Ep. 40 - Does Piper Really Need Another Job?

Amelia and Kira review the 2015 Hallmark Christmas movie “Christmas Incorporated.” Riley must convince her badboy socialite boss not to destroy Christmas for the sweet town of Dover by shutting down their toy factory. Will Riley save Christmas for the good people of Dover? Will her boss finally come to learn the true meaning of Christmas? Will that one girl who works in every shop finally get offered a full time job? Listen to find out!
https://www.hallmarkchannel.com/christmas-incorporated/about-christmas-incorporated

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
This is the FCB Podcast Network.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of a Very Merry Podcast.
I am your very merry host, Hira Davis, and I
am here along with my very married co host, Amelia Hamilton. Amelia,
welcome back to the show. We are really speeding through
this season now. We are picking up and originals. Christmas

(00:45):
Land Originals are on the way. But we're reaching back
again today that rhyme.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
We are Oh look at you.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Look Jesse Jackson of me.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
I was going to say it was super Christmas Land
of you, but but you went there. Yes, all right,
So this year we're going back to Hallmark twenty fifteen
Christmas Incorporated. All right. So this one stars Shine Grimes Beach,
who is from the nine two one Oero remake from

(01:17):
the you know, early two thousands.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Which surprisingly had its own cult following. I mean the reboot.
Nine two jumped on this reboot thing before it became
super popular and were rebooting everything. And I was surprised
because I looked her. I was pretty sure that she
was from the show. I never watched it, but I

(01:41):
looked it up and there's just so much stuff online
about it. It had a huge following. Actually it did really,
really well. I couldn't tell you one single thing about
the show, but apparently the reboot was very successful.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Good for them, Good for you Shane Yep and Steve Lund,
who Christmas Land regulars will recognize. He's been in a
lot of a lot of these.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
Yeah, he's a tall guy. I don't know why lately
I wasna so I've been noticing the tall guys lately
in our movies. There was one scene where he was
walking around the Christmas fair and Mark and I were
watching it and I was like, geez, look at how
tall he is compared to every single person in the scene.
It was like a crowd scene, but he was like

(02:26):
a giant. He was just heading shoulders above every single
person in that crowd. It was amazing. I did not
look up how tall he was, though. I'm going to
say before you get started, Amelia, this movie definitely not
one of my favorites. It was way talkier than we preferred.
The whole family sat down to watch it, and Ruby
especially was very critical of it. Yeah, too much shocky talk.

(02:48):
But there's stuff to get to here.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
Yeah, it wasn't great, and it was definitely I feel
like this was sort of a almost like a transitional
it was. It wasn't like classic Chris Land, but it
wasn't one of the you know, newer you're the ones
that we really haven't been into. It was just it
was somewhere in the middle. I don't know, you know what.

Speaker 2 (03:11):
It made me wonder because it's twenty fifteen. You're right,
so even for twenty fifteen, this should be right in
the sweet spot, right in the pocket of you know,
good Hallmark cheese. But we've seen a few movies like this,
and I wonder if these movies are made on purpose
this way. They don't require a lot of sets, so

(03:33):
maybe if you need to round out because they make
a lot of movies, they have a huge schedule, so
maybe you need to round out the schedule. But you
don't want to do a movie that has a lot
of set pieces or a lot of extras. You do
something like this where the plot is more advanced through
chit chat than could be scenes where you've got to
gather a lot of people. I even noticed that a
lot of those, like their Christmas Fair, Christmas Carnival scenes,

(03:56):
were a little anemic with extras, So it could be
that's why we noticed this type of thing and we're
commenting on it. I don't know, that was my observation.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
Yeah, all right, So we start with Riley Vance and
I say her last name because it is important stage,
isn't that. So she is looking for a job in
New York, in the big city, but she is currently unemployed.
She only has eighty nine dollars left in the bank
and she's struggling. But listen, nobody wants to hire somebody

(04:30):
who doesn't already have a job. So she is having
a hard time and she keeps she keeps telling herself
but quitters never win and winners never quit. Because we
love it like that, Yeah, because we love we love
a standard phrase that is somehow meaningful because they're playing it.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yes, I was like, oh wow, that's that's deep. Means
this girl's got it. She's determined, she's gonna I'll see
this Amelia. When she said that, I thought to myself,
you know, I never really thought of it that way.

Speaker 1 (05:08):
I'm gonna, I'm gonna I'm gonna mean it next time.
So she's sitting there telling that to herself and she
overhears at this guy William Young just burns through assistance
and they're having open interviews today. So she immediately calls
her dad and she's like, tell me everything about William
Young and so we get we get the exposition. She's like,
He's like, here's the deal. He builds, buys, and sells American.

(05:29):
He just inherited a corporate empire by her dad. No,
absolutely American. American, definitely not Canadian.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
Not Canadian.

Speaker 1 (05:42):
Definitely, he's definitely not Canadian. So so she goes to
the interviewing hang.

Speaker 2 (05:49):
On, hang on. It took me probably this entire the
entire movie, probably almost to the end, to realize that
the dad didn't live in an antique store, because she
calls her mom, and first of all, Mom, dad in
this movie always in Christmas sweaters. I asked Mark. I

(06:11):
was like, we never wear matching Christmas sweaters at Christmas time,
and his response was, well, we're not that old yet,
so I guess when we get older we will wear
matching Christmas sweaters.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
I feel like you should have had some follow up questions,
like what is the age.

Speaker 2 (06:29):
We don't do follow up questions in our marriage. We
usually just let things fester and grow and then build
resentment up over the years and then have a big
blowout somewhere way down. You know, this is.

Speaker 1 (06:42):
Why you don't know that he's a prince yet, And
that's how that happens. That's how that's how that happens.
In every movie that's right is we're always like, how
did you not realize that you were in line for
a throne? It's because they didn't ask the follow up.

Speaker 2 (06:57):
It could have been solved with one simple conversation. Anyways,
when she calls home, Mom's in her christmaswater baking. All
Mom is doing is baking cookie sets all So I
think they live in a cookie factory slash antique store.
Because then she tells the dad to pick up the
other line, pick up the other phone. They have a landline,

(07:18):
and he is, I guess he's upseirus. But I honestly
thought it was an antique store. It was so stuffed
with Christmas junk yeah, and old junk. I was like,
oh wait, he's just like chilling in his office.

Speaker 1 (07:35):
It's just his office, yeah, because I think because Riley
says that he keeps like starting businesses that fail, so
I think it's just all of his inventory.

Speaker 2 (07:44):
Okay, it took me a minute. I was so confused.
Because I thought at one point there was going to
be a callback to this antique store, like she might
need something from there, And then I realized, oh, I
think that was just heavily decorated off. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (08:01):
Yeah, I didn't really get I kept thinking there was
gonna be something about that too, but not really.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
Okay, well Christmas Sweater Dad fills her in on William Young.
William Young, I'll tell you this, Amelia. He sounds like
a piece of work.

Speaker 1 (08:15):
He does. He just burns through assistance. But but Riley
needs a job. So she goes and there's all these
people sitting there and she's timing them even the even
the interviews are only taking like three minutes. One guy
goes up for his interview and the woman is just like, no,
you don't even get an interview.

Speaker 2 (08:34):
I like that he just walked right after. She's like
no what.

Speaker 1 (08:38):
So so they're like and they're calling everybody by, like
Kira D, it's your turn, Amelia H, it's your turn.
So they're like Riley V, you're time for your interview.
So she gets up. She goes to her interview and
like if this woman aman does doing the interview, and
she's like she noticed that Riley fixed the star the
little topper Christmas tree topper, and so she's like, you know,

(09:00):
you pay attention to detail. Here, look at these financials
here blah blah, you're remime me of me. Here you go,
you get the job, you know, well not you get
the job, but I like you. And then she has
this like another you know moment, he needs someone who's
not just by his side, but on his side. WHOA
did you feel it?

Speaker 2 (09:18):
I did feel it. I felt it so hard that
I was almost one hundred percent sure that was going
to be a callback moment.

Speaker 1 (09:26):
And it never came back again again nothing.

Speaker 2 (09:29):
I was, Okay, this is where I thought this movie
it was just I don't know if they stripped stuff
out or it just wasn't written clearly or edited properly,
but I felt like it kept dropping little plot points
yet it never followed up on. So I would have
assumed that that lady had her own romantic story similar

(09:53):
to the protagonists, and that we would see a little,
you know, middle aged boomer hook up at the end.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
I also thought we were going to go back to
somehow with her fixing the treetopper on something else. I
thought we were going to go back to that somehow
being meaningful. No. No, but Amanda, like Amanda likes Riley.
She reminds her of hur At, you know, a younger age.
So she's like, you need to just go meet William
right now. So as they're leaving the office, Riley looks

(10:21):
on Amanda's desk and the resume that Amanda has been
looking at is for Riley Van Arden, not for Riley Vance.

