happen with Emily here? Are? Is
she going to be like a Robin Hood situation? I
don't know. Hey, what did you rate this first two episodes?
(22:10):
I gave it four point seven five stars.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
I gave it.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
Five stars, acknowledging that my patients for Emily's backstory and
the Emily and Sam Slowburn might run out, but evaluating
these two in a vacuum, thought it was great, so good.
I haven't told my husband. I was like, numerous times,
I go, this is really good. This is really really good.
(22:35):
Uh huh, he won't watch it. No, my husband wasn't
interested in watching it either, but I was like, I
think you'd like it. Hey, thank you for listening to
this episode of Girls Gone Hallmark. We'll be back next
week with our reviews of Mistletoe Murders episodes three and four.
We'll see you next time.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Goodbye bye.
Speaker 1 (23:02):
All right, friends, before we go, just a quick heads up.
You're about to hear some ads. These little gems help
us keep the show running and the Hallmark love flowing.
So do with that info what you will, Grab a snack,
hit the skip button, or maybe just maybe listen in
and discover your new favorite product.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Bye.
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