Ep. 38 - Pretty Woman in Christmasland

What if Pretty Woman was set in a romantic, wintery town instead of Los Angeles? What if Julia Roberts was a seamstress instead of a lady of the night? What if Richard Gere was a cranky Duke with a secret heart of gold? What if Danica McKellar put on a smokin hot red dress? If these are the questions that keep you up at night, all of the answers you’ve hoped for are finally here. Kira and Amelia review Great American’s “A Royal Date for Christmas” starring Christmasland royalty Danica McKellar. There will be high fashion. There will be questionable snowmen. There will be Black best friends. Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review!https://www.imdb.com/title/tt28188089/

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
FCB Faith is your rhythm and preystation.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
I listen, my mom listens, pretty much the whole family.

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Can't listen to FCB Faith on iHeartRadio Odyssey at FCB

(00:40):
faith dot com, or tell your smart speaker to play
FCB Faith on iHeartRadio.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
This is the FCB Podcast Network. Well, Merry Christmas, everybody,

(01:13):
Welcome back to another episode of a very merry podcast.
I am your very merry host Kiara Davis, and I
am here with my equally mary co host Amelia Hamilton. Amelia,
Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas?

Speaker 2 (01:29):
I should marry Christmas. It's always around here.

Speaker 3 (01:33):
It's always merry Christmas in Christmas Land, and it's certainly
merry Christmas this year. But we have got a lot
on our plate. I want to get us started. But
first of all, Amelia, I wanted to ask you. I
don't know if I've ever asked you this before. When
it comes to the holiday shopping. Are you get your

(01:53):
shopping done way ahead of time, everything set up so
you're good to go Christmas? Or are you the last
two weeks of the shopping season mad dash.

Speaker 2 (02:05):
I'm a little bit of everything. I've got a few
items that I started seeing in like September October where
I was like, oh, so and So would like that.
So I just grabbed it. And now I'm like, oh,
I should actually start thinking about, like who's on my
list that I need to grab things for. I will
definitely be getting stuff like last minute, paying too much

(02:26):
for shipping, you know. I will also be I'm a
strange hybrid, how about you.

Speaker 3 (02:33):
No, I am last minute and it doesn't work for
me because I have relatives on the other side of
this continent in eastern Canada, and I'm all ready as
we're recording. We're recording this before Christmas, and I'm already
late on shipping. Yea there, And usually I'm paying like

(02:54):
two hundred dollars to ship, you know, one hundred dollars
worth of gifts just to get here in time. I'm terrible,
But I shout out to my mom, who has her
Christmas shopping done in July. My mom starts shopping in
the off season. She goes shopping after Christmas. She gets
all the discounts. She has a box in her house

(03:17):
and it's just little knickknacks or little cool stuff that
she finds on the sales and everything goes in that box.
So there's an extra gift at the season, you know,
for someone unexpected. She's got a box she reaches into.
She's amazing like that. I didn't get that trait. Oh, well, yeah,
we've got.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
Some other good ones that I appreciate about.

Speaker 4 (03:37):
You really like what tell me?

Speaker 2 (03:41):
I think you're sure ready, I don't know if those
are your mom's though specifically those are my dad's. Okay,
well I like those from your dad. Yeah, your Christmas
spirit generally.

Speaker 3 (03:53):
Oh that's cute. Well, thank you. I know you're I mean,
you're always mad at me for not doing Santa for
my kids, So I'll take that's a high compliment.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
Sure, that's a real problem. It's a real problem in
our friendship. It's like the number one friction in our friendship,
honestly is Santa.

Speaker 3 (04:08):
It really is, Amelia is. I don't know if she'll
ever get over it. Well, let's get over this introduction
and let's get into the movie this week. That this
week is a movie with one of our Christmas Land queens,
one of our favorite Danica mckellor, and I will let

(04:30):
you set up the movie for us. Amelia, tell everybody
what they're watching this week.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
All right, this week we had a royal date for Christmas.
Danica mckellor like you said, and Damon Runyon in. This
is a twenty twenty three one from Great American. You know,
one of our favorite things, of course is the royal
mix a royal and an American. Of course, this was
an American playing a British royal. He was a duke.

(04:57):
We don't exactly know how he was royal, but that's fine,
We're gonna go with it.

Speaker 3 (05:02):
His last name was Brown, he was and his last
name was Brown.

Speaker 2 (05:07):
Yeah, he's Stephen William Francis Brown, Duke of Tangford.

Speaker 3 (05:12):
Sure, Tangford sounds like I don't know, it sounds like
some kind of insult, like in the lock or room
or something like shut up.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
And I noticed so outside of his house they had
like house of Tangford, which you don't really have like
a sign for your house. It had have been breakfast,
but they had a crest and then there was you know,
the little thing underneath it where you should have like
your motto, but it said like Tangford house, and then
it just said house of Tangford instead of a motto.
So the family also is a really killer motto. But

(05:45):
that's okay, that's okay, it's fine. The Browns were not creative,
but that's all right.

Speaker 3 (05:49):
Well, it is Christmas Land, and Christmas Land is is
well known for you for being pretty generic.

Speaker 4 (05:55):
So we'll let it inside.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
We're gonna let it go. So, yeah, this was this
is the royal one for I think this is the
only royal one this year. But but let's get into it.

Speaker 3 (06:08):
Let's get into it. Yeah, this is not on our
I have some things to say about this movie. It
didn't go according to how I thought it would go.

Speaker 2 (06:18):
It didn't. There were they did some things, so they
immediately hit some some classic tropes, but it also did
not go the way that a lot of the royal
things go, so immediate tropes. She walks into work. Black
best friend is standing right there.

Speaker 3 (06:32):
Black best friend right there, and tell us where she
walks into work.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
Well, so the our heroine, Danik McKellar, is Bellis Sparks
of Bella Sparks Coature.

Speaker 4 (06:45):
She's a seamstress.

Speaker 3 (06:46):
I mean, I love a good I mean, you set
me up with a royal movie with a seam stress.

Speaker 4 (06:51):
I'm in from the.

Speaker 2 (06:52):
Top exactly, yeah, exactly, which is similar. Actually, I hadn't
Actually I don't know why I hadn't put this together before,
but I think the Lacey Schebert Royal one wasn't she
a seamstress too?

Speaker 4 (07:03):
M hm?

Speaker 2 (07:03):
Were you walking with like all the Walmart bags?

Speaker 3 (07:09):
Yees?

Speaker 2 (07:11):
To make it very clear that he did not spend
the night. They're having breakfast together, but he did not
spend the night, yea.

Speaker 3 (07:16):
And he brought the breakfast from Walmart and it includes
some Folgers coffee.

Speaker 2 (07:23):
Back in the Folgers days.

Speaker 3 (07:25):
Yeah. No, I think Lacy Chabert was a seamstress for
a couple of those. Yeah, it was worked. I love
the job of seamstress in Christmas Land because it is
an opportunity for close contact. You've got to do fittings,
and it's an opportunity for big reveals. Right, sexy dresses

(07:45):
or not sexy.

Speaker 4 (07:45):
There's some sexy in Christmas.

Speaker 3 (07:47):
Lamb I'm sorry, excuse me, beautiful dresses, that kind of stuff.
So it's one of my favorite jobs in Christmas Land.

Speaker 2 (07:54):
Yeah, so she but it was interesting because it was
so Spellisperk's coture and she is a designer and seamstress,
but it seemed like she also was selling other brands
at her store, because she was talking about like taking
inventory and that you could buy stuff off the rack.
So it was interesting, which we'll also discuss.

Speaker 3 (08:12):
Yeah, I have a lot to say about that.

Speaker 2 (08:15):
Yeah, it was an interesting store. So she walks in there.
It was like, it was so funny how they did
the setup. She walks in and immediately is like. Her
friend is like, Bella, how did it go with the
bank this morning? And she's like, well, I need a loan,
but we don't have enough cash flow. So I was like, well,
there we go. Segne Up is immediately here, here we go.