Speaker 2 (10:29):
Oh my gosh. Well you have to expect this when
you when you run interviews with total strangers and you
only use the first initial of their last name.

Speaker 1 (10:41):
Yeah, although I don't think I've ever I don't know
I would. I feel like people just say, like Riley,
it's your turn, or miss Vance. I don't feel like
anyone's ever like since elementary school.

Speaker 2 (10:55):
No, that's what they know, or a Bachelor in Paradise
because that's what they that's what they do in the
Bachelor series. Because there's always so many people around and
a lot of these kids are these are gen z Ers.
Now they all have the same name, they're all Braids.
They're all Riley's and Braidens, and so you know there's
always like, oh, that's Aaron. Oh, that's Aaron s Oh,

(11:15):
that's Aaron e.

Speaker 1 (11:16):
You know.

Speaker 2 (11:18):
Yeah. They so they do that on there, highly unprofessional
and now it's led to this very embarrassing an identity.

Speaker 1 (11:26):
Yeah. So she does try to tell her, but Amanda
is like, we don't have time. We need to interrupt
the biggest board meeting that's ever occurred at Young Industries
right now.

Speaker 2 (11:35):
So Riley did goes just so you can meet mister Young.

Speaker 1 (11:39):
Yeah. So mister Young is in the middle of this
board meeting and he's like I've always been in my
father's shadow, having this like emotional breakdown, and they're like, listen,
are we going to shut down the factory now or
after the new year? What are we going to do?
Blah blah blah. So Riley is just like in the
just is like, why don't you just go Why don't

(11:59):
you go see it? Why do you just go see
if it can be saved? Blah blah blah. Nobody asked
for your opinion.

Speaker 2 (12:04):
She just walked into this She's still got her coat on.
She just walked into this room with Amanda, and then
suddenly is like telling that this table full, but it's
all men. By the way, The table white men.

Speaker 1 (12:18):
Yeah all, Oh, this whole movie I did about the
black person, I did not get one.

Speaker 2 (12:26):
So in the beginning, one of the bosses that she
is interviewing with, yes, black. And then when they were
at a town market later I saw a black person
in the background. They didn't even have the decency to
have a black mayor got a black best friend. There
were no black people in this movie. Oh, it was

(12:49):
pretty white, but that that table was very white and
very male. And that's how you know they were hostile.

Speaker 1 (12:57):
And I got some definite Robert Baron vibes from this
board member because we were supposed to think he was
mean and he was completely normal. Because she was like, well,
why do you just got why do you go see
the factory like this? Literally no one knows who she
even is. And she butts in with her opinion, and
he says, are you just gonna listen to this person
off the street? I think he's mean, But that is

(13:19):
a valid question.

Speaker 2 (13:21):
That's a completely valid question. Who are you? Where did
you come from? You? You know nothing about this guy.
And that one thing, mister mister bad guy over there
has been working at the company work and that's probably
started in the mailroom's been working there for forty years. Yeah,
she did. She came in halfway through the conversation. Even

(13:44):
she didn't even know.

Speaker 1 (13:46):
She literally doesn't even know what factory they're talking about.

Speaker 2 (13:49):
No, and also, excuse me, also, it's just really funny
that they've called this whole board meeting, this NYC corporation
to discuss shutting down this vintage toy factory in the

(14:09):
middle of Dover.

Speaker 1 (14:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
Yeah, like this one factory is the difference between the company.

Speaker 1 (14:18):
Right, you haven't told us what the factory does. At
this point, we didn't realize. Yeah, I'm just writing down
factory question, like they haven't told us. So in response
to this perfectly reasonable man saying are we going to
listen to this rando who just barged into our meeting,
William Young says, no, that's why we should hire her

(14:41):
and get her off the stream before someone else does.

Speaker 2 (14:44):
I know. I was like, is this is this the
hero shut.

Speaker 1 (14:51):
So? So anyway, so she's hired, and she's but.

Speaker 2 (14:58):
She's hired under a f as Riley Van Arden. They
did not make enough hay out of that. That really
just slipped by. My husband didn't even pick it up
to the end of the movie. Again, well, yeah they did.

Speaker 1 (15:13):
They did a little bit because Amanda's like, wasn't there
something you wanted to tell me? And she's like, oh,
never mind. And then Riley does call her mom and
her mom's like, you actually do need to tell them
who you really are, and Riley's like, no, I'm an adult,
and her mom's like, okay, whatever. But yeah, they didn't.
They didn't like push hard enough to really make sure
the viewer understands what's going on. So anyway, well, it's.

Speaker 2 (15:35):
Just another example of a plot point in this movie
that could have had some fun situations attached to it.
You know, there's some elements of some physical comedy maybe
you could pull up, or like there are shedanigans that
could be explored, and they just didn't. You know, it

(15:57):
just was sort of like, here's this one little prop
which we're gonna need because we need a problem later
for them to get over. But they didn't have fun
with it.

Speaker 1 (16:07):
Yeah, there were a couple of those. You know, when
she gets there, she meets this woman Piper, and there's
like an ongoing joke that Piper works like everywhere in
the town.

Speaker 2 (16:18):
Yeah, and they didn't.

Speaker 1 (16:18):
I don't feel like they had as much fun with
that as they could have.

Speaker 2 (16:21):
But I agree, I agree, I agree. I thought, Okay,
I get this joke right, Like Piper picks her up
at the airport, then yeah, takes her to the hotel
and then quick runs to behind the desk and changes
her coat, and now she works at the hotel, and
then she works at the coffee shop when they go
get coffee or you know whatever Christmas drink, not on

(16:45):
the whole Christmas drink ticket. And yeah, I was like, Okay,
I get I get this. She is a small town,
she's a hard worker, she pops up everywhere. But you're
right again. Another thing that Yeah, but it's not like
it's not funny how they do it.

Speaker 1 (16:59):
She's just like she just happens to be there, Like
they don't. They could make it funnier.

Speaker 2 (17:04):
I think the actress was was doing what she could with. Yeah,
she wanted to be funny.

Speaker 1 (17:13):
Yeah, the actress was. Yeah, it was good, but they
just I don't know.

Speaker 2 (17:17):
Yeah, I know that you're right, You're absolutely right. Another
plot point that they just sort of that just sort
of meant sort of fell yeah.

Speaker 1 (17:25):
Yeah, But anyway, Riley gets to Dover, New Hampshire, and
William is he's going to drive there, but and he's
whining because he doesn't want to go at all because
it has an insufferable amount of Christmas cheer.

Speaker 2 (17:40):
So he's mister Scrooge. He doesn't want to miss It's
mister Scrooge. Another moment, okay, another thing. He tells Amanda.
By the way, Amelia, why does he need an assistant?
Seems like Amanda does all of the assistant thing. She
plans all his trips, she books everything, like every time
he needed to do something, even after he hired what's

(18:02):
her face, she'd be like, I'll take care of you.

Speaker 1 (18:04):
Because she's like the CEO or something right, She's like, oh.

Speaker 2 (18:08):
I'll rearrange your schedule for you. That's the job. Anyways,
they have this really I want to say into it,
but not in a romantic sense. They have this moment
and I was like, Okay, this is his mom. Okay,
I get it, this is his mom. And when she
was telling we had that she had a similar experience

(18:32):
helping a young CEO find his way and building something
together that that maybe she was talking about his dad.
I just thought that there was going to be some
kind of familial relationship. They were very familiar with each other.
She treated him like a son, and I thought we
were going to get a okay mom at the end. Yeah, no, nothing, no, pana.

(18:57):
It's it seemed like they were bill up to that
relationship and he trusted her very much.

Speaker 1 (19:04):
But again, and they did have sort of like a
maternal relationship. But yeah, I don't know it was anyway.
Uh So the next part creeped me out. Riley is
getting kind of settled in at the hotel and she's
and then she's like out just out and about in
the town and the mayor comes up and it's like,
you shouldn't stay the hotel. You should stay the nicest

(19:25):
house in town. I know the people. They'll rent it
out to you. And he just straight up kicks this
old couple out of their house so that mister young
can stay there.

Speaker 2 (19:37):
I actually love that part.

Speaker 1 (19:41):
I mean I laughed, it was funny, but it was
so weird.

Speaker 2 (19:45):
I actually had a genuine laugh when it's like the
old lady's blind. He's like, oh, no, you stay in
our are the nicest house in town, so you can
feel at home.

Speaker 1 (19:55):
Yes, they like to rent it out.

Speaker 2 (19:57):
They like to rent it out they'd do in this
airb and.

Speaker 1 (20:00):
Standing there like I thought you said that they were okay, And.

Speaker 2 (20:04):
He just pushes the old lady into the car and
he's like that, they're there. You're going to have a
nice stay at the hotel. Now, are are you okay?
In there? Boomy just slams. She starting to say something.
This mayor was very eager. He was very eager. The
mayor was everywhere.

Speaker 1 (20:23):
Yeah Young and save this town.

