All Is Merry & Bright

[00:00:03] This is a Bramble Jam Podcast Hi, I'm Bran and I love Christmas movies I'm Dan, I love Doug Jones but I despise Christmas movies I'm Alonzo and ma'am you Jesus tag your own house and this is the Deck The Hallmark Deck The Hallmark, it's his podcast, friends host his podcast

[00:00:42] Hello everybody, happy July to you, July 3rd Christmas in July is here, Alonzo Heck yeah I know that you're excited, full bore Full bore, what a time of year, you know what I mean? Yes So festive, a thousand degrees like the face of the sun outside Dan, do you in your heart, like you don't, do you really not understand the appeal?

[00:01:11] Can I tell you this? You know, for this show I have to be a bit of a grump and a grinch Sure I really do love Christmas, I really do detest Christmas in July I think I told you I went to an RA camp Yeah you did On Christmas in July week You're all ambassadors And no one, it was a church camp but it was like church version of Boy Scouts And none of the counselors at the camp could explain to me what it was or why we were doing it Like they're like it's Christmas in July week

[00:01:40] And I'm like okay, I'm a third grader, fourth grader They're like put a sock up on your bunk and you'll get some candy And I was like why? Like what, what are, why? Like it's hot, it's hot Okay I think, I don't know if there's any turning this boat around Nah One of the many holiday podcasts that I enjoy listening to throughout the year is Australia's Christmas Potting Yeah, okay And they, you know, but potting, you know

[00:02:10] And here's the thing, in Australia, it's winter Uh huh And so they are used to like, they surf on Christmas They are, you know, December is like sunny times The Christmas swim Yeah, we're on an island so let's hit the ocean But if you want to do, you know, they're a former British colony They, they, they long for a Christmas with jumpers, you know Yes And a ham out of the oven

[00:02:37] They've seen the movies, they've seen the classics Exactly They, they, you know, they, they, they put up their paper snowflakes in December for no apparent reason But in July, they get to actually have Christmas in the winter So I vicariously enjoy how Australians enjoy Christmas in July And frankly, because I'm just Christmas all year round Anyway, I'll take whatever I can do I was waiting for the connection between Australians doing it because of the climate to us here Yes Well, we're, we're, if I was Alonzo and I are empaths

[00:03:07] If I was, yeah, got it, got it If I was in Australia and it was cold and you had never experienced a cold Christmas I mean, I guess I could see it once, but I would just be so used to Christmas being a warm holiday Wouldn't be a big deal But I'm dreaming of a White beach Christmas Well, Dan, if you really want to go for it A white claw maybe

[00:03:34] Next Thursday, next Thursday, Dan, at the Greer City Park They're going to be doing a screening of Elf You can go out I hope it's indoors No, it's at the Greer City Park Everybody's going to die of heat stroke Man, a star July is first and foremost Bramble Fest month Of course And second Independence Day Yes You know what? Maybe you should set up the frozen hot chocolate concession You'll, you'll make a killing There you go

[00:04:03] Alonzo, are you doing anything big tomorrow for the semi-quintentennial? For the semi-quintentennial? I am not It is also, a friend of mine is celebrating, is having a combo birthday, July 4th party because his apartment building has a roof that allows you to witness If you get on the roof of a building in Los Angeles and you play your cards right, you'll see like five different fireworks shows Right, right

[00:04:28] You can see the Disneyland one, you can see the Dodger Stadium one, you can see the City Walk one, like there's, they go nuts with that here So, that's, that's the plan to sort of just kind of peep those out That's, that's pretty good I love it You get to see the fireworks without all the hoopla That's right Yeah Yeah, that's nice Yeah We are, it's already happened Yeah, ours happened July 2nd As good as American said That's some planning Yeah That's right City of Greenville out thinking the room, baby We'll get our essential workers gonna get the day off now

[00:04:58] Thank God I hope an M80 doesn't blow up in your face Cause they're all getting the day off Dude, honestly, that's the, the best day to, uh, just steal Rob a bank Can I ask you this? Well, the banks I think are really closed, but, and steal in general In this in the house Like, there's no defense for what they're doing But in their defense, the, the idea is, because the 4th of July is on a Saturday Right We, Friday is the holiday Friday is the day everyone gets off

[00:05:26] We want to give everyone the holiday from having to plan something July 2nd I would contend that being a member of the city of Greenville Or any big city that puts on a fireworks display That's just comes with the territory It just is something that you do on the day that you do it It's just like being in retail on Black Friday, right? Sure But if you want to do that, give a Monday off If you really want them to have a day off Why not give them July 6th? Why not just say, you know what? We're not doing here in Greenville

[00:05:55] City workers get July 6th off Why not do it? I don't get it That's Daniel Thompson for mayor After Knox retires We paid for these fireworks Yeah These are ours That's right Let us vote on Let the workers have a day off on July 6th Now, y'all are both doggy dads How do they handle fireworks? Oh, this is Hell Week We've extended it It used to be a night or two But now it's July 2nd through the weekend I mean, people don't stop

[00:06:24] You have one dog that's especially bad I have one dog that's real bad Another one whose hearing isn't as good And used to be bad And one that is fine Yeah But I have one dog that is a mess An absolute mess Well, I hope the drone show takes off Because that's a thing I've seen a couple times now Like at Dodger Stadium Where you get all these drones with like LED lights on them And you can make all kinds of shapes and words I would love that It's not gonna It's not gonna Does it blow up?

