‘Tis the Season for Love (2015)

Title: ‘Tis the Season for Love
Year of Release: 2015
Available On: Hallmark Channel app December 2017
Rating: 3 out of 5 Jingle Bells

Sarah Lancaster was the reigning queen of Hallmark Christmas movies for a minute there. Maybe she’s done. I can only watch old(er) movies because I refuse to pay for them, so what do I know. Were there Christmas movies on the Hallmark channel before Sarah Lancaster? I feel a bizarre kinship with her, I feel like she is tall and also we are about the same age. I don’t know. I don’t know her, but I just have a good feeling about her.

This movie is the Prodigal Child Returns Home and Finds What She was Really Looking for… And It’s Not What She Thought plot.

We need to establish that these folks are supposed to be ~25 years old, but in reality all the actors and actresses are in their 30s. As someone in their 30s, I like this about movies. But why can’t we just pretend we are the actual age we are? YOU NEED TO KNOW – there are no people of color in this movie except as, say, the person who comes to get “Bethie” and her mom’s Christmas tree. That person is a person of color. I will let you know if there are any others. Don’t hold your breath… Adjacent to that, there is no way that these hillbillies don’t know what real life in NYC is like. People know that NYC is expensive! People know that acting is a difficult job. The idea that Dean (Brendan Penny), Eileen (Jessica Harmon), and Barry (Andrew Francis) don’t know that something is going on with Beth and her supposedly beautiful life.

I have so much admiration for working actors. It’s wonderful. These folks have full IMDB profiles and I have never knowingly seen them before.

Anyway, as Beth’s life falls apart around her: she loses her agent, she doesn’t get the part, she is sleeping on a friend’s couch. Will she and Dean live happily ever after? Oops, sorry, I spoiled that.