Speaker 2 (20:26):
Yeah, he wanted to do everything. He would appear every
the mayor was. Maybe there is an alternate theory here
where the mayor is actually an angel of some kind.
He just sort of shows up and and so he
wants to hold He wants to, you know, have this
big welcoming thing for mister Young when he gets in.

(20:48):
But I was wondering if the mayor and that's where
I thought, maybe Amelia, this movie was season filler. You
know that this was just sort of filling out this
schedule and begging to do one or two locations because
it was just so awkward the way they stuffed them
into that house. But it was clear that they didn't

(21:09):
want to have to shoot in a hotel, so They're like,
we got to figure out a way to get them
in the house. Now. As for the may or, Amelia,
I'm gonna say I think that he was very enthusiastic,
but I believe he was only making up for the
fact that he's not black.

Speaker 1 (21:24):
Probably probably he knew he just wasn't quite good enough
to be mayor.

Speaker 2 (21:28):
Right.

Speaker 1 (21:29):
Also, I was not clear for like three quarters of
this movie where Riley was staying. And at first I
thought she was also staying in the house, and I
was like, that is awkward.

Speaker 2 (21:39):
But she's seeing at the hotel, right he was?

Speaker 1 (21:41):
But that was not clear to me for a really
long time. And I wasn't sure. I wasn't sure where
she and I literally wasn't sure what. I didn't think
she definitely was staying at the house, but I wasn't
sure that she definitely was in the hotel either. I
didn't know if they both moved or not. And I
was thinking, well, it would be super awkward if they're
in this house together. Yeah, I was everyone, did Paul

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Speaker 2 (22:34):
Right, it's a huge house. It's a huge house. I
think you can have them stay in the same house alone. Yeah,
they just cannot be sleeping in the same room.

Speaker 1 (22:45):
Right, But they also did only meet yesterday, and I
would feel really awkward. I mean, even if it was
a female and a like a totally different situation, even
if it was three people. You know, I just would
feel weird in the house of people I didn't know.

Speaker 2 (23:00):
But then I was like, that house is so huge
and he's in and all by himself, but also awkward
I would Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, you're absolutely right.
I didn't put it together either where Riley was staying.
I did notice she showed up at the hotel for
some Piper seems every scenes every now and then. But
I just thought that was a way to get Piper in.

Speaker 1 (23:19):
But you're right, Yeah, I couldn't figure out why she
was stopping by the hotel either, I think she I
think she was staying there. Maybe I'm wrong. I don't know.

Speaker 2 (23:29):
I think this movie was suffering from limited sets. I
really do, all right.

Speaker 1 (23:35):
So they're trying to plan this big welcome for when
William gets there. They want him to know that the
town loves him and he's got to save it. And
so she she's decorating the house, you know, getting it ready.
But we need to also establish that Piper is warning
Riley about Rebecca the reporter because she is more about
making news than reporting it. So keep that in mind.

Speaker 2 (23:58):
Barracuda Man and press. Everybody knows that the Dover New
Hampshire press is cutthroat.

Speaker 1 (24:07):
They do they do? I mean, you and I work
in media, so maybe we know more than other you know,
we're than other people. The like the like inside gossip
about Dover, New Hampshire.

Speaker 2 (24:16):
But but everybody Christmas Land, Dover, New Hampshire is well
known for their London style tabloids.

Speaker 1 (24:26):
Exactly, it's all over scoop chatter.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
So oh.

Speaker 1 (24:32):
Also, I also want to add that Riley has hired
Piper to drive them around, which, first of all, does
she have the authority and the budget to do that.
And second, did they really need a driver around Dover,
New Hampshire. These are the questions that I had.

Speaker 2 (24:46):
Anyway, it does Piper really need another job? She has eight?

Speaker 1 (24:51):
Well, now she has nine.

Speaker 2 (24:54):
Piper doesn't sleep well.

Speaker 1 (24:56):
Good for her.

Speaker 2 (24:58):
She lives on on cocoa and Christmas spirit.

Speaker 1 (25:03):
She does good for her, all right. So the problem
is when William gets to town, he gets pulled over,
doesn't have his ID and is immediately thrown into jail.
So there goes some big welcome oops naturally.

Speaker 2 (25:16):
Uh, And I mean, if you don't have your idea,
I guess it's because there's not much crime in Christmas Land.
I suppose not having your ID when you're riding your
motorcycle is a considered a serious crime. We've already discussed
a length that, you know, how we have military in
Christmas Land, but they're really just symbolic. There's no wars

(25:39):
or anything, there's something, there's no violence going on, and
so I don't think there's real crime in Christmas Land.
And so yeah, not having your ID. Now I live
in California, Milia, where you know, none of that matters.
I thought it was so quaint that he was going
to jail. You can literally kill someone here and not
go to jail. Somebody just the other day he's ring. Yeah.

(26:03):
So as a matter of fact, someone just broke into
a Robert F. Kennedy's house in La yesterday and uh,
the police came and got him and took him away
and the guy and let him out. Thirty minutes later,
he's back on the street. He was back at Robert F.
Kennedy's house. So that's how we.

Speaker 1 (26:24):
Have Robert Claren's house.

Speaker 2 (26:26):
Yes, that's how we do in California. So I thought
it was cute they put him in jail, but I
guess that's why the streets are so clean exactly.

Speaker 1 (26:35):
So his picture of him getting arrested. Of course, he's
bailed out immediately and the mayor apologizes, but his picture
is in the paper the next day. And I love
this part because he calls Amanda, is you know, back
in back in the city, and he's like, don't worry
about it. It's a local paper, and she goes it
was in all of the NYC tabloids. So I was

(26:57):
I was laughing because, Okay, I don't think the one
New Yorker that says NYC. And I thought it was
so funny because they're either going to say it's in
all the tabloids here or in every tabloid in the city.
No one's, no New Yorker is gonna say NYC. So
I like tweeted a joke about it, and somebody who
follows me on Twitter, who apparently has never looked at

(27:18):
any of my tweets, was like, listen, if you're mad
about it, just don't watch Hallmark movies. You know, you
don't have to get And I was like, okay.

Speaker 2 (27:25):
I was like sir.

Speaker 1 (27:27):
I was like, sir, I don't think you looked at
a tweet of mine before. I obviously enjoyed this, but
I ran like a poll. I was like, people of
New York, have you ever called it NYC? And they
were all just offended that I would even ask such
a question.

Speaker 2 (27:40):
Oh my god, it's like Canadian, well, it's Canadian thing, probably,
like how Canadians all down here the States, right, you know?
And I had forgotten that when we went up last summer,
everyone was like, oh, this is my daughter, you know,
this is my daughter, my friend, my cousin from the States,
or you going back to the States, you mean America,

(28:01):
the US. It just is, so we don't call it
the States, you know, as Americans. I guess when I'm
a broad, mabad do. But anyways, when she said that,
I cracked. I mean I I cackled, and I told
I was watching with my daughter. I told Rupy, I
was like, you don't understand. Though Amanda's a busy business woman,

(28:24):
she doesn't have time to say New York City, and
that's not what busy business people call New York City. Anyway.
She abbreviates everything because she's a busy business woman and
there's so much to do. So all of this is
ending up in the NYC tabloids, not the New York.

Speaker 1 (28:45):
City right, which I don't think she would even say that.
She would just say the city, or it's the tabloids here.
I don't know anyway, you know who would say that
Canadians Canadians. But she's She's like, now they're all going
to think you're a loser. Know, basically, everyone's gonna laugh
at you.

Speaker 2 (29:02):
You're never gonna be sure sure hot rich young guy
gets arrested. No girl, ever, no.

Speaker 1 (29:14):
One's ever gonna kiss you.

Speaker 2 (29:16):
No woman has ever been interested in a bad boy
with a motorcycle.

Speaker 1 (29:23):
So Riley's like, just do your job, like please, don't
worry about this. So so they go to the factory
and take a tour and basically costs her up and
sales are down. And I don't think it has anything
to do with the fact that they are hand painting
the toys. But the best is me. They also not

(29:43):
do any online sales, so I'm not an expert, but
I think it might but it probably has nothing to
do with the hand painting and the online sales. It's
just me.

Speaker 2 (29:54):
I was watching them walk through the factory. It's just
a typical, you know, twenty fifteen Hallmark set. But it
was just like, look, we're in a factory and here's things,
and then here's other people and they're doing things and

(30:14):
they have hard hats on. Now look over here where
things are happening, and more things are going on as
you It was like I watched the montage. It was
at one point I just started watching the background people
and at one point I just saw one girl with
a pink Teddy Bear in her hand and a hard

(30:36):
hat on, just walking like rushing back and forth out
of scene, in and out of scene just walking from
one belt to the other belt. They look busy. Yeah, God,
look busy.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
Busy.

Speaker 2 (30:49):
Yeah. They had like a section where guys in hard
again with the hard hats. I don't know why. They're
just at a table. It's like a craft table and
they're painting. I don't know, Like, yeah, it's not hard
to believe that costs are up and sales are out

(31:10):
and that, by the way, that's that's as much detail
as you're really going to get about.

