Must Love Christmas | 2022 Christmas Movies

While I was waiting for this weekend’s group of movies to air, I popped back over to CBS to watch Must Love Christmas. I think this is the first year I have ever watched a network television Christmas movie. They are very similar to the Hallmark stuff.

Natalie (Liza Lapira) is a Christmas romance novelist. She is also a recluse currently suffering from writer’s block. In order to help her finish her newest book, her editor, Gloria (Lossen Chambers), teams up with her publicist, Ryan (Adam Beauchesne), to force her into a book reading at the bookstore that first sold her books. Unfortunately, Natalie and Ryan get caught in a snowstorm that strands them in Cranberry Falls, where Natalie ends up in a love triangle between her high school crush, Caleb (Nathan Witte), and a journalist writing an article about her, Nick (Neal Bledsoe).

This was a decent enough movie. It seemed like they tried to throw a little bit everything into the plot, which makes it a little chaotic. As a result, I found myself going between paying attention to the movie and playing games on my phone. The acting and the writing and everything was fine. There was just a lot going on.

So, I don’t know how to rank this movie. It was perfectly fine but a little overwhelming to me. I guess give it a watch, just make sure you keep your phone nearby in case you find yourself overwhelmed as well.

Fit For Christmas | 2022 Christmas Movies

When I was making my list of Christmas movies this year, I pretty much listed every movie on every channel that I could find. Do I have all of these channels? No. That means there are a lot of Christmas movies I will not be watching this year. But I was able to watch CBS’s Fit For Christmas.

Audrey (Amanda Kloots) is a dance fitness instruction living in New York City. When her business fails, she comes home to Mistletoe, Montana for the holidays. But when she gets there, she finds that the town council is about to vote on closing the community center and selling it to business man Griffin (Paul Greene), who wants to turn it into a ski resort.

There are definitely some cute moments in Fit For Christmas. Any time Griffin is in Audrey’s dance fitness class? Total win. Especially when Audrey’s boyfriend, Bradley (Stephan Miers), shows up. I was laughing when they were trying to outdance each other.

Adding to the fun, a lot of the side characters were actually fleshed out people and not just cardboard cutouts of random townspeople. It made the movie a lot easier to watch. Especially since a lot of the movie revolved around Griffin trying to convince the people on the town council to vote for the ski resort instead of keeping the community center.

I know a lot of people have cut the cord on cable. If you have access to CBS, you should definitely give this one a watch. (As a note, I don’t have CBS but somehow I was able to watch it for free on my laptop. I don’t know if that is a bug or a feature.) When you are finished watching, go sign up for a dance fitness class. They are a lot of fun!

TV review: Secret Talents of the Stars

I haven't watched a reality TV show in awhile. When I saw the previews for Secret Talents of the Stars, I just knew I had to watch it. The basic premise is that some famous people have some talents that we don't know about. Last night at 10PM was the premiere episode. The first episode featured ice skater Sasha Cohen, country singer Clint Black, actor George Takei and singer Mya. Before I talk about their talents, I really want to question what gets counted as a "talent." It seems that it's just something you can do that you aren't known for. I'm not sure that some of these things count as actual talents but let's continue.

Sasha Cohen starts off the show. Her talent is a contortionist routine. She's very bendy so she gets paired up with professional Chinese contortionists and they do a routine. It's nice but rather boring. Next up is George Takei. He's going to sing some country music. Sadly, he massacres "On The Road Again." Poor George. I wanted him to do good. Clint Black is next with a comedy routine. Every performer gets a mentor to work with. Clint was paired up with Garry Shandling. I was very surprised to see that Clint was actually pretty funny. Granted, he needs to work on his delivery a bit but, c'mon, this is the first time he's performed stand-up in front of a crowd. He did really well considering how difficult that can be. The night ends with Mya's tap dancing talent. She did OK but this wasn't anything particularly amazing.

It is interesting to see stars do something different. However, I'm not sure that being bendy is a talent. The same goes for singing country music badly. (Sorry George, I can't see you singing any country song well.) I think there are 6 more episodes to go and I want to see what other talents get rolled out. I also want to see what will happen in the next round. Will Sasha do the same routine or will she work on getting better? Let's see how long this show can keep my interest.

Mandy Patinkin leaves Criminal Minds

I know this news is a couple days old but it's something I really wanted to talk about. One of the shows I really enjoy watching is Criminal Minds on CBS. Mandy Pantinkin asked to be released from his contract and has left the show. He cited 'creative differences' but one of the head honchos at CBS said that is nothing but a euphemism for personal issues. Add this to a PBS panel he backed out of on July 11 due to illness. Does this mean that my dear Mandy is sick? Not just *cough cough* sick but sick enough to back out on a starring role on a popular series? A lot of people are comparing this to when he left Chicago Hope. Except he left Chicago Hope to spend more time with his family. Since Mandy hasn't come out and said exactly why he's leaving Criminal Minds, no one beyond the network people know if this is another family issue or what is going on.

I started watching Criminal Minds because it had Mandy Pantinkin in it. Yes, I came to love the other characters, especially computer geek Garcia, but I always felt that Mandy's character was the driving force behind the team. Unless the writers can come up with a character who can be as much of a mentor to the younger agents as Gideon was, I don't see this being a good thing for the show. Last season the team was going through a lot of difficult, emotional times and it was Gideon that was the light of hope that helped them figure out how to handle their situations. I really hope that the writers don't ruin this by tossing in a younger agent. The show needs the older, wiser mentor character in order to survive. Hire an older actor. Make him an ex-agent that the team needs as a consultant. The new agent doesn't have to go into the field. After all, look how much the team needs Garcia and she almost never leaves her office. Just give the already young team the guidance they need to stay a good team.