(08:36):
And then we go to the duke getting off his
plane and he's like, my goodness, that was a terrible
breakup that I just had, and now my luggage is late.
My luggage was and his Benjamin, his butler guy, is like, well,
I guess we're gonna have to head to this cture
store that I just saw on the way and get
you some clothes. And I look, I hit paused it
was three minutes in. I was like, well, we sure

(08:58):
got all that out of the way quickly.

Speaker 3 (08:59):
They did it waste anytime. And I loved how the
butler was like, well, so you know Luggas is lost. Well,
I know, I passed a store on the way here,
will stop there, Like you're taking the duke of whatever
from wherever to this random store on the street.

Speaker 2 (09:16):
Okay, I guess it, let's go.

Speaker 4 (09:18):
It's a cork coateur on it.

Speaker 3 (09:21):
It's like when my husband sees the word chicken on
a sign and then he's like, nothing's good.

Speaker 4 (09:26):
Yeah, just this chicken.

Speaker 2 (09:31):
Yeah, well, Mark knows he wants chicken.

Speaker 3 (09:34):
So he was like, well, it's sad coteur on it.
So I guess I can take the duke of whatever there.

Speaker 2 (09:39):
So and this was the part where I realized something
was a little bit weird with the store because so
his name is Stephan. So Stefan goes in and talks
to Bella and he's like, so, I need a suit
and I need a sleep garment, which I don't think
anyone says sleep garment. But she's like, so some PJS
and he's like a sleep garment. She's like, pardon me.
So he said, so I need delivery tonight at seven pm,

(10:01):
by seven pm, and she's like okay, dokie, yeah, like oh,
so there's not even any tailoring.

Speaker 3 (10:07):
Okay, Well, He gave her his card which had the
name of his tailor on it, and then he was like,
just call my taylor. He'll have all the measurement. And
I guess the taylor fits him for sleep garments as well.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
Right, But I mean, is there time? I mean, I
don't know. I guess there's no time. There are no
time zones in Christmas Land either.

Speaker 3 (10:27):
But and I mean, look, we don't get to see
what's going on in the back of that chop there.
There could be some slave labor back there. I don't
know what's fine for slave labor. I was picturing Cinderella mice.
Oh see, that's more appropriate for Christmas Land.

Speaker 2 (10:46):
I'm I'm doing me right there.

Speaker 3 (10:49):
Yeah, that's right. I'm in the neighboring city, holiday Land
on Lifetime channel. At slave labor in the back.

Speaker 2 (10:56):
I had like Gus Guss back there with little needle.

Speaker 3 (11:00):
Whatever the reason is. Look, it's Danica mckeller and she's
done this job a million times. She can do this
job and this romance in her sleep. If she needs
to have a perfectly tailored suit to this guy by
seven pm, she's gonna do it. And I believe it.

Speaker 2 (11:16):
Who am I to questioned, Bella sparks.

Speaker 3 (11:18):
It's Bella, right, it says Bella's coteur right there on.

Speaker 2 (11:22):
The side, right right. So she gets it there and
he's and he looks at the doorbell app and it's
just like leave it on the door. So what she does.
And he lives, you know, on this huge estate outside
of the city somewhere that's beautiful. But he's also a
little concerned. We're not exactly sure what's going on at
this point, but he keeps getting phone calls about people

(11:43):
canceling on something. So just keep that in the back
of your mind. People are canceling left and right on
whatever this is. So she delivers as his sleep garment
a reindeer onesie with antlers, whether with a hood with antlers,
because he's a cute man.

Speaker 3 (11:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (12:00):
So we finally find out that he is hosting a
Christmas luncheon and this is the first time in a
few years that he has been back in the city
to do it. And he forgot about a plus one.
Oh no, he broke up with Sydney. It isn't a
plus one. So we find out now the luggage just
isn't coming. Benjamin the butler has told him. The luggage

(12:22):
just isn't coming. So he's like, you know what I'm
going to do is I'm going to go to Ballas Barks,
who's the only person that I know in the city.
I'm going to get a week's worth of personal styling,
and I'm going to ask her to be my plus
one because I don't know her. She brought me an
insane sleep garment. She's obviously the right choice. And his
charity is the first event they're going to go to

(12:44):
is the Universal Endowment for Children.

Speaker 4 (12:47):
I love these charities.

Speaker 1 (12:51):
Dying.

Speaker 3 (12:52):
The charities were so vague. It's like, Oh, I'm attending
the family charity for families.

Speaker 2 (13:01):
One of them was called like the Home for Dogs.

Speaker 3 (13:04):
Well, and here's some things, so we didn't we need
to talk about those pajamas for just a second, those
silly pajamas, because she brings him the stuff and he
opens the thing and he's like, oh my gosh, these
silly reindeer pajamas or whatever. And this is the beginning
of troubles with this movie because they didn't give us

(13:27):
the setup for the payoff for that moment I felt
when he came into the store. The reason why she
gave him those pajamas because he was so stuck up
and so stiff, and so it was like, oh, I'm
the silly American girl. You know, here's my sarcastic If
you want some jammys, here you go. But he was
actually very nice and polite when he came in, and

(13:48):
he had a few snoody requests, but he was very nice,
and I didn't think Danica mckellor was nearly as sarcastic
enough to pull that off. So when he opened the pajamas,
he almost seemed pleased with it. There just wasn't enough
conflict right away.

Speaker 2 (14:05):
Yeah, and then when he came back to the store,
he's like, I really need to apologize for my behavior yesterday.
It was such a long day and then my you know,
stuff got lost and you know, people are canceling on
me for this thing and I need a plus one.
And I was like, was he really that bad that
he had like go back and apologize.

Speaker 3 (14:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (14:22):
I don't think so. I thought he would. I mean
he seemed like just a client, a customer, and.

Speaker 2 (14:28):
Yeah, I mean like he wasn't super friendly, but he wasn't.
He was professional and fine.

Speaker 3 (14:36):
Right, Well, what we do know is when he walked
into that store, though black best friend clocked him right away.

Speaker 4 (14:42):
She knew that's her, that's your future husband.

Speaker 2 (14:45):
Yes, she saw it. She did, that's true. Maybe fact,
she knew it was up, so all right, So they
go to the first event together and she does kind
of act like the American who's never been anywhere before.
Mm hmm.

Speaker 3 (15:02):
And then wait a minute, wait a minute, wait, I'm sorry,
we can't skip over what he did when he went
into that store and made the proposal.

Speaker 4 (15:11):
He pretty womaned her.

Speaker 3 (15:12):
Everybody, this movie is Christmas Land, pretty Woman. Yeah, he
pretty woman. He bought her for a week. He bought
her for a week.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
I didn't notice that. I actually had the same thought
that it was Christmas Land, pretty Woman.

Speaker 3 (15:31):
I know, I I don't my husband. I'm like, oh
my gosh, she's gonna keep pretty woman. Anyways. I'm like, Okay,
here for it. Let's show me Christmas lamb pretty Woman,
give it to me.

Speaker 5 (15:50):
Did Paul Revere really say the British are coming? And
how was George Washington chosen to leave the First American Army.
Join us for the Growing Patriot Podcast, a place for
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(16:13):
wherever you get your podcast today.

Speaker 2 (16:16):
And even kind of they kind of she and her
best friend even do the whole thing of like there's
no real fairy tale and it was kind of like
the whole life.

Speaker 3 (16:23):
Oh yeah, and we don't And just like pretty woman,
they had a financial buying a right a pretty woman.
The two prostitutes had to pay the rent in Christmas Land,
the two seamstresses have to get the business loan. Same thing.
So she has to take this job for a week
where she is this guy's arm candy for a week
and she dresses him and she you know, civilizes him.

Speaker 2 (16:47):
She's not a pretty woman, yep. And she had you know,
fish out of water, fish out of water, and you know,
she just, I know, the whole thing was was a
little awkward and what And I guess I should also
clarify that I'm not completely sure that the bank was
wrong because what she wants the loan for she has

(17:08):
this successful cature business. But what she wants the loan
for is mobile, a mobile styling truck, which is apparently
like a food truck full of clothes, and she wants
to go to like retirement homes and things like that.
And she keeps being like a new scarf and earrings,
just like brighten someone'sdays. It's a scarf and earrings. And

(17:30):
I'm like, is that Can you give someone a business
loan so you can bring old folks scarves and earrings?