Speaker 1 (31:15):
Yeah, that's all, you know. They also keep the books
in a paper like a pen and paper ledger.

Speaker 2 (31:21):
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, in twenty fifteen on them, I don't know.
I'm starting to see a problem.

Speaker 1 (31:31):
I have some ideas. I don't know anything about the
toy industry, but I have some ideas. So they have
a little moment. Riley and William have a little moment
where he gets an eyelash off of her face and
she makes a wish and then she's like epiphany, light bulb.
I know how to fix it all. Take this old
teddy bear that has been sitting here for twenty years,

(31:52):
twenty five years since I was a child. Reprogram it
because it's like it's like a bear that whinds. It's like,
I'm hungry, I need a huh. She's like, change it in.
Put a new yeah, reprogrammed the voice so that you
can make a wish on it. Make it a wishing bear,
and then sell them all in the two weeks or
one week or whatever we have until Christmas, and then

(32:14):
you know, you can sell your old inventory and then
there you go. Now you're safe, genius, and that's the
whole plan. So William, you know, to his credit, is like,
that is the worst I've ever had. There's no time
until Christmas, and that is impossible. But if you want
to try it, you can. So I actually appreciated that

(32:38):
he was slightly realistic about how dumb that was.

Speaker 2 (32:41):
Well, and then the uh, the foreman of the factory
or the factory boss.

Speaker 1 (32:46):
She was a woman.

Speaker 2 (32:47):
Excuse me, woman, excuse me. She was like, well, that's
a great idea. I can have a website up by
the end of the day. Lady, you should done have
a website for the business.

Speaker 1 (33:00):
You no online sales.

Speaker 2 (33:02):
You just said you had no online sales. Also, you
mean to tell me you actually already know how to
make a website and you don't have a website to
sell the toys that you're painting by hand in the factory.
I was like, why did Riley have to come here
to suggest this?

Speaker 1 (33:19):
Yeah? Uh So then the mayor says, because of course
he's you know, just standing outside.

Speaker 2 (33:25):
Of course he's around.

Speaker 1 (33:27):
And he goes, I'm going to buy fifty of these
bears and give them to all my constituents. You have
fifty constituents, is that what you have?

Speaker 2 (33:37):
Yeah? I also I don't think that's legal. I know
I ran for school board and I don't think you
can give gifts to your voters.

Speaker 1 (33:47):
It's not how it works.

Speaker 2 (33:48):
No, that's not how it works, mister Meer. Yeah. Also,
if if we'll get to it, but if all it
takes to save the fact this is everyone in town
buying fifty toys, that even seems like a more practical
idea than reprogramming the chip in a forty year old

(34:11):
toy and trying to sell the entire inventory before Christmas.

Speaker 1 (34:16):
Right, Yeah, So they basically have this idea that there's
gonna like spread word of mouth about this bear, that
you can make a wish.

Speaker 2 (34:22):
On time, you know.

Speaker 1 (34:24):
And it kind of reminded me of the Christmas at
the drive in movie because they need more flyers. They
find out some flyers. Yeah, and they're gonna get.

Speaker 2 (34:34):
Many flyers and and and that's just what they were doing.
They were just standing on the corner passing flyers and
tell all our friends, and you email all your friends
and put.

Speaker 1 (34:47):
It this is I don't I don't think that the
problem is that this town isn't invested in the factory.
It's that else. Yeah, the town knows, right, that's not
the problem. But they're going to pronounce some flyers.

Speaker 2 (35:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (35:03):
Riley, though, is extremely concerned because she overhears William talking
to I presumably Amanda or Robert Barron, and he says
that they're going to go through the motions to protect
the company's image. But nothing has changed. This factory is
getting the job.

Speaker 2 (35:19):
So yeah, so overheard conversation, and then she's crestfallen. Oh no,
I thought my amazing idea was very exciting, And it
turns out he was just patronizing me this whole time.
After I walked in all the way off the street
into his board meeting.

Speaker 1 (35:40):
And say, unbelievable.

Speaker 2 (35:42):
He saved the entire company.

Speaker 1 (35:46):
So that night they go to the winter Carnival and
Santa has a little talk with Riley and tells her
that what she really needs to do is help William
find the Christmas spirit.

Speaker 2 (35:57):
Santa.

Speaker 1 (35:59):
This is another one, and everyone knows that I am
as pro Santa as they come. But the Santa storyline
didn't really work for me either. Like he pops up
a couple times, but like, does he was he the
real Santa? Was? He just like a dude, I.

Speaker 2 (36:16):
Don't he doesn't do any magic. Like the thing about
having the Santa trope in a Hallmark movie is that
there's always that lingering question did Santa nudge something along?
This guy was talking to about my Christmas wish? Yeah,
all of a sudden my Christmas wish came true. And
then you have that fun little question like was that

(36:37):
just ye? Or maybe what had a little magic to him?
And but this guy, not only this guy just popped
in there and it was like there, here's maybe Santa.
But he really didn't add anything of value. But the
other thing a million I just had a lot of
trouble looking at him. He was so white. I have
never seen a whier person in my life. He was

(36:58):
almost translucient. He was even albino. It was almost like
he just it was like an Alienim. I couldn't I
could not visit the act. No I am, I am
dead serious. He literally made me ill I'm so serious.

Speaker 1 (37:21):
Okay. So they get there and William is going to
be the guest of honor because the whole town is
counting on him. This made me so uncomfortable. So this
made me so comfortable too. The more I think about

(37:43):
the movie, the less comfortable I get. So they go
they like they like put him in front of the
town and then they just slow this guilt trip ontom.
They're like, here's William, and the whole town depends on
you and the factory. We're all gonna starve to death.

Speaker 2 (38:02):
And I hope you don't kill us all.

Speaker 1 (38:04):
Here are these children. Hope you don't put us all
out of work. And then they start like yelling questions
at him like it's a press conference, and they're like,
or you're gonna close factory, Like it's just weird. So
he literally just leaves, just runs on the stage and
runs into Santa.

Speaker 2 (38:26):
He gives his He gives his very like you haven't
knew some answer to me. And when this one guy
in the audience is like, you can close the factory. Well,
we're you know, we're working very hard on plans to
YadA YadA YadA and words here, and it's what our
governor likes to do. Doesn't answer all he could do? Yeah,

(38:48):
but then right, and then the guy was like, he says,
I'm like, that didn't answer my question. Are you gonna?
But but how will you? He said, We're working on
plans to save the factory. The guy's like, okay, but
how will you save the factory? I was like, this

(39:09):
is actually a legitimate question.

Speaker 1 (39:12):
There's truly the time and place for it.

Speaker 2 (39:16):
How all you've said is we're working on plans to
save the factory. And he's like, yeah, but how? And
I guess they couldn't answer that question because they don't
know how. Their plans are so vague.

Speaker 1 (39:32):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (39:36):
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

(40:00):
Yourself with Kira Davis, an FCB radio podcast on Apple,
on Spotify, iHeart, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 1 (40:08):
I felt like it wasn't really the time and place
for it at the Winter Carnival, Like it was kind
of ambushed. But he probably should have also had a
press conference at some point to talk to the guy.
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (40:19):
They definitely did, just put him right on the spot.
They're like, I'm welcome. Now, look all these people in
the eye. Will you murder their dream?

Speaker 1 (40:28):
It was so uncomfortable, so he literally so the mayor
is like anyway, Winter Carnival, and he just leaves. He
just turns around and leaves and runs into Santa, and
Santa is just like, hope you save the tone and
then it's like commercial break.

Speaker 2 (40:46):
It was weird again, another plot point that drops. It's
not like Santa doesn't give him any kind of like
a nugget that he tucks away and then remember later
and it's worth something, it's valuable. It saves the company,
or it saves his relationship, or it's nothing like that.

(41:07):
Santa speaks with some platitudes, but they they're basically meaningless.
They don't move the plot forward. There's no magic to it.
He's just a guy that's there, right, Yeah, it was awesome. Instead,
Riley has the idea.

Speaker 1 (41:21):
She says, I have made you a list of activities
that will connect you better to the town.

Speaker 2 (41:27):
Yeah, okay, so you can get to.

Speaker 1 (41:29):
Know the town better, and then you know, once you
feel connected, maybe you all have some ideas about how
to save the factory and save the town.

Speaker 2 (41:35):
I thought it was a great idea. This is a
great opportunity for us to see the whole town have
some adventures, snowball fights, cookie baking, somebody falling off.

Speaker 1 (41:47):
And he's like, instead, I'm gonna do none of it.
He rents off the ice rink and goes skating alone.
But it wasn't a good opportunity for us to see that.
He's a true Canadian. And we watched my skate skate backwards.
He can skate backwards, he can do crossovers, he can
do a hockey stop.

Speaker 2 (42:05):
So I rely knew how to skate too.