[00:06:54] Alonzo wants the drones to take over You heard it here first Yeah, of course Like I like And the other thing is is that I don't know if this is still true But growing up in South Carolina You could anybody could buy fireworks That wasn't the case in North Carolina And I don't think Georgia So everyone would cross into South Carolina Right It is such a big point of pride in our state To have your own Like everyone feels a pride In getting to blow up their own rocket It is the craziest thing And so And they don't do it just on July It'll last all weekend

[00:07:23] I mean It just is a thing that we do It's a part of being South Carolinian The drones are too expensive The drones like that's too easy and too safe Yeah And you don't get that smell of No No, no I still remember the 4th of July Growing up when we went to Lake Eola In Orlando for the big fireworks show Sat there all day in the beating hot sun of Florida Only to find out they're not doing fireworks this year They're doing a laser show Oh Laser show

[00:07:53] Well My papa was not pleased I'm the only one of us old enough to remember the bicentennial So I feel like I gave it the office Because that was a humdinger Let me tell you This is just semi This is semi Semi Bicentennial Semi Semi That's right All right, let's talk about All Is Merry and Bright Shall We Had a little theatrical run And then landed on the prime

[00:08:23] But you could have seen it originally on the big screen November 7th, 2025 Starring Our friend Doug Jones By starring I mean he is in it a little bit He's there for a day That's exactly right Scene stealing And it went a little something like this The movie kicks off with Jess She is a teenager with a dream, Dan A dream of dance And she gets a phone call that she made it into this like exclusive dance program thing

[00:08:52] Her sister's pumped for her But the excitement doesn't last long because they get in a gnarly car accident I gotta be honest I didn't see it coming That was so shocking And Jess will never dance again Cut to 25 years later I know that was a bit of a downer guys I'm sorry, I apologize This is the movie Jess is married with a family And still has to use a cane to get around Rheumatoid arthritis Yes Well, yes She's now having

[00:09:22] Looming Yeah, looming And it's Thanksgiving Jess makes it quite the spread And breaks down the plan for the holiday season Including the 10th annual Family Talent Show The kids are less than excited But they'll put on a show Don't you worry She gets a call from her sister We find out Yes, what Dan just said about the rheumatoid arthritis is true She's not great But she's not gonna tell She doesn't want to tell her husband and kids

[00:09:50] She just wants to have the perfect Christmas together And so She Gets good news She's a baker And the governor wants her to make cookies for the big Christmas ball So she's like This is amazing Especially after the bad news that she gets Which is that her husband lost a big client So that's unfortunate In the midst of the busyness of the season Jess Is excited To just have one day to herself But that doesn't happen

[00:10:18] Because her parents show up earlier than she expected And then her sister says that she's coming in early to help with everything What a mess To have a loving family Her sister does not make things better Because she brings her dog And the dog ends up eating all of the cookies that she made for the governor's Oh my god I know It all comes to an edge She gets into a big argument with her sister

[00:10:46] When she finds out that her sister told her husband about the arthritis situation It is a mess Nothing a little Christmas church can't fix Amen? Amen Thank you But turns out she's going to have to leave that church service early Because she was supposed to deliver the cookies before 5 She thought she had time So she leaves Rushes to drop the cookies off But then after handing them off Realizes that she didn't bring her cookies

[00:11:14] She brought the super salty cookies that her kids made to surprise her And so she tries to rush in to stop them from eating the cookies She's too late And she slips on ice and ends up in the hospital So she's in the hospital Christmas Eve Feeling bad for herself And then she has a dream Where she begins to realize just how good she has it Because of her family

[00:11:42] And so when she wakes up the next day It's Christmas morning And her entire family is showing up to spend Christmas with her in the hospital With everybody else They invite everybody in the hospital to join them to watch the talent show And they end up having a wonderful Christmas together as a family And that my friends was All Is Merry and Bright We did it We did do it We're going to take a break We're going to come back We're going to break this movie down a bit

[00:12:12] Here on Deck the Hallmark Welcome back everybody It's time to talk about All is Merry and Bright Today from 2025 Let's start with the hot takes We were sure exactly how we felt about this movie We're not going to hold back And I'll start with you Alonzo Alonzo Was it Merry? Was it Bright? It was ampersand