Speaker 6 (17:35):
Like?

Speaker 4 (17:36):
Does that right?

Speaker 3 (17:37):
Can you pay that back? Well?

Speaker 2 (17:40):
I don't want to sound like Robert Barron here.

Speaker 3 (17:42):
I was just thinking about, just thinking about Robert Parman.

Speaker 2 (17:49):
I don't think that he would sign off. Did he
look at your business plan?

Speaker 3 (17:53):
I don't know, everybody, I don't If you haven't listened
to an episode. What's the name of that episode?

Speaker 4 (17:57):
Do you know? Do you remember? It's the her far
And episode.

Speaker 2 (18:01):
Just go back and it was the first one of
last season. It was the one you need to listen to,
that one ghost.

Speaker 3 (18:08):
Yeah. Anyways, I was totally thinking about Robert Barron and
his stupid son who wanted to do the same thing.
Basically wanted to give His business plan was to give
away food and and then.

Speaker 2 (18:21):
But that's the run out of money. We can't just
give it all the way.

Speaker 3 (18:25):
Yeah, that's the bad guy for being like, you can't
give away food everybody. It's like, okay, it's really nice
because she we we skipped over this, but we've set
her up as a good person because she volunteers at
the senior center. Well, she volunteers at the senior Center.
And she talks about volunteering at the Senior Center with

(18:46):
BBF and so we know she's really a good person.
And so she wants to use this mobile styling. I mean, listen,
I live in a very fancy suburban Orange County, California.
I don't know if these ladies would be in they
do mobile everything, mobile styling, I don't know. I don't

(19:08):
think so. But yeah, if it's a charity thing, then
do you need a business loan for that?

Speaker 1 (19:15):
Right?

Speaker 4 (19:15):
You know?

Speaker 3 (19:16):
Maybe what you need is a Maybe what she needs
is a go fund me. She needs like a crowd stores,
get a bus.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
Yeah, just stick some donors, maybe some of her I
mean she's got a duke. Maybe she needs like wealthy donors.
If if she you know, if this is the clientele.

Speaker 3 (19:31):
Yeah, yeah, And also I mean I don't know. Well,
we're going to talk about what kind of business they're
doing there, right, because here's the thing, I don't know
how much business are doing, what their profit margins are,
But apparently a they need a lot of money for
this mobile styling idea, which I think could work if

(19:55):
they hired the crack team, the social media team.

Speaker 4 (19:58):
What's the social media app?

Speaker 2 (20:01):
Oh my gosh? Well, first of all, I looked up
its episode eighteen, Father Knows best.

Speaker 4 (20:05):
Oh, thank you, Father knows.

Speaker 2 (20:08):
But now I can't remember what the social media is called,
and it's called Oh my gosh, I can't remember.

Speaker 3 (20:12):
Now. Anyways, we'll think of it. But they could, she
could do it. She has a crack social media team.

Speaker 2 (20:18):
But or flyers. We know flyers are all fires.

Speaker 4 (20:21):
Of big and Christmas Land.

Speaker 3 (20:23):
But if she had enough flyers maybe, But then it's
she needs this, she's asking for a loan. I'm sorry,
I just lost my train of thought. It doesn't matter.
It was a whole ridiculous thing.

Speaker 2 (20:39):
I wasn't with the bank.

Speaker 3 (20:41):
Yeah, yeah, it's I don't think this is the bank's Well, oh,
I know what I was gonna say, what are they
basing the you know, the the collateral on I guess
the store.

Speaker 2 (20:52):
Does she have any collateral?

Speaker 3 (20:53):
Does she have Okay, So the whole movie, bb App
kept saying, it's so busy here we have all our clients,
and Danica McKellar kept saying, I feel so bad leaving you.

Speaker 4 (21:05):
For a week to be.

Speaker 3 (21:08):
You know, the Duke's pretty woman for a week because
all our clients, all of our clients. What about all
of our clients? Every time she talks to black best friend,
the conversation is about all of their clients. You don't
see one single person in this wight you.

Speaker 2 (21:23):
Bbfif is always in the store by yourself.

Speaker 3 (21:25):
Always in the store by yourself, always either she's just
tying Christmas ribbons, like she's never tailoring. I don't know
when all this, like speedy tailoring is getting done. But
this is a big problem for the movie in general,
which I think and I'll save these bigger criticisms for
the end of our podcast, but this is clearly a

(21:46):
budgeting issue and there was no cast, there was hardly
any past.

Speaker 2 (21:51):
And that was Bella even says she's like the bank
says that it's because we don't have any cash flow,
and I'm like, I believe it. I believe you don't
have any cash flow.

Speaker 3 (22:00):
But and yet she keeps saying, I feel bad leaving
you with all of our clients were so busy, And
she's like, oh, I got it. I'll rest after the holidays,
you know, like they're supposedly so busy.

Speaker 2 (22:12):
I think you're resting now.

Speaker 3 (22:14):
So I don't know who all these clients are, but
I do think that the mobile styling truck is Maybe
I'm more of a crowdsource idea than a bank loan I.

Speaker 2 (22:25):
Need, right, I agree, So okay, So after this first event,
she has a great time with Duke Stefan, she goes
back to talk to I don't even know what is
his friend's name even, I literally don't. I don't even
know her name anyway, yef Yeah, is that Meredith. I
think it's Meredith.

Speaker 3 (22:46):
I was watching that movie and I think I was
thirty minutes in and I turned to my husband and
I said, I don't think i've heard this woman's name yet.

Speaker 2 (22:55):
I had to look on IMDb. It's Meredith.

Speaker 3 (22:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
I did not know her name anyway. So she goes
to talk to Meredith and she's like, I've been looking
at his I've been looking him up online. They like
google his relationship to and so that was how they
get They like work his background into the movie. So
he dated this heiress for like three years and then
they broke up. And then and then they're like one

(23:18):
in five people want him relieved of his dukedom. And
then I'm like, are those are those related? Do they
want him relieved of his dukedom because he broke up
with this girl? Like, I don't. I couldn't tell if
those were related. I don't.

Speaker 3 (23:32):
They were very again, more vague stuff because they kept
talking about this scandal and people were really sort of
souring on the duke and his public image was poor,
but they never really drilled down on one thing like
oh he got got caught kissing a woman in public
or something like they never do anything.

Speaker 2 (23:52):
And then the heiress that he dated and then broke
up with isn't Sydney the girl he just broke up.
Totally different people.

Speaker 3 (23:58):
They're totally different people, which was so odd, which was
also confusing.

Speaker 2 (24:02):
Yeah, and then we find out that Bella's history is
that she was dating this guy, and then last Christmas
he just went moved the way to Central America.

Speaker 4 (24:14):
To Belieze.

Speaker 2 (24:16):
He just left.

Speaker 3 (24:17):
He just left, So.

Speaker 2 (24:18):
That's her story. Okay, all right, so yeah, I mean
like when to Belize, and that's the whole story.

Speaker 4 (24:27):
He just left for Belize and just then she found
out when he zoomed her.

Speaker 3 (24:33):
Okay, yeah, that's all we need to know. But in
Christ's Land, that's all we need to know. All we
need to know is that Danica mckeller is a beautiful, kind,
nice and generous woman and some jerk off.

Speaker 4 (24:45):
Went to South America.

Speaker 2 (24:48):
South America.

Speaker 3 (24:48):
Yeah, all right and then just left her. That's all
we need to know, and that's all that matters.

Speaker 2 (24:53):
Yeah. So back at Tangford House, Stephan is finding out
that at the next event he is allowed one staged
photograph and he should be wearing a festive item. And
that is it. That is what we need to know
about the next event. Okay. So Bella shows up and

(25:17):
she has a light up lapel pin, which is not cature,
by the way, a light up lapel pin, and he's like,
I don't really think so. So he wears like a
little holly leaf thing holly.

Speaker 3 (25:33):
Which was underwhelming. It's like the light up pin was overwhelming.
The holly was underwhelming. I was thinking, like your culture.

Speaker 2 (25:43):
I was good with the holly.