Speaker 1 (42:07):
He also knew how to skate, even though she pretended
she didn't.

Speaker 2 (42:12):
So they they don't do hardly anything.

Speaker 1 (42:16):
Yeah, So they have this you know, nice little bonding
time where they skate together and he talks about how,
you know, he could have gone pro but he couldn't
because his dad, you know, had his life planned for him.
And I kind of realized in this moment that there
was no like breakthrough moment here. He really was never

(42:37):
a jerk boss. I don't know why he ever burned
through assistance. He's been nice the entire time, from the
moment they met and he hired her as a rando
off the street.

Speaker 2 (42:46):
You're absolutely right. I am good for you for putting
that out. That was what I thought at the end
of the movie. I thought, this is a movie where
two people fall in love by talking. And that's not
what we watch movies for. That's not what we go
to Christmas Land for. We want to see people falling
in love in the cheesiest way as possible, in the

(43:07):
cheesey circumstances possible. And these are just two perfectly fine,
nice people having perfectly fine and nice conversations and getting
to know each other like you do, like you would
in the real world, and deciding that they like each other.
There was no conflict, there was nothing to resolve. There
was nothing to get over. That's why I was like,
they could have punched up the name mix up at least, yeah,

(43:32):
provided some more conflict with that, but they just there
just was nothing.

Speaker 1 (43:38):
There was no conflict, right, I could not figure out
why his other assistants all quit. No, he was really nice.

Speaker 2 (43:45):
Who time?

Speaker 1 (43:47):
Yeah all right, so so she sorry to interrupt.

Speaker 2 (43:52):
Again, Milia. In fact, the only person that he was
mean to was the one guy at his board meeting
who was actually yes.

Speaker 1 (44:06):
True. Uh So after after they escape, well, the weird
reporter is watching them ice skate again or not again,
but she's just always watching. She's everywhere.

Speaker 2 (44:18):
He's like the she's the demon to the mayor's angel.
See what's happening. There we go again.

Speaker 1 (44:24):
They could have played that up to had Santa.

Speaker 2 (44:26):
Yeah, they could have.

Speaker 1 (44:29):
Why don't we? So they go get they go get
coffee after and these are still like you mentioned the
other day with Dear Santa. It was still the years
where coffee orders were jokes. So he's like a New
York businessman, so his is like a you know, his
is a really long coffee order, so it's stupid. And
then he peppermint latte with double peppermint and she's like,

(44:52):
you don't know me, and he's like, but I guess right,
And she's like, oh you did you know? So whatever,
and the.

Speaker 2 (45:01):
Question Amelia as a man ever ordered food or drink
for you when you've been out on.

Speaker 1 (45:07):
A date, like guess my order?

Speaker 2 (45:13):
Sure just been like I'll order.

Speaker 1 (45:15):
For the lady. I don't think so.

Speaker 2 (45:20):
Yeah, I don't think so either. I can't imagine my husband.
He wouldn't do that. He wouldn't dare the wrong thing.

Speaker 1 (45:30):
It's like like choosing the wine or something, probably, but
not like.

Speaker 2 (45:35):
It's just always such a trope, not even just in
Christmas Land, but just in movies in general or TV
in general when we want to see like a jerk guy,
he's ordering for the lady and not letting her order herself.
And I was like, where does this come from? I've
never seen it. Maybe I've just dated the wrong guys
of me.

Speaker 1 (45:55):
Yeah, like Mark, that's a.

Speaker 2 (46:00):
Twenty seven year mistake. We just haven't had the conversation
yet right off.

Speaker 1 (46:06):
The break up awkward, So so he kind of so
he guesses her order and it leads to this thing
about like he's saying that he can read people, and
it gets into this like the where he's saying, like,
but you're so special, you know, and so you know
you're too special to be my assistant, and.

Speaker 2 (46:27):
Okay, hang on another thing, another thing. He says, I'm
kind of good at reading people. We have seen no
evidence of that nonoever, none in this movie at all.
But okay, fine, we're pulling up on the end here.
Maybe that'll come into play. I can read people, and

(46:49):
so this is even it doesn't even come into play
when in the romance angle, like oh, they have a
like you said earlier, Amelia, there's no conflict with to resolve,
So it's not like he's going to hear her and say,
you said you were okay, but I read you.

Speaker 1 (47:05):
I write It's just nothing.

Speaker 2 (47:07):
It's a thing. It's it's a it's words they throw
out there. They never pick up that thread again. Yep, yep,
it was just it was just only for the purpose
of that conversation.

Speaker 1 (47:19):
Yeah. So after this, Riley sees that reporter skulking around
again and says, listen, you can have an interview with
William if you stop planting these weird stories, you know,
because she's planted like the stupid arrest and him ice
skating and stuff, and she's like, no, because I'm using

(47:40):
his stories as you know, exposure for myself and I'm
going to get out of this town. So I'm just
going to keep printing what I want, which I also
found interesting because Riley has given her these weird, unguarded
quotes that she hasn't printed at all. Like when she
first got there, she said, like, William's here to close
down the factory, and she goes, He's not closing down
the factory. Well, she didn't print that, right. She's given

(48:03):
to me weird quotes that she could have totally run
with for over and she didn't. So she's not a
very good reporter. It's all she's trying to do is good.

Speaker 2 (48:12):
Anyway, she could have been dropping that gossip, she could
have find items, she could have been doing so much.
Yeah she, I mean, her plans for getting out of
that town are as about as vague as Riley's plans
for saving.

Speaker 1 (48:28):
Yeah, exactly. But you know, I mean, I mean I
guess if she's gonna be, you know, like a tabloid,
you know, crappy reporter, I'm glad she's terrible.

Speaker 2 (48:40):
At it, so well, you know what, Amelia, I have
confidence that she will be just fine in the big
NYC and the NYC tabloids, In the n y C tabloids,
I think. So.

Speaker 1 (48:54):
As Riley is wandering the streets of Dover, she runs
into William again and he has got a grocery bag
with chicken, cream of mushroom soup and ritz crackers, and
he's offering to make her dinner. And it isn't I
also realized then his shirts are always unbuttoned way too far,

(49:14):
and his chest hair is showing all the time.

Speaker 2 (49:18):
I did not notice that.

Speaker 1 (49:21):
And from this point forward I noticed it the whole time.

Speaker 2 (49:25):
I'm so glad I didn't notice it, because I would
have been. It's like our friend, our friend, Tommy said,
as the picture of our friend of his wife's Sarah's
feet the other day. She's the tiniest feet. I've known
Sarah for twelve years. I've never once looked at her
feet or thought about her feet. And then Tommy was like,

(49:45):
Sarah's look at Sarah's tiny feet. They're so tiny, And
I was like, why did you show me that? Now
I will never not see Sarah's feet.

Speaker 1 (49:53):
Are you sure those were her real feet. I don't
think her feet are that small. I think Tommy's lying
to you.

Speaker 2 (49:58):
Oh he is. Tommy wouldn't lie little inside baseball. Tommy
would lie just make Yeah.

Speaker 1 (50:08):
I don't think those are her real feet.

Speaker 2 (50:10):
Okay, I feel better.

Speaker 1 (50:11):
I think she and I like were the same shoes.

Speaker 2 (50:13):
Okay, I feel better. I feel thank you. I'm so
glad I brought that up because I actually feel like
I can see Sarah again. But here's the other thing
is that if I had known that Amelia about his
chest hair, I I really I don't think we should
see It's It's enough to see chess in Hallmark. You know,

(50:36):
we have the now infamous three wise men, I know,
and a baby incident with a towel and the shirt shirt.
But if there's hair on that chest too, I know,
that seems beyond the pale and Hallmark you you can
maybe get away with showing a male chest, but you

(50:59):
can not have hair on it. You cannot have hair
on it, I know, I know.

Speaker 1 (51:04):
And then for dinner, because he's wearing like a Henley
that was unbuttoned, and then for dinner he changed into
a button down, but it was still unbuttoned. In myself
test hair, and I was still upset.

Speaker 2 (51:13):
I missed it. I'm so glad I had time for
this movie. I would have been so distrenited by that.

Speaker 1 (51:19):
I know, I was so upset.

Speaker 2 (51:20):
All right.

Speaker 1 (51:22):
So he talks about how his grandma taught him this
recipe and he used to make it a boarding school
and it sounds awful, and he's like, I know, and
he's like, he's like, I loved my grandma and she
reminds me you remind me of her. And she's like, well,
that's what every girl wants to hear. And I wrote down, Okay,
he's your boss. And then and then he's like oh,

(51:46):
and then she's like, do you have any other hidden talents?
And he goes, you'll have to wait and see, and
I wrote down again, that's your boss. Like I get like,
are we officially crossing that line now?

Speaker 2 (51:57):
Like, well that was the thing?

