One cannot really argue that the Hallmark Channel has a formula for its TV movies. There is a joke that there are about five stories that are just retold over and over again with different characters. The Christmas Charade, really thinks outside the box and turns that formula on its head, giving us one of their more insanely enjoyable movies that feels fresh and different. In a Hallmark film, townspeople care for one another, run viable small businesses, and compete in gingerbread bake-offs-America as we might wish it were, and as some believe it once was. It also depicts an America, without guns and rage. Bill Abbott, the C.E.O. of Crown Media, Hallmark’s entertainment company, said that it’s “your place to go to get away from politics, to get away from everything in your life that is problematic and negative, and to feel like there are people out there who are good human beings that could make you feel happy to be part of the human race.” Hallmark Channel fare has always struck a delicate balance between realism and something more idealized. A paradox of the channel is that the artificiality of its content, which offers predictable pleasures-the “almost kiss,” interrupted by a ringing phone or a bleating goat; the ubiquitous baking contests-is often delivered alongside surprisingly realistic performances. Unlike modern rom-coms, Hallmark plots-which almost always feature romance, even alongside the murder investigations-are driven not by arch concepts, high jinks, or panic about being single but by what is described as “a voyage of self-discovery.” Characters fall in love because they see goodness in the other person, often because of “a kind act that causes the other character to take a look at themselves. Like what human beings go through. When something touches you, you can effect change.” Special Agent Josh (Corey Sevier) is shown to be bad at his job, for there is no "I" in Team, and only by working alongside someone can one accomplish the mission. Josh represents the Scrooge during this festive season, and along comes Whitney (Rachel Skarsten) to bring in some much needed Christmas cheer. If Whitney's parents turned out to be the baddies then that wouldn't really fit the Hallmark brand (it ain't Lifetime), and neither is having it be a Police Squad/Naked Gun absurdist comedy.
One cannot really argue that the Hallmark Channel has a formula for its TV movies. There is a joke that there are about five stories that are just retold over and over again with different characters. The Christmas Charade, really thinks outside the box and turns that formula on its head, giving us one of their more insanely enjoyable movies that feels fresh and different.
In a Hallmark film, townspeople care for one another, run viable small businesses, and compete in gingerbread bake-offs-America as we might wish it were, and as some believe it once was. It also depicts an America, without guns and rage. Bill Abbott, the C.E.O. of Crown Media, Hallmark’s entertainment company, said that it’s “your place to go to get away from politics, to get away from everything in your life that is problematic and negative, and to feel like there are people out there who are good human beings that could make you feel happy to be part of the human race.”
Hallmark Channel fare has always struck a delicate balance between realism and something more idealized. A paradox of the channel is that the artificiality of its content, which offers predictable pleasures-the “almost kiss,” interrupted by a ringing phone or a bleating goat; the ubiquitous baking contests-is often delivered alongside surprisingly realistic performances. Unlike modern rom-coms, Hallmark plots-which almost always feature romance, even alongside the murder investigations-are driven not by arch concepts, high jinks, or panic about being single but by what is described as “a voyage of self-discovery.”
Characters fall in love because they see goodness in the other person, often because of “a kind act that causes the other character to take a look at themselves. Like what human beings go through. When something touches you, you can effect change.”
Special Agent Josh (Corey Sevier) is shown to be bad at his job, for there is no "I" in Team, and only by working alongside someone can one accomplish the mission. Josh represents the Scrooge during this festive season, and along comes Whitney (Rachel Skarsten) to bring in some much needed Christmas cheer. If Whitney's parents turned out to be the baddies then that wouldn't really fit the Hallmark brand (it ain't Lifetime), and neither is having it be a Police Squad/Naked Gun absurdist comedy.