Speaker 3 (25:44):
The holly was fine, but again, she is culture. It's
Bella's culture. Like give me a little flare here, like, okay,
you didn't like the zany lightup thing, here's this very
artistic piece that's gonna add a little. Because the whole
thing with the duke was like, oh, he's so stiff.
He only wears navy blue and gray and you know, yeah,

(26:09):
so she's lightening up the mood for him.

Speaker 2 (26:14):
So afterwards, speaking of lightning up the moon, they go
to build a snowman because he's never built a snowman before.
They have their little moment. They check the trope off
the list, and then she.

Speaker 3 (26:23):
Like, fairly, they barely checked this, and it's like the
worst fake snow They show her like trying to.

Speaker 2 (26:31):
Push the little button into him and it springs back,
and I'm like, why did you leave that close up
in there? It was so awkward.

Speaker 4 (26:38):
My daughter was watching the movie at that point.

Speaker 3 (26:41):
She was like, oh my god, the snowman's belly poke
in and out. I'm like, it's probably a beach ball pillow.
It's bro Yeah, I thought it was a beach ball
just covered with or whatever. But again, like, okay, I
was really excited because this was very light on the
typical tropes, and I was like, great, they're gonna build

(27:03):
a snowman, but we don't get to see that. We
don't really see anything. We see them say they're going
to build a snowman, and then the snowman. Then yeah,
we cut to the snowman is built and they're putting
funny things on it, and they obviously can't do too
much to it because it's not a real snowman and
clearly it's gonna fall apart if they touch it too much.

Speaker 4 (27:25):
But it was just so underwhelming.

Speaker 3 (27:27):
I guess, yeah, it wasn't a fun I get it
that you don't have the real snow but I've seen
it done.

Speaker 2 (27:35):
Better and couldn't They could have just not left that
close up shot in there because it was so.

Speaker 3 (27:41):
It was very sloppy.

Speaker 2 (27:43):
Yes, and then she talks about how she like she
scares easily, so he like he jumps out or whatever.
She jumps. It was so and so they're laughing, jumping
around whatever, and you know, paparazzo takes a picture and
and that never really comes back.

Speaker 3 (28:03):
He takes a paparazzi takes a picture and all they're
doing is laughing, and then the Duke, yeah, yeah, they're not.
No one's taking their tops off like nothing, None of
that is happening. And the Duke sees the paparazzi and
then all of a sudden, he's like, you know, we

(28:24):
have to go.

Speaker 2 (28:25):
Who knows what's going to happen. It's all ruined, standing
several feet away from each other, smiling. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (28:34):
I guess we were supposed to be nervous about it,
because he was, but there was no didn't seem like
there's a reason to be nervous.

Speaker 2 (28:40):
There was no risk. It wasn't like, you know, the
picture could have been misconstrued in any way, right.

Speaker 3 (28:47):
It wasn't like he got caught wearing a Nazi uniform
to a Halloween party.

Speaker 2 (28:52):
Right, nothing like that. Nobody, no actual royal would do that.

Speaker 3 (28:56):
So that's how did you.

Speaker 2 (29:00):
So later she's trying to get him to expand his
style for the next event, to pinstripes, and he is like,
that is too far. How dare you? Meanwhile, the man
is sitting there wearing this like navy blue light like
lightish navy blue suit with a light blue Gingham shirt underneath.

(29:24):
So Stefan, do not sit there and tell me that
you have taste. Okay, don't let's talk about that.

Speaker 3 (29:32):
No, oh, well, let's talk about that, because I don't
know if you notice this, but I've noticed that outfit.

Speaker 2 (29:38):
I know what you're gonna say because I noticed it.

Speaker 3 (29:41):
He says, Oh, I really love these brighter collars that
you're picking out for me, or he says something about
I'm getting comfortable with these brighter collars. This shirt is
out of my comfort zone or something like that. That
lighter blue pinstripe or Gingham shirt that he had under
was something that's supposedly Bella Sparks of Bella's koteur picked

(30:04):
out for him in order to bring vibrancy to his wardrobe.
It was literally the same color as his suit, only
it didn't match.

Speaker 2 (30:14):
It didn't match, and he wears the exact same outfit
later in the movie.

Speaker 3 (30:17):
It was like where is Yeah, she kept talking about
I'm going to introduce fun, colorful stuff. So I'm like, great,
I'm looking for the orange bow tie or at least
like a Paisley pocket square or something a little and
he won't.

Speaker 2 (30:32):
Wear like a talk stripe, but he'll wear this hideous mismat.

Speaker 3 (30:36):
It was it made no sense. It was like it
was like they got a sixteen year old boy to
do the styling.

Speaker 2 (30:45):
They needed the one. There's only one wardrobe stylist as
we know, and he works for Matt Damon or I
can't remember who he works for. That's who we need.
He's booked, she's booked.

Speaker 3 (31:04):
These days, it seems like everybody's talking, but no one
is actually listening to the things they're saying. Critical thinking
isn't dead, but it's definitely low on oxygen. Join me
Kira Davis on Just Listen to Yourself every week as
we reason through issues big and small, critique our own ideas,
and learn to draw our talking points all the way
out to their logical conclusions. Subscribe to Just Listen to

(31:27):
Yourself with Kira Davis and FCB Radio podcast on Apple,
on Spotify, iHeart, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 2 (31:36):
So then, so obviously he has nothing else to do.
So she's like, hey, you don't have a tree, and
he's like, well, obviously I don't have a tree. The
Duke's Luncheon, which is his event that he gets to
host is on the twenty third. He's like, then I
go back on the twenty fourth, So why would I
get a tree. She's like, well, let's just go cut
one down on your estate. So if they go hiking,
she's in her like little working pencil dress thing. He's

(31:58):
still in his coat and tie. They go like hiking
out in the snow on his estate, in his loafers,
in his loafers. I can't remember that. What's the the
butler's name? I camembers Benjamin Butler. Benjamin the butler comes out.
He's got like a hot chocolate service and with folding

(32:22):
chairs and a table like on a little sled. The
whole thing was so strange. And then she's like, there's
your perfect tree. So he's like, Benjamin, hand me an ax.

Speaker 3 (32:33):
He's gonna go down on. The axe was very delicately placed,
carefully placed on the prop set of you know, picnic baskets,
and there was the axlee by the way. While they
were walking through the snow in their loafers and his heels,
he was carrying a saw, which I think is bet

(32:56):
he had a band saw in his hand, so I
don't know. Then he told Benjamin, I need the axe.
He had the saw. Also, when they sat down at
that table that Benjamin just I guess he was like,
I'll meet you at this random spot. And so they're
sitting there and chatting for whatever however long, and all

(33:17):
of a sudden, Danica mckeller just looks up and she says, oh, look,
that's the perfect tree right there, So right where they've
been sitting and having hot chocolate for the last twenty minutes.
Then she just happens to look slightly to her left
to pick the best treat, which again we don't get
to see. We don't get to see them cut down
this tree, we don't get to see any of this.
We don't get to see Benjamin even hauling the stuff out.

(33:40):
You don't get to see much in this movie. This
movie is.

Speaker 2 (33:44):
No A Yeah. Then I thought we're going to get
like a decorating montage, but they cut to it perfectly decorated. Yeah,
and she's like, Okay, you can put the star on
it now.

Speaker 3 (33:53):
Yeah. Not even that. There are so many missed opportunities
which I want to talk to you about later on
atter or we wrap, because I want to see how
you might fix some of this stuff, and I think
we probably agree on why this stuff is happening. But yeah,
it was really disappointing. It's like, Okay, you have the setup.
They had everything set up for all the tropes, all

(34:14):
the scenes that we would expect to see, but then
everything was a cut, just cut to them. Oh wasn't
that fun decorating the tree?

Speaker 2 (34:23):
Yeah. So I think part of the reason that she
suddenly saw the tree was because there was he was
starting to ask about, like her personal life and stuff.

Speaker 3 (34:31):
I think she's kind of uncomfortable, so she was like tree, right,
but I got it, got it.