Speaker 1 (52:01):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (52:02):
Who who could tell? Who knows? Because there was no
conflict written into this at all. As a matter of fact,
it didn't even occur to me that either of them
might feel something for each other, of any emotion, until
the tabloid papers, you know, mentioned that maybe they were dating,

(52:26):
and they were like we're not dating. That would be
very unprofessional. Unless they had said those words, there would
have been nothing to indicate to me that they were
struggling with getting to know each other or struggling with
whatever boundaries might be presented. I was even wondering if
there was such a thing as employee boundaries in Christmas Land,

(52:47):
Like I was like, maybe those those concepts don't exist there.
I don't know. I don't know, but that's another indication
that there's were it's happening, but nothing ever really advances supply,
and we're not shown much. We're just really expected to.

(53:08):
It's just exposition to exposition.

Speaker 1 (53:13):
Yeah, it made no sense. Yeah, So of course, creepy
reporters sitting outside and the date is immediately in the paper,
and so Harper the or Piper I guess is her
name is Harper Piper whatever, same thing. It's like, were
you the mystery woman? And of course Riley's immediately like

(53:35):
we're just friends, and then she's like, ooh, you do
like him, and then now it's all out there she
likes him.

Speaker 2 (53:43):
Again. I'm like, that wasn't earned at all. I didn't
I just didn't understand what they liked about each other, I.

Speaker 1 (53:50):
Know, all right, So then yeah, so now just kind
of out of nowhere, they've liked switched gears. They like
each other. William is talking to Amanda and he's saying
that he wants more time for the dover factory decision,
and Amanda says, well, that was a change of heart,

(54:12):
and William says, my heart was definitely involved.

Speaker 2 (54:17):
Okay, okay. And so he's.

Speaker 1 (54:22):
At the factory watching them paint or whatever they do there,
and they ask them if you want to take part
in the Secret Santa. He needs more information because he
has no idea what Secret Santa is.

Speaker 2 (54:37):
Mark and I laughed at that.

Speaker 1 (54:40):
I understand some exposition, you know, like the viewers might
not know what that is. But doesn't everyone know what
a Secret Santa is?

Speaker 2 (54:46):
I mean, is he raised in Kolkatta or something where
they don't have Santa period. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (54:54):
I don't get it.

Speaker 2 (54:57):
It's like the American woman going to the Royal Castle
and not knowing what to do with the second.

Speaker 1 (55:03):
Fork, right, Like, I need you to know that. I
texted Sarah and asked her about her feet. She says,
they are her real feet, but it's just the angle

(55:24):
they are not small.

Speaker 2 (55:29):
Okay, all right, I'll look at them the next time
I'm with Sarah, just to see maybe I could ease
my mind those tiny feet. I just don't like it
when people show you something that you had previous and
previously noticed and then it's the only thing that after that.

(55:50):
All right, Amelia, we've got Okay, sorry about that.

Speaker 1 (55:57):
Sorry, Okay. So he's gonna do Secret Santa, and so
he's talking to Riley about what he's gonna do, and
it leads to this whole story about how the reason
he doesn't like Christmas is because he just misses his
grandmother too much. So there we finally know.

Speaker 2 (56:14):
Okay, another thing, another here's another thing that doesn't go anywhere.
He gets the Secret Santa thing. All right, great, here's
an opportunity for us to do some character development. Here
we see him figuring out how do I because we've
seen this plot point in Hallmark before, haven't we, where
the busy businessman needs to buy gifts for his employees,
but he's not a good gift buyer, so he hires

(56:37):
our lovely Hallmark leading lady to help him buy gifts,
and they bond while they're buying gifts and it's revealing
about the things they like to do and don't like
to do. So I'm thinking, great, we're gonna get a
shopping montage. We're gonna figure out She's gonna figure out
that we don't get any of it. It's just I

(56:57):
got this thing. Oh okay, yeah, do you hate Christmas?

Speaker 1 (57:02):
It's like it was just a device for him to
open up and share that he doesn't like Christmas because
he misses his grandma. But they could have gotten there.
They could have just brought that up when they're having
this disgusting dinner that his grandma.

Speaker 2 (57:16):
But I don't have gone and done something like god shop,
I could.

Speaker 1 (57:19):
Have done it with this Christmas Carol thing that I'm
going to get to in ten seconds.

Speaker 2 (57:24):
But I don't.

Speaker 1 (57:25):
There was no reason for this whole I didn't get it. Again,
they just dropped it. So stupid reporter once again, she
is just going to dig, dig dig. So she finds
that this gigantic conglomerate Young Enterprises company has issued a
press release that William Young has a new executive assistant,

(57:50):
Riley Van Arden.

Speaker 2 (57:52):
Well, oh no, yeah, she's the wrong. Riley v.

Speaker 1 (58:00):
Nobody issues a press release about a new assistant, by
the way, nobody else, so that's dumb anyway, So now
she knows, so keep that in the back of your mind.
The mayor, who was everywhere, runs into William while he's
out for a run, and he is inviting him to
go on the Christmas Carol Van, and he is telling

(58:21):
him that he needs to go because his grandmother actually
started the tradition. And he is saying that his grandmother
started this tradition back in the mists of time, and
he wanted to make sure it was true, and so
he talked to a local historian to make sure that
his grandma was one of the original people on the
Christmas Carol Van, and it was true, and she actually

(58:44):
started this tradition to cheer up her sad grandson, who
we find out in the next scene was born in
nineteen ninety Do you have to find a historian to
confirm it happened in nineteen ninety five?

Speaker 2 (59:05):
Yeah, I tell you this, Amelia, But I think the
answer to that question in twenty twenty three is.

Speaker 1 (59:11):
Yeah, okay, Well this movie came out in twenty fifteen
or no, when did it come out? Is that right?
Twenty fifteen or something?

Speaker 2 (59:19):
Sound historian.

Speaker 1 (59:22):
You had to go to the town history and to
find out something that happened twenty years ago. Is that
what you're telling me right now? Oh God, I rewound
the scene and watched it again because I was like,
I thought he said he went to the historian.

Speaker 2 (59:37):
Yeah, because just talks to what's her face, Betty down
at the laundry mat Oh yeah, oh yeah. Remember I
was like, what.

Speaker 1 (59:44):
Are you talking about? And then they've gone on and
on about this, and then they show the carol van
and it's five seconds. It's like a parade where they
drive down the street and I don't even know why
it was a parade. That's not how caroling works. And
then it was It was so weird.

Speaker 2 (01:00:02):
It was so weird. It was him and her, our
two protagonists, standing on it was essentially a parade float. Yeah, yeah,
the mare's on there, the carollers are on there, there's people,
it's like a parade, yeah, and people waving and all
the people on the float are waving. But Riley and

(01:00:24):
William are just standing there. Hockey. It's the most awkward.
What are they doing. They're not leaving, they're not caroling,
They're just standing on this moving float, yeah, right out front.

Speaker 1 (01:00:43):
It was weird, so weird, It was so weird, it
was so strange. Another weird scene. So Riley finds William's
copy of A Night Before Christmas that his grandma gave
him in nineteen ninety five, which so again it's basically
a first edition of The Night Before Christmas and gets

(01:01:05):
him to go read it to the local school kids.
And when he's there, when he gets to the very
end of like you know and Santa exclaimed as he
wrote out of sight. And then Santa comes bursting into
the room and says the last line, you know, Merry
Christmas to all Happy Christmas doll. And then Santa goes
on to tell the children that they get so busy
making the toys for all the children in the world

(01:01:27):
that they need the Young Toy Factory in Dover, New
Hampshire to keep up with the toys for the children
in the world, again basically saying Christmas is messed up
forever if mister Young closes the toy factory, which I
think is a horrifying thing to tell children.

Speaker 2 (01:01:43):
Yeah, oh shoot, hang on, I have I just change this.
Sitting on my board and my voice sounds weird. I mean,
hang on, my voice just sounded like I have auto
tune just came on in my ear.

Speaker 1 (01:02:00):
Well it sounds really echoing over here.

Speaker 2 (01:02:03):
Oh god, what happened?

Speaker 1 (01:02:10):
Did Paul Revere really say the British are coming? And
how is George Washington chosen to lead 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.

(01:02:30):
Subscribe to Growing Patriots on Apple Podcasts or wherever you
get your podcasts today.

Speaker 2 (01:02:36):
All right, better, Okay.

Speaker 1 (01:02:38):
See that's how spooky it is yet clip.

Speaker 2 (01:02:43):
You can go in and take it out, all right,
all right?

Speaker 1 (01:02:46):
So he basically, he basically terrifies these children that Christmas
is over if the factory closes.

Speaker 2 (01:02:53):
I know, I was like, yeah, not only is it, yeah,
just that the factory's closing, but this guy's literally responsible
for all of Christmas now.

Speaker 1 (01:03:01):
Right, So yeah, I don't I don't know why the
writers thought that was cute, but it wasn't right.

Speaker 2 (01:03:08):
Santa doesn't depend on the Mattel factory in Los Angeles
to come up with extra toys. He depends on the
toy factory in Dover. Right, they have one single table
dedicated to hand painting wooden trucks.

Speaker 1 (01:03:23):
Right, So they've already said, like, your parents are going
to lose their jobs and the town's going to go under,
and now you're also not going to get any toys,
you know, Santa, it's pretty hard. They're just yeah, they're
really they're really like into publicly shaming William Young in
this town.

Speaker 2 (01:03:42):
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:03:42):
So that night, William and Riley are out for a
walk and she's apparently walking him home. Do they both
stay there? I really don't understand what's going on with
this house. And he's like, I feel so at home here.
Let's decorate. I know you kept the decorations. So they're decorating,
and he's sort of like fishing to see if she
has a boyfriend. They're decorating separate Christmas trees, which I

(01:04:04):
found interesting. She's sharing all of her family traditions. And
they go to midnight Mass, which I actually thought was
a really nice little something that they added in their
little mention of faith.

Speaker 2 (01:04:16):
How little one. Yeah, that we were still in excuse me,
the old still in traditional Hallmark mode, but again more
missed opportunities. Two trees and not a single step ladder.

Speaker 1 (01:04:31):
Yeah, not one ladder. They're like back to back decorating
their trees.

Speaker 2 (01:04:36):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:04:36):
He says he has no Christmas plans. He usually just
goes on vacation by himself and tries to forget his Christmas.
And she's like, just come to my house, like my
parents will treat you like it's family. It'll be great.
And they start to have a little like moment. They're
gazing at each other, not really much chemistry going on,
but whatever, and his phone rings and he's like, there's
an emergency at the factory and they run down there,

(01:04:56):
and the emergency is that sales have stopped.

Speaker 2 (01:05:02):
I don't.

Speaker 1 (01:05:04):
There's not like a fire or like like a machine
needs fixing. I don't really understand what they like, why
do you need to rush? I don't know sales stop?

Speaker 2 (01:05:16):
Here here's how here's how I understand the problem a milion.
I did take some business courses in high school, so
and some of this language might be a bit above you,
but try to keep up. This is how I understand it.
Costs were up. Okay, but when costs went up, sales
went down. Oh yes, and now you forget the best. Yeah,

(01:05:41):
and now sales have stopped. So that's actually a bad
thing in the business world.

Speaker 1 (01:05:46):
Yeah, he better get there right now because if if
he's on, if he's at the factory, he can fix
that immediately.

Speaker 2 (01:05:52):
Well, yes, sales have stopped, so he's obviously got to
go to the factory to figure out now to start
the sales again.

Speaker 1 (01:06:03):
Which he can do if he's there physically.

Speaker 2 (01:06:05):
Well, it's just it's a business world, Amelia, I know
you don't understand it.

Speaker 1 (01:06:09):
No, So they get there and the factory, for woman
is like, okay, the reporter's here. She's going to do
a story, which again makes no sense. So she's like,
I'm going to do a story. Who is Riley van Arden?

Speaker 2 (01:06:27):
So?

Speaker 1 (01:06:28):
And so okay, here's the thing. Usually I am all like,
and I do think Riley should have just at the
beginning said something, because you know, I'm all about clearing
up with the conversation at this point. I would have
been like, I have no idea, what are you talking about.
She could have said she never saw the resume, yeah
you know, yeah, but instead, instead she's like, okay, I

(01:06:52):
should have said, but she didn't, so of course, you know,
he's like, I've been betrayed.

Speaker 2 (01:06:58):
And I thought you're SA was one thing, but it's
really another with something else, and like it's not I
would have understood.

Speaker 1 (01:07:08):
Like he hired her to be as assistant, you know,
he didn't hire her to be like the supply chain expert,
supply chain c C s Oh, I don't know anyway, Yeah,
it wasn't like he hired her first particular skill and
then found out she didn't have it. It was an
assistant job, so it was kind of weird. So then

(01:07:30):
it pretty well, Yeah she did a good job. So
she left, you know, runs out of there, and then
the factory manager's like, she did a really good job.
Like I don't know what your problem is anyway, he's
all mad, mad, he's mad, he's betrayed. He shared with
her he liked her. The next day, the mayor has

(01:07:50):
to talk with him and says, what we always say,
why didn't you talk to her? And then Amanda has
to talk with him and says, we always say, why
don't you talk to her? So she's at home with
her parents, kind of sulking, and he says to her, listen,
you took the hit so the town can thrive. Tell

(01:08:12):
me more about that, mister Vance. What that makes no
sense at all?

Speaker 2 (01:08:19):
I And also another it was just another like very
jarring thing, like all of a sudden, she's at home.
I didn't really like see your making decisions to go home.
She's like popped up there. May have missed something though,
because they did go to the bathroom at this point.

Speaker 1 (01:08:36):
No, you miss nothing. She was just suddenly there.

Speaker 2 (01:08:38):
Yeah, she was just suddenly there. She's gone home. Like
that was just her immediate reaction that, oh, now he
knows my last name is something different, so I've got
to go all the way home.

Speaker 1 (01:08:50):
Yeah. Well, I mean he makes it pretty clear that
he's like super angry and feels betrayed. But I mean
she could have just like stuck around and tried to
talk to him too.

Speaker 2 (01:09:00):
Well. This is why we need to remember this, Amelia,
when we're doing when we're critiquing our very adored movies here,
we always that's one of the tropes that we laugh about, right, like,
oh well, this could have just been cleared up with
a simple conversation. But this is what it looks like
when something can be cleared up with a simple conversation,

(01:09:21):
it's boring. There are a lot of things in this
movie that were cleared up with just a conversation. Yeah,
and we saw nothing. We just like heard people talk
about conflict and resolving it off screen, so you know, yeah,
it serves this purpose.

Speaker 1 (01:09:38):
Yeah, but I'm starting to think that the reason her
dad's business has all failed is because he told her
you took the hits, the town can thrive, And like,
did he think that the town is thriving now?

Speaker 2 (01:09:51):
Is it she's saving It.

Speaker 1 (01:09:53):
Took no hit and the town is not thriving.

Speaker 2 (01:09:55):
No, they didn't solve the problem, right, nothing.

Speaker 1 (01:09:58):
Nothing happened. I don't understand what's happening. So anyway, they're
sitting there celebrating her success or something. I don't really
understand any of that. Anyway, williams at.

Speaker 2 (01:10:09):
The door now and he's by the way Mom and dad,
so they have different Christmas sweaters on.

Speaker 1 (01:10:14):
Now we're in the same room now though, So that's exciting.
But William's at the door and he's like, come back
to Dover with me. I was wrong, So so they
go back.

Speaker 2 (01:10:26):
See just he just he walked in and he said
a thing, and then they were like, okay, there's no conflict.
She didn't even have an internal struggle for one second.
She was like, you had me a hello, and then
they were right right.

Speaker 1 (01:10:41):
And somehow, I guess she did take the hit. And
the town is thriving because now they've sold out of
the toys, all sold out, so the factory is saved.
And and he's going to hand deliver the toys because
I guess they've all been sold in a fifty mile radius.

Speaker 2 (01:11:00):
Or something there. Well, he's going to deliver the last ship.
She's the four woman says, we've sold out of all
our inventory, which is actually not good news. Uh, no
business wants to sell out of their inventory. Business stops.
But anyways, they sold out of all their inventory. She said.
He's even going to hand deliver this one last ship.

Speaker 1 (01:11:23):
Right, So they get in this you know, box truck
and they're going to deliver them, and he's telling her
all about how you know, she's too smart to be
his assistant. So he is going to set her up
at her own consulting company, and he is going to
fund it, and you know, he hopes that she'll you
know consider Young Industries as one of her you know clients,

(01:11:45):
has this really great idea for the wishing Bear. So
that's enough to go on.

Speaker 2 (01:11:51):
Uh, just that's it. That's it. He and it was
it's like, you do nothing, you don't have to do anything.
It's like, uh, I hate to get I hate to
bring this up, but I have to. It's like what
happened to the Daily Wire is just somebody showed up
with a bunch of money that here, you don't have

(01:12:11):
to do anything for this. I'm just gonna give you
this money because I believe in you and you don't. Yeah,
you don't have to prove your business model to me.
Here is a bunch of money. I'm gonna set you
up with your offices. I'm gonna be your first client.
It just was like it all fell into place for her,

(01:12:34):
right down to someone else paying for her business.

Speaker 1 (01:12:38):
There you go, and I still don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:12:41):
I still don't know. And on top exactly what she's
learned or what she's gonna.

Speaker 1 (01:12:45):
Do, we don't know anything. He still hasn't seen her
real resume, only rather van Arden. He doesn't know what
she went to college for. So and then his truck
breaks down. And she even fixes that. She can do
it all, so that again.