Speaker 2 (34:35):
But also it was just kind of silly. By the way,
he's uncomfortable now because Snowman pictures Snowman Gate, the pictures
have hit the internet. He's like, oh no again, it's
a picture of him standing near a snowman and near
a woman. I don't understand the problem.

Speaker 3 (34:56):
That's scandalous. Christmas Land and Christmas Land Royalty is not
with Snowman.

Speaker 2 (35:02):
So now the Duke's Christmas luncheon has to be canceled
because of the negative publicity.

Speaker 3 (35:09):
Well, the Snowman voted for Trump exactly.

Speaker 2 (35:13):
Everybody knows. Everybody knows, so she's like, oh, well, if
everybody canceled on the luncheon because of snowman Gate, how
about if you just throw a party instead, which I
don't understand how that fixes. If nobody's coming to luncheon,
why are they going to haul their cookies all the
way out to Tangford House. But he's like, well, but

(35:36):
his reasoning that they couldn't do that was because the
part of the house where they have they used to
have a party prior to seven years ago, which we
know he hasn't done this in seven years, and they
haven't done it in seven years because his mom died.
So they have a lunch in a hotel now because
that's what they do. And he's like, you know what,
you have inspired me. We're gonna do it, but you

(35:56):
have to come stay at the house to help me. Right,
gets like extra pretty woman because now she's in residence.

Speaker 3 (36:03):
That's right. Obviously she can't commute, and you would think
that she's got quite a bit to do there to
help for the party if she's got to stay in
the guest house.

Speaker 2 (36:16):
Yeah, he's not a party planner. She's just a plus one.
She really doesn't need to be there until the day
of the party as a guest, but she obviously does
have to be there for reasons.

Speaker 3 (36:26):
For reasons, Well, you know what, it's not. It's not
Christmas time in Christmas Land. If someone is not staying
in a guest house, we know it's true.

Speaker 2 (36:35):
Yeah, that's true. So we're back at Tangford House now
where we have officially seen the sign where the family
motto is House of Tangford, Tangford House of Tangford. And
we meet a new character, Connie, who is the private secretary,
just derived from London. She has total matchmaker fairy godmother vibes,
by the way, and he's like, well, now your here

(36:58):
is time to open the sound.

Speaker 3 (37:01):
The salon was killing me. They were killing me with
that salon. It wasn't the salon. It was in the salon.
It wasn't the salon. It was the salon.

Speaker 2 (37:11):
It's been closed since his mother died. But it's time
to open the salon.

Speaker 3 (37:15):
Yeah, And they opened the salon and it's like a
room the size of my living room.

Speaker 2 (37:21):
I thought it's gonna.

Speaker 3 (37:25):
They were like, oh, we've kept the salon closed since
mother and I it's a very special place and it's
got like a couple of gea couches in it, and
it's a room.

Speaker 4 (37:35):
In there.

Speaker 3 (37:35):
I'm not going to criticize. I guess the decore because
everyone's working on a budget. But it was funny how
much they talked up.

Speaker 4 (37:42):
The salon and then that's what we got.

Speaker 3 (37:44):
You could have at least like decorated a Hiatt ballroom
or seven.

Speaker 4 (37:51):
That's what he wanted.

Speaker 2 (37:52):
That's really why he wanted to have it at a hotel.
He didn't want anyone to see the state of the salon.
So now Bella and Connie are kind of bonding. They're
like they're putting eminems in little boxes in the curling
ribbon for it. That's the that's their activity, right.

Speaker 3 (38:06):
Connie says, you can help me with the party favors afterwards,
because she asks Dana mckeller, she asks our bellocks and
she asks, I'm here to help. What can you do
to help? And Connie is being a little judge. She's
not sure about this girl. So she's like, well, I'm
gonna go do X, Y and Z, but if you like,
you can help me with the potty favors later.

Speaker 4 (38:28):
Just go have a rest.

Speaker 3 (38:30):
So clearly she was so needed to help with this
luncheon that they're sending her to her guest house to
nap right away. And then the party favors that Connie
asks for her help with for this duke's luncheon. Are
eminem's wrapped in little boxes from the dollar store.

Speaker 2 (38:51):
Yeah, and then and then Connie tells her she's like
the red Ones taste best. I was like, no, they're
the same, the same. But anyway, so she's sitting there
and they're talking about how the staff members, you know,
stay with the family a really long time because they're
also great. And Bella says, so, what is Stephan like?

(39:12):
And she says, he's a delight to work for? And
she says what was he like as a child? And
Connie says, A delight. I'm like, okay, we get it.
Stephan is a delight.

Speaker 3 (39:21):
See again, everything's so vague. This is a family charity
for families.

Speaker 2 (39:27):
Right, She's worked for over thirty six years, She's known
this guy's whole life. What's he like? A delight? What
was he like as a child?

Speaker 3 (39:33):
A delight light?

Speaker 2 (39:34):
And she's like he was a delight and so responsible.
I'm like, well, what a charming child? Was so responsible?
So all right, So we finally find out what the
deal is with Sidney, the ex girlfriend she talked to
the tabloids. So now he has trust issues, and Bella
also has trust issues because of the boyfriend who ran
away to Central America, and so another one of I

(39:57):
don't know if this is an official trope, but we
talked before about how some somebody will like give like
really deep, meaningful advice, which is basically a sign that
you would buy a hobby lobby.

Speaker 4 (40:05):
Yes, yeah, I wrote this one down.

Speaker 2 (40:08):
Are you ready?

Speaker 3 (40:09):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (40:10):
So Bella you know, said well, so, like, how do
you trust?

Speaker 4 (40:12):
Again?

Speaker 2 (40:13):
After that, here was what Connie said, be open enough
to look at each new person with fresh eyes and
trust yourself that you'll handle whatever may come. And Bella said,
that's good advice.

Speaker 3 (40:26):
I thought about you, she said that. I was like,
I was watching it with Ruby.

Speaker 4 (40:33):
I looked at Ruby.

Speaker 3 (40:34):
I was like, that's the deep wisdom. Have you ever
heard anything so moving in your life? You know what
we need to do, Amelia mm hmm. We need to
start making like cards or shirts.

Speaker 2 (40:53):
Absolutely, absolutely, because even if it was just even if
it was just be open to look at each new
person with fresh eyes or and trust yourself. Okay, fine,
I mean that's still like dumb. But then and trust
yourself you'll handle whatever may come. Well, then it's like
it's still gonna go bad. I know.

Speaker 3 (41:14):
I was thinking of some thing like be open enough
to you know, look at each new person with fresh
eyes and don't judge you know that book by its cover,
like something equally generic, but at least like the thought follows.

Speaker 4 (41:30):
I don't know. I'm not sure that AI didn't write
a good portion of the script. Hmmm, actually and not
being serious about that.

Speaker 2 (41:42):
No, I think that actually makes a lot of sense.
I mean that advice is super AI because the trust
yourself you'll handle whatever may come. I was like, yeah,
you're just that actually, like is the opposite of make
of helping someone trust again?

Speaker 3 (41:56):
Right? Right?

Speaker 2 (41:58):
Right?

Speaker 4 (42:00):
But how yeah, there was just no there.

Speaker 2 (42:02):
They're all going to go terribly again.

Speaker 3 (42:05):
Yeah, okay, anyway, thanks Ai.

Speaker 2 (42:10):
Con another again he said that's good advice. I was like,
is it?

Speaker 3 (42:14):
Is it?

Speaker 2 (42:15):
Though?

Speaker 3 (42:16):
And again like it's this Ai. You know, the is
the duke's personal assistance name really, Connie?

Speaker 2 (42:27):
No, no, it is not.

Speaker 3 (42:31):
The duds around.

Speaker 2 (42:33):
When I looked up the friend's name, Meredith, it's spelled wrong?
How is it spelled m E R I D E
T H The E and the I are reversed.

Speaker 3 (42:46):
So a I wrote this or a high school kid
wrote this, like this script was from a contest. And
I don't want to be insulting because I know people's
names are on the credits for this movie. And just
because your name's on a credit doesn't necessarily mean, you know,
if a I wrote it, a person's got to get
that credit. But so maybe they maybe those people are

(43:09):
watching and they're going, yeah, she's right, I didn't write
that part. I don't mean to insult you. I don't
mean to insult the people who.

Speaker 4 (43:16):
Are working on this.

Speaker 3 (43:17):
I'm just saying, I if.

Speaker 4 (43:20):
You but misspelled Meredith.

Speaker 3 (43:23):
And some of this dialogue is so it's like almost
there but not there. It's very unscandy ball but yeah,
some of it's very uncandy Valley. All right, Well, let's
keep going, sorry about that?

Speaker 2 (43:36):
Yeah, okay, we will keep going. What am I doing? Oh? Okay,
So then Connie says to Bella that she's noticed that
the Duke is more joyful now, and she thinks that
that is all to do with Bella.

Speaker 4 (43:51):
So obviously, obviously.

Speaker 2 (43:56):
So the next day, Bella is, you know, meeting with
stuff and in the morning to find out what plans
they do, not have either of them for the day
because they both have tons of free time, but they
need to do that together. He is wearing a dark
green shirt, which is huge, and he's not wearing a
suit coat and no tie. He's got a couple buttons
undone because he is like mister relaxed now and they

(44:21):
have to bake a.

Speaker 3 (44:21):
Cake, right, I'm like, okay, okay, nope, cut to them
finishing the decoration.

Speaker 4 (44:30):
They walk into the kitchen.

Speaker 3 (44:31):
I said, I turned to Mark, I said, that's a
kitchen made for a flower fight in a baking scene.

Speaker 4 (44:41):
Here we go. I think I lost my connection here
for a sec. Can you hear me?

Speaker 2 (44:45):
Amain?

Speaker 4 (44:46):
All right, yeah, I'm back.

Speaker 2 (44:47):
I heard you say. Was they walked in and you said,
that's a kitchen.

Speaker 3 (44:50):
That's a kitchen made for a flower fight? Yes, yes,
I said, here we go. This is like we're in it.
And then I'm they're edit just a cot too. Well, boy,
we've sure.

Speaker 4 (45:04):
Did make a lot of cookies in that short amount
of time.

Speaker 2 (45:06):
And he's got flower all over his shirt and she's
still wearing like a work dress when she wears a
whole movie, but he's got flower all over himself.

Speaker 3 (45:15):
Yeah, it just again, I just wasn't sure what was happening.
I don't know why we couldn't have seen that. We
just they again, they just talked about it. We didn't
see it.

Speaker 2 (45:27):
Nope, they completely messed up the cake. It looks terrible,
you know, right, isn't that funny? I guess it's funny.
We didn't get to see it being funny.

Speaker 3 (45:37):
I would have been funnier if we had seen them
trying to make the cake and messing up the cake
and yeah it was just okay.

Speaker 2 (45:44):
I would have been kind of endearing and cute. But
instead we just saw a messy cake.

Speaker 3 (45:47):
Yep, that's it, and Connie and then Connie going, oh,
we'll order a cake or something.

Speaker 4 (45:53):
It's like, okay, well, then what was any of this for?

Speaker 3 (45:56):
We not only did we not get to see the
cake baking, it wasn't even the talkie talk was unnecessary.

Speaker 2 (46:05):
Right, It didn't move the story forward at all because
Connie is like, I'm so busy, and they're like, well,
how can we help? Oh my gosh, can you guys
make the cake. Well, she could have just ordered one.
Then they weren't helpful.

Speaker 3 (46:17):
No, no, they weren't helpful at all.

Speaker 2 (46:21):
All right, So they go for a walk and she
Bella is talking about like, listen, I know that you're
this wonderful guy. Other people don't realize it. Can can
I do some positive media for the event? And he's like, yes,
of course, that sounds great. So they start to have
a cup of hot cocoa. And one of my pet

(46:42):
peeves of Christmas Land is when people have an empty
cup and they can't even act like there's volume, like
masks in the cup and it's just like flying around.
Well in this case, they were drinking out of like teacups,
still not pretending.

Speaker 4 (46:54):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (46:54):
It was crazy to me, but anyway, whatever, And so
he's just like, hey, you've really changed my life. I
think you're great and just goes in for a kiss.

Speaker 3 (47:05):
Yeah are you okay?

Speaker 4 (47:09):
I was like.

Speaker 3 (47:12):
What? Well, first of all, first of all, I had
to go back and watch it because my daughter was
pitching a fit over the emptiness of the cups.

Speaker 2 (47:25):
They could not really she's a good girl, she's.

Speaker 3 (47:29):
Not not talking about you. Was so like, there's nothing
even in there. I wish they would just act like
there's something in there so I missed it. But yeah,
again another totally unearned moment. And then of course it's like,
if you're gonna, if you're gonna break that taboo of
going in for physical intimacy before the last scene, they

(47:51):
need to be earned, and this movie has done nothing
up to this point to earn any grant chemistry between
these two people.

Speaker 2 (47:59):
No, not at all. So they don't kiss because you
can have the missed kiss, like that's that's allowed.

Speaker 3 (48:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (48:07):
But again, but again they didn't earn it, like you said. Yeah,
but Benjamin the butler knocks on the door and I
don't even remember what his excuse was, and the duke leaves,
but I didn't even care that they didn't kiss. Yeah,
I was just irritated that he just suddenly went for
a kiss. There were no like little touches, little moments
that were leading up to it. They were having like

(48:30):
a nice friendship building, I guess, and then suddenly he
was just like I'm listening up and whatever, and it's
all thanks to you BAM's kiss.

Speaker 6 (48:38):
What.

Speaker 3 (48:38):
Yeah, yeah, it really was. There just was a lot
that wasn't earned in this movie? Who's the right? Who
do you have?

Speaker 4 (48:46):
The IMDb pulled up who's a writer?

Speaker 2 (48:47):
Yes, it's Kara Russell and she's written a couple other ones.
The Night Before Christmas, Night with a k the Great
Christmas Switch, and Can't Buy My Love?

Speaker 4 (49:00):
All right?

Speaker 2 (49:00):
So The Night Before Christmas is that Vanessa Hudgens Netflix
one where there's like a literal night travels through time.
I was not crazy about that one, to be honest
with you. The Christmas Switch? What is this one? Sophia,
a single girl in the city with a demanding boss
and single mother of two in the Midwest, decide to
switch places for Christmas in order to get away from
the Oh it looks like places.

Speaker 4 (49:21):
Isn't that CCB.

Speaker 2 (49:23):
That's no, no, no, it's just it looks just like
that one, but it's a different actress. It's Sarah Lynde.

Speaker 3 (49:32):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (49:33):
And then Can't Bye My Love, which looks like maybe
a like an indie film. A spoiled rich man doesn't
take it well when he's rejected by an ambulance paramedic.
He doesn't give up there, but uses his father's wealth
to get to ride with her in the ambulance hoping
it will lead to a date.

Speaker 3 (49:51):
Okay, all right, well, Kara's she's selling scripts, she's doing
stuff good for her, But I don't know.

Speaker 4 (49:58):
It feels like AI about this to Graa, did.

Speaker 5 (50:06):
Paul Revere really say the British are coming? And how
is George Washington chosen to leave the First American Army.
Join us for the Growing Patriot podcast, a place for
curious kids to ask the big questions about our nation's
history and get kid friendly answers from the country's top experts.
Help your child learn about and cherish America's exceptional history.

(50:26):
Subscribe to Growing Patriots on Apple Podcasts or wherever you
get your podcasts today.

Speaker 2 (50:32):
All right, so that was just weird. So Bella calls
her bestie after this and is like, oh my gosh,
we almost kissed, and her Busty is like, I think
it's love, And so she says, how can this be loved?
I've only known him a few days? And Kier, what
would you say if I facetimed you and said I
think I'm in love with a man I've known for
a few days. What would you say to me?

Speaker 3 (50:52):
Whether it would be gentle, but as your black best
friend I would. I would say, I'm so happy for you,
maybe you should just slow down a little.

Speaker 2 (51:04):
You wouldn't say I can see the look on your face,
because she said, how can this be love? I've only
known him a few days. And she says, because I
can see the look on your face.

Speaker 3 (51:14):
No.