Speaker 2 (01:13:01):
Another Amelia, another thing truck breaks down five minutes from
the end. I looked at my daughter. I was like, Okay,
they only have five minutes to solve this crisis to deliver. Yeah,
any other Hallmark movie, Amelia, that would have been the movie, right,

(01:13:23):
the entire movie them in a box truck delivery. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:13:27):
And he was saying yes, and he's saying like all
the record can't get here for two hours, and we've
all these gifts to deliver. Yeah, and she's like, it's fine,
I already fixed it.

Speaker 2 (01:13:36):
Again. It's just a plot point that could have had
some some interest to it, could have it could have
been something to do, could have instead it was just
something to be solved very goodly. Or they could have.

Speaker 1 (01:13:49):
Set it up as a joke in the whole movie
that all these little things go wrong. But she's like,
bam already fixed it, Bam already fixed it.

Speaker 2 (01:13:56):
Yeah they didn't. No, it was just odd and was
five minutes left. So it and it went exactly where
where it could have gone, which is nowhere. Right, this
was the thing that happened, and then it happened. Yeah,
So added nothing, added nothing to their relationship, added nothing
to the plot of the movie. As thin as that

(01:14:17):
was it, it was just odd.

Speaker 1 (01:14:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:14:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:14:22):
So later they're walking through the Christmas festival, carnival whatever
it's called again, and he's like, I found my Christmas magic.
You brought it back into my life, blah blah blah,
and she apologizes again for not telling him that she
was the other Riley V. And then he's just like,
I love you and goes in for this Pg. Thirteen kiss.

Speaker 2 (01:14:41):
It was.

Speaker 1 (01:14:42):
It was a lot of kiss for Hallmark and then
it was over the band.

Speaker 2 (01:14:48):
It just was they didn't earn the kiss at the end.
They didn't earn that moment. He didn't earn that speech
that he gave her about you brought Christmas back to
me and y YadA YadA. I was like, where did
this come from? Yeah, all of a sudden, I yeah,
I maybe this was a good exercise Amelia in what

(01:15:10):
how I like, what doesn't make a good Hallmark movie? Yeah,
there's a reason why we have all those tropes, and
we make fun of them and we laugh about them,
and we pointed out when they pop up. But there's
a reason for those things. Those are the things that
make these movies.

Speaker 1 (01:15:28):
Yeah, this felt like pieces of like fifteen different movies
that they shoved together.

Speaker 2 (01:15:36):
Yeah, yeah, any because any one of these situations could
have been the movie. The movie could have been. It
could have been saving the toy factory, obviously, but it
could have been like, you know, helping her dad's online business,
you know, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:15:52):
Or it could have been delivering the toys in the truck,
could have been.

Speaker 2 (01:15:55):
Delivering the toys right truck. It could have been any number.
It could have been heard, get to know, the corporate world.
It could have been. It just could have been so
many things.

Speaker 1 (01:16:06):
It could like weird reporter trying to plant store, yeah,
trying to like stay ahead of her, or I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:16:14):
Like there could have been something fun there with the
reporter and the mayor, the angel, the demon, like the yeah, yeah,
I just it just it had You're right, it had all.

Speaker 1 (01:16:25):
These even be like this weird board member and she's
like trying to like stay ahead of them and fix stuff,
or like I don't, I don't.

Speaker 2 (01:16:32):
Know, but there's a million ways to make this movie
more interesting, and they just did their best to bleed
it at all character and yeah, sense they saved the
toy factor. How do you save the toy factory? Saved
the toy factory. He bought all the toys. Right if
if buying the toys was the thing that was going

(01:16:54):
to save the factory, I guess he could have just
done that at the beginning. Why didn't the board just
vote to buy all the choys?

Speaker 1 (01:17:03):
Pick a plot? Could you pick one plot?

Speaker 2 (01:17:05):
And please? All right, well look, let's go over a
couple of our wet We've got some awards to hand out. Yes,
the show, all right, Emilia Christmas Ham who squeezed all
the juice out of their role in this movie for you?

Speaker 1 (01:17:23):
I think the mayor the mayor very good.

Speaker 2 (01:17:27):
Yeah, I said the here, you're right, that was good.
I didn't say him, I like your answer better, But
I said, mister bad boardroom guy. He knew he got
the role. I'm the bad guy. I'm you know, I

(01:17:49):
am haughty and arrogant and and that's what he delivered.
He definitely knew what movie he was in, Yeah, and
what part he was playing? All right? The tree topper
who was this starror of this movie? Who ran away
with the movie? Someone run away with it for you?
It could be a thing and an object. This one's
hard because, oh, this movie.

Speaker 1 (01:18:12):
Kind of liked Piper.

Speaker 2 (01:18:14):
I thought so too. I had Piper. Yeah, yeah, I
thought anyone was really putting their all into it, and
not in the hammy way. She to me that actress
read this script. She got the gag, she got the joke,
and she filmed the joke. They didn't help her with
the script or the editing, and maybe they did shoot
other stuff, but she got exactly what the joke was

(01:18:38):
and she was in on it. She went all in
on it. I really liked her. I thought, yeah, I'd
say she won the movie even though she didn't get
a lot to do. Yeah, all right, and our last
award is the Robert A. Baron Award. Who's the villain
of this movie? My villain is the same as my

(01:18:58):
Christmas hand, which is the bad boardroom guy.

Speaker 1 (01:19:02):
So I think the villain of the movie is.

Speaker 2 (01:19:07):
Online sales. I think it is.

Speaker 1 (01:19:14):
Who's the villain? I don't know. I think it's William,
who has no idea how business works.

Speaker 2 (01:19:27):
Yeah, they talk about him.

Speaker 1 (01:19:28):
This is like I think it might be the town
because they keep putting William in the most awkward show.

Speaker 2 (01:19:38):
It's the town. The town, as embodied by the mayor,
even was willing to kick an old couple out of
their Christmas for Christmas, right, the town is the Robert
A Baron. But I also like to give it to

(01:19:59):
mister bad board because in the spirit of Robert A Baron,
he was making a lot of sense. Yes, he was
the bad guy.

Speaker 1 (01:20:06):
Yeah, I mean if we're talking about the villain who
wasn't actually the villains, absolutely the boardroom guy. If it's
like the voice of Reason, then yes.

Speaker 2 (01:20:17):
Okay, Well would you recommend this movie?

Speaker 1 (01:20:20):
No?

Speaker 2 (01:20:21):
I wouldn't either. It wasn't fun. It was it didn't
have the fun tropes. It was a slog to get through.
We watched it on the same app. I borrow Amelia's
login information for one of the apps that we use,
and I noticed she had stopped halfway through the movie,
and so I just made sure to note the time

(01:20:42):
so I could tell her where to start again in
case it didn't sync up on her TV. And when
I got to that point, Amelia just totally randomly, out
of the blue, I paused to see how much time
there was left because I wasn't enjoying it, and it
was one O two it was right you it's stop.
This is clearly the part of the movie where you're like, gosh, this.

Speaker 1 (01:21:05):
Is I don't think I'd like stopped to like make dinner,
and I was like, I need a break.

Speaker 2 (01:21:10):
Yeah. And that's the thing. Sometimes you watch some of
these movies and the time flies by it and it's over,
like wow, that was really quick. But this was just
nothing was going on, and it felt like nothing was
going on. So there's it's not even worth the party watch,
you know, putting it on in front of friends and
making fun of it. It just there's not enough there. No,

(01:21:32):
this one was a fail for me. Yep, Well, well
let us know what you think. And also, uh yeah,
tell us if you would recommend this movie, and if
you want to give us your nominees for the Christmas
ham the Tree Topper or the Robert A. Baron Award.

(01:21:53):
Amelia tell everybody how they can get a whold of us.

Speaker 1 (01:21:56):
Yes, you can find us at a Very Merry podcast
at Gmail. That's also our handle on Instagram and Facebook,
and it's a very very pod on Twitter.

Speaker 2 (01:22:07):
And Amelia We've got We're after this. We're moving into
the original Christmas schedule. Am I right?

Speaker 1 (01:22:16):
We are, but I don't think we've even decided what
comes next. So that's the surprise.

Speaker 2 (01:22:20):
So that's a surprise we'll do. We'll do an episode
for you though, I'm going to imagine the next episode. Yeah,
that will be here for you. Will be us discussing
the upcoming schedule so that you can watch the movies
also and you watch the My Head of Time so
you can enjoy the podcast as well when they come out.
But it's always fun doing this. Well, Amelia, we've got

(01:22:43):
to get going. I've got toys, toy factories to save,
and tabloid reporters to foil. So until we meet again,
I wish you days filled with hand painted vintage toy
wooden trucks.

Speaker 1 (01:23:01):
I wish you the joy of discovering a brand new
historic event from nineteen ninety five.

Speaker 2 (01:23:12):
So I guess would have been my college graduation. That's
very sweet. Really, Merry Christmas.

Speaker 1 (01:23:19):
Merry Christmas.

Speaker 2 (01:23:30):
This has been a presentation of the FCB podcast Network,
where Real Talk lives.

Speaker 1 (01:23:38):
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