Speaker 2 (51:15):
I was like, that is the dumbest thing you're supposed
to say.

Speaker 3 (51:18):
Girl.

Speaker 2 (51:23):
You could say, like, listen, I love seeing that smile
on your face. But that is not love. That is
excitement in her in meredith'suation.

Speaker 3 (51:35):
In Meredith's defense, Amelia, she really didn't have time to
dispense a lot of wisdom and a face because she
is very, very busy.

Speaker 2 (51:43):
So busy at work.

Speaker 3 (51:44):
It's it's the holiday season, and there are many clients
that she must take care of.

Speaker 2 (51:51):
So yeah, yeah, that's true.

Speaker 3 (51:54):
She is.

Speaker 2 (51:54):
She was like, She's like, yep, you bet, it's love.

Speaker 4 (51:56):
I gotta go all right, well, let's push this along.
We're coming up to the let's get this okay.

Speaker 2 (52:01):
Sorry, So she does. She finds out she did not
get the loan, which is a real shocker. So they
go to their party. He's in a blue tux, which
I actually hated.

Speaker 3 (52:10):
Yes, I hated it too. After all of that.

Speaker 2 (52:14):
Like that's the one reaction. Just put him in something normal.
Just put him in a black tuxedo like everybody else.
So they dance. Someone takes a picture for the positive publicity.
He loses his mind because he's like, there's paparazzi and
she's like, yeah, we literally talked about this, and he's like,
I didn't know that, meta photographer. So he takes out
a paper check that he just had in his breast
pocket of his tuxedo and it's like, this ends our

(52:36):
business arrangement. She's like and that's all it was business
and he's like yes, and so she's like okay, So
she leaves the check in her room and goes and
then he's like oh, and then his ex girlfriend, the
heiress Josephine, is also there, and somebody like.

Speaker 4 (52:53):
Right, his ex girlfriend who is not Sydney for some reason, not.

Speaker 2 (52:57):
The ex girlfriend. But then somebody's like, you know, if
they were dating, they'd probab we just keep it on
the down low. So she's like, oh my gosh, they're
in love. So she leaves the check in her room.
I'm like, why not at least take the money you weirdo.
You pretty woman earned it.

Speaker 4 (53:08):
Yeah, what about leaves the check?

Speaker 2 (53:11):
Yeah, get your bus. So she leaves the check and leaves,
and then he goes in the room and is like, oh, no,
she left the check and she left. But that's but
I guess she said it was only business anyway, and
I'm like, you said, this is the end of our
business arrangement. And then she said it's only business and
you whatever, you weirdo. So she goes back to her no.

Speaker 3 (53:33):
Yeah, but he kept saying it. Mark was really upset
about that because he kept saying it. He talked to
like four people in the next day and he's like,
she just said it was business. So she well, she
made it very clear. Arrangement is only business. It's like,
that's the Mark kept saying, did I miss something that's
not at all what happened.

Speaker 2 (53:52):
No, it's not what happened. He's gaslating her and us.
He said, this ends our business arrangement. She's like, and
that's all and he's like, yes, yeah.

Speaker 4 (54:03):
She made it very clear to me that this was
just business.

Speaker 2 (54:06):
Right.

Speaker 3 (54:07):
I'm like, oh, again, this feels like an AI, like
a script.

Speaker 2 (54:10):
Continuity, but only business. Then take your check. I mean
take the check either way, but what are you doing?
So she goes back to her extremely busy shop that
no one ever goes to, right, and the photographer shows
up and it's like, I've kept all the like salacious
pictures to myself, which is just the Duke being mad.

(54:31):
I mean they're still not them making out or anything.
And I get those pictures of them being mad are
still not good for publicity. But and he's like, I
kept and he's like, I decided not to publish them
because you gave my grandma a new scarf and earrings.
And she's like, oh my gosh, I do make a
difference in the world.

Speaker 3 (54:45):
That's right, because she remembers she volunteers at the senior
home another thing.

Speaker 2 (54:50):
With his grandma. He's like, you're the Bella that helps
my grandma and I'm like really, so anyway, And so
then Meredith sees online that Bella won the Duke's big
like humanitarian award because like the best thing that anyone
has done this whole year is bring scarves and earrings
to the elderly. Yeah, so now she has all the

(55:11):
money to start her mobile business. And then Benjamin the
butler meanwhile is at Tankford House and is like, you
got really good pr in the news and he brings
him the newspaper. Did you see the name of the newspaper?

Speaker 4 (55:24):
No, I didn't see it.

Speaker 2 (55:26):
The royal jingle.

Speaker 3 (55:30):
That's the first clever thing in this movie. I didn't
see it.

Speaker 2 (55:36):
So they got good pr and he's like, oh my goodness,
she was right about everything. So then she's like and meanwhile,
Bella's like, I need to talk to Stefan. I need
to thank him for this. Maybe there was a misunderstanding.
Maybe he does like me after all. So she shows
up at Tangford House at the same time that he's
going that he's realizing that she was right about the
photographer and maybe he overreacted like a crazy person. So

(55:58):
she shows up, she thanks him for the money, and
then he says, do you want to come to every
event with me forever, which I guess is a proposal,
and she says yes, and then they kiss, and I
guess they're engaged now, and that's the end.

Speaker 4 (56:13):
It's Christmas Land, so we know they're engaged.

Speaker 3 (56:16):
If this is Lifetime in holiday Land their neighbor. She's
definitely been contracted as an endanured sexual servant, so weird.
So it was so I okay, so all right, let's there.
This movie was very light on the tropes, talked about tropes,

(56:38):
very light on tropes. Did we see anyone falling off
a ladder or falling into someone's arms?

Speaker 2 (56:47):
Nope.

Speaker 3 (56:48):
There was one moment where she was they were literally
just you may have missed it. They were literally just
walking and she kind of like tripped and he was like,
oh and he but it was like a little almost.

Speaker 2 (56:58):
I missed that completely.

Speaker 3 (56:59):
Yeah, it was a little thing. It was so I
was like, is this what that's supposed to be? So
no any precocious children, No precocious kids.

Speaker 4 (57:08):
We know the Duke was a delight.

Speaker 2 (57:10):
As a child and very responsible.

Speaker 3 (57:14):
Yes, but precocious. Even the memory of the duke did
not fit that trope. Okay, do we have a scene
where someone's making something, baking something, building something together.

Speaker 2 (57:26):
Only when they were done, they didn't actually build it.
They said they were about to and then they were done.

Speaker 3 (57:31):
That's right.

Speaker 4 (57:32):
Snowman and baking said they were weird.

Speaker 2 (57:36):
Stay in the tree and what decorating the tree?

Speaker 3 (57:39):
Kind of decorating the tree? Right? Again, all these are
all great tropes. That were included in theory in the film,
but we did not get to see those things. A
misunderstanding that could have been cleared up easily with one
simple conversation.

Speaker 2 (57:57):
Maybe kind of with the business. Was this just business?
I mean sort of, maybe not really, but it seemed
pretty clear.

Speaker 4 (58:04):
He said it was just miss right.

Speaker 3 (58:09):
He said it. What other chokes in my I'll missing
a last minute deadline, which I guess we might say
the luncheon. I kind of a Santa like character or
ethereal or wisdom a character.

Speaker 2 (58:26):
Well, there was kind of a fairy tale thread running
through it, like his mom used to read in fairy tales,
and Meredith kept saying, this is your fairy tale, and
she kept saying fairy tales aren't real. So I kind
of felt like Connie was supposed to be a fairy
godmother a little bit.

Speaker 3 (58:40):
Yeah. Yeah, I don't know though, Yeah, that's it really.

Speaker 2 (58:46):
It was just kind of so yesterday I was watching
it and then friends came over and I paused it,
and I actually forgot to turn it on again when
they left, and I finished it this morning and I
was like, whoa here, and I recording and I never
watched the end it was. Yeah, that's kind of how

(59:08):
this movie was for me.

Speaker 3 (59:10):
Yeah, well, well let me uh, I don't rate. Let's
rate this on a scale of one to five marshmallows,
five being the best cup of hot chocolate, one being
the kind of hot chocolate you get at the alcoholics
Anonymous meaning.

Speaker 4 (59:28):
What would you rate this?

Speaker 2 (59:31):
It was like two and a half marshmallows, Like, it
wasn't even bad enough for me to dislike. I just yeah,
it was there.

Speaker 3 (59:38):
Yeah, I think. So here's my theory real quick. I
think this is this is a great American film, right,
great Americans new And you know when they brought over
Dana God and CCB and they brought over all those
people and to start up a channel, that's a lot
and they had to they had to churn out a
lot of movies very quickly to get the channel up running.

(01:00:00):
And I'm gonna bet they also blew a lot of
budget on the talent, right on Danica on CCB. And
so what you looked at was a movie that I think,
I think, Amelia, tell me what you think. I think
if they had shown the things they told us about,
I would have been on board for this movie. I

(01:00:20):
don't think you're writing the holes in the writing and
stuff that's fun, you know, that's what we do here,
We talk about stuff. But I think all that's fine
when the movie is hitting all of the tropes, and
but we just didn't get to see the stuff we
need to see in order to have a good time
with these people and in order to have a good
time with the with the typical, you know, clunky dialogue

(01:00:42):
of these types of movies. We didn't get the fun part.
We only got the work part of it. And I
imagine that's a budget issue. And yes, again we should
have seen her, seen her at the senior home. But
if you can't hire actors, you know, to fill a room,
that's different. So I'm gonna guess a lot of this

(01:01:03):
as budgetary, including maybe even some of the script.

Speaker 4 (01:01:06):
What are your thoughts?

Speaker 2 (01:01:07):
Yep, I totally agree. Because this was also their first
big year, they probably had to cut a lot of time,
a lot of set pieces, so they just had to
go with what they had. I thought the actors did
a perfectly good job, a fine a good job with
what with what they had. Yeah, we love Danica. Damon Runyon.
I don't know if we've seen him in any before

(01:01:28):
I've seen he's an American guy, did not hate his accent,
and I'm like the accent police. It was fine, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:01:40):
It was still it was Yeah, it was just fine.

Speaker 3 (01:01:43):
I just wonder if, like, how could we fix this, Amelia,
because I know part of the problem too is you've
got to fill a two hour run time, right, so
you've got to extend some stuff. But how could we
fix it without adding too much to their budget? I
just wonder, like, for instance, I understand you can't hire
a room full of senior citizens for your I'm a

(01:02:06):
good person at the Senior Center scene, But in the
kitchen with the two of them, you know, instead of
having the scene where they're talking about all the baking
they need to do, they do the baking and they
have the mess. It makes me wonder if maybe they
were on a set where they couldn't make a mess,
you know, like I don't know, but they.

Speaker 2 (01:02:27):
Have decoration, but they could have maybe cut like could
they have just like cut cut out that part and
decorated the tree instead or right said, or you know,
could they have cut like not tried to hit every
trope but done one of them really well, yes.

Speaker 3 (01:02:41):
The tree decorating is always great, especially for exposition, because
you can use your ornaments to you know, talk about
the memories or the YadA yadas and bring up yeah.
So it's great for dialogue, it's great for exhibit exhibition, exposition,
and it's great for you know, character development. And we

(01:03:02):
didn't get to see any of that. You know, we
normally would see that. We should see them interacting with
other people in a way that makes us like see
each other, see them through each other, see them through
each other's eyes, right, Like we the viewer should be
able to look at Danica through the duke's size and goes, oh, yeah,

(01:03:22):
he sees she's a good person. She's giving earrings to
this old lady.

Speaker 4 (01:03:26):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:03:26):
And we didn't. We just didn't get to see any
of the good stuff they were setting up in the movie.
That's the problem the writing. All that's fine, we don't
expect we say this every show. It's not the Oscars.
We like the cheesiness of it. We like all of
the clunkiness that's part of the term. But he set
it all up, but then it didn't pay off by

(01:03:47):
getting to see any of it. I want to ask
you this, Amelia, the party favors. What would you have
done for the party favors. Let's say you're the set
decorator or you're the propmaster. You have a very limited budget.
You probably got a dollar store budget, and you need
but you need to make sure that these ladies are
wrapping something that looks like you, something that duke would

(01:04:09):
give at the door. Do you have any ideas what
you would use.

Speaker 6 (01:04:15):
Gosh, I mean, what like, you've got a limited budget,
you want to hance people something that's very clever.

Speaker 3 (01:04:27):
I think I would have.

Speaker 4 (01:04:28):
Done something like.

Speaker 3 (01:04:31):
Bought bought something that I could have printed out the
little inspirational quotes or something and put in there, or
just anything like that.

Speaker 2 (01:04:40):
Yeah, see, I would have made. I think a better
idea might have been decorating something, or like maybe like
not doing like not party favors, because I feel like,
is the duke really handing on party favors at all?

Speaker 3 (01:04:52):
Right?

Speaker 2 (01:04:52):
My questions right, So, could they have just been decorating something,
or like there was that moment where she and the
duke were filling the bird feeder, like they could have
just been they could have been doing some other task
that wasn't party favors because I felt like even party
favors felt weird.

Speaker 3 (01:05:07):
Yeah, for Kannie to be doing, especially for Kannie, Yeah,
you're right, they could have been. Even they could have
been making out cards for the charity, like writing out
cards for the charity.

Speaker 2 (01:05:19):
Or cards. They could have been wrapping gifts for the staff. Yeah,
they could have been, and then that would have also
been showing like the heart that they have. You know,
they could have been you know, I don't know. I
feel like they could have been doing some other tasks
that maybe made a little bit more sense in general. Yeah,
the whole thing is weird.

Speaker 3 (01:05:37):
Yeah, I think I think it was. It just didn't
hit right. But you know, it's never a bad thing
to be in Christmas Land. You know, i'moa is happy
to be there. So thank you to everybody who worked
on this movie and made this movie, and we look
forward to doing more.

Speaker 4 (01:05:52):
Amelia.

Speaker 3 (01:05:52):
Before I let you go, will you tell everybody where
they can find where they can weigh in, Actually give
people an email, let us know if you watch this movie,
how you would have fixed some of it. We want
to know and what would your party favorite scene have been?
Would you have what would your party favors have been?

Speaker 4 (01:06:10):
Instead? Of Eminem's in a box because.

Speaker 3 (01:06:12):
I would have even to buy a million of the
fake gold chocolate coins. You can get those at a
dollar store. Even that seems a little classier than.

Speaker 2 (01:06:20):
Even random almonds. Okay, So we are a very Merry
podcast at gmail dot com. Yeah, or we are a
very married podcast also on x slash, Twitter and or
no Sorry on Instagram, and a very Merry pod on Twitter,
a very Merry podcast on Facebook. So find us, tell

(01:06:41):
us what you think and next and the next episode
will be Dear Santa. And this is the one where
we veer off into holiday Land a little bit.

Speaker 3 (01:06:50):
So holiday Land is great. Yeah, you definitely sit down
for that one with a glass of wine or like
put it on.

Speaker 4 (01:06:57):
Yeah, when you're when you're you know, just chilling out
and doing something fun.

Speaker 3 (01:07:02):
Because if that's a holiday land, it's it's a it's
a little bit different than Christmas Land. So we're gonna
have fun. We're gonna well, Amelia, I had no matter what,
you know, this wasn't the greatest of movies that we've watched,
but it's always a great time breaking down these movies
with you. And as I said before, it's always a

(01:07:24):
great time being in Christmas Land because things are, we
always know what to expect and everyone's gonna get their
happy ending. So Amelia, until we meet again, I wish
you days filled with uh with cooteur, perfectly tailored suits.

Speaker 2 (01:07:45):
Thank you, thank you, and I wish you that feeling
when you have a new scarf and earrings.

Speaker 3 (01:07:51):
Oh, Merry Christmas, Amelia, Thanks, Mery Christmas.

Speaker 2 (01:07:54):
Karen.

Speaker 3 (01:08:04):
This has been a presentation of the FCB podcast Network,
where real Talk lives.

Speaker 2 (01:08:11):
Visit us online at fcbpodcasts dot com.