[00:12:42] Okay I'm going to start off on a positive note Here we go For a good chunk of this movie I was thinking Wow, this is actually better Than the much bigger budgeted And much more star-packed Oh, what fun Sure I can see the comparison there To the Well, that was a prime movie as well, right? I can see the comp I never thought it was better though Well, you know Here's the thing I at least thought that it gave us more insight into

[00:13:09] Why does a mom bend over backwards To make the holidays perfect for her ungrateful family What is driving that? You know, like I thought all of that stuff in terms of This woman Who feels like, you know She has to make up for things Who feels like she has to Carry on as though she weren't dealing with physical affliction And who maybe fears I'm running myself into a wheelchair So I gotta come up with one last great Christmas from my family

[00:13:38] Before it all falls apart All of those are interesting ideas And I think Give that character a depth That maybe the Michelle Pfeiffer character In Oh, what fun doesn't necessarily always have On the other hand Aeschylus and Euripides invented the concept of deus ex machina And this movie is like, hold my eggnog Hey Dan Again Could you just really quick Tell me what he just said Like just for us dummies at home

[00:14:08] Deus ex machina Literally means God from the machine And it's the idea that when you end You would There were ancient Greek plays That literally ended with like God coming down And fixing things for people Oh yeah That's the ending And nowadays we refer to it For any ending that just seems Sort of abrupt Or like this unexpected thing happens Or whatever But this is literally about God Coming in and fixing everything Yeah, here we go Again, I know I'm a miserable atheist

[00:14:37] And you know, whatever I think there are movies That can deal with issues Of faith and spirituality In ways that are germane to human beings That are provocative That are compelling That even if I don't agree With what it says about Religion and spirituality I can at least respect it On a dramatic level And then there's this Yep And I've seen this before In faith-based movies Where there's an actual Faith healing At the end of the movie And I'm sorry

[00:15:07] That's just a cheat It doesn't play And it Unless you are so immersed In this world That you think, oh well yeah sure That'll happen It just really comes off As a we didn't know how to end this thing Yeah And it Go ahead, go ahead No, no, no, no, please I was just gonna say I can't believe as big of a Euripides fan As you are That you did not You didn't catch on to any of that No, I, you know I didn't know Once you explained it Yeah, I got it I tracked Yeah, sorry I'm not trying to I'm a riptide

[00:15:37] Not trying to be all pointy headed over here So yeah, there's, you know Doug Jones always a delight All of his scenes are very funny I thought there were some Some cool ideas along the way I was willing to even overlook the I mean, look We're not talking about people with live, laugh, love On a plank of wood in the kitchen We're talking about people with Bible verses Painted on the wall Yeah So yeah, I think this movie brings a lot to the table But then it throws the table over

[00:16:07] Yeah, so I didn't know anything about this movie Aside from that Dougie is an ins So I didn't know that it was a faith-based movie I didn't know, you know You go into a movie called All Is Merry and Bright You don't expect a child to get in a brutal car crash To kick off the movie So that threw me for a loop Yeah, you know, there are elements It is also long It's very long Just know that before you head into it And a couple of conversations that are repeat conversations

[00:16:36] That could have been cut for time But there are elements of it that I did enjoy And that's interesting I had kind of forgotten about Oh What Fun in general But there are a lot of similarities with what's going on here With the family and the family Not realizing the pressure that they're putting on this mom Around the holiday season And I thought that this movie handled it okay And I will say there are a couple of funny bits

[00:17:04] Of course Dougie was very funny in this movie But another bit that I'll talk about In my feels that I thought was funny Yeah, does it handle everything great In the way that I would have preferred it to? No, not necessarily But I didn't absolutely hate this movie When all was said and done So, you know, there you go I absolutely hated this movie when all was said and done This could be called Montage the Movie

[00:17:30] I think there are 18 minutes of montage in this movie And I don't know That's right I don't know if they felt as though they needed to justify a theatrical release But sometimes Hallmark needs more time in their movies You would agree Sure Sometimes Hallmark knows what they're doing And 84 minutes is about right to tell this kind of story Especially when, to Alonzo's point When you load the front half of this movie With legitimate issues

[00:18:01] And then the second half of the movie You undercut them Where people really don't learn I don't think what they should learn In the movie Instead it's like The lead learned She was given a tough plight in life Without anything she could do And, you know, God took care of her and healed her And instead of all the family learning That they really weren't appreciating her And learning that maybe isn't what Christmas is all about

[00:18:31] By allowing it to be the last 20 minutes that we get It relegates the previous hour plus To like, women be shopping Do you know what I mean? Like, it makes the stuff that came before it Just like, these are what the ladies are going to do in the holidays These are what the guys are going to do And this is how it's going to blah, blah, blah And it just kind of sucks Now, Doug, my feels is Doug Jones Like, it is I think he I think nicely done

[00:19:01] I think He's asked to do something that doesn't fit in this movie at all And he's really funny He like He could have turned in a really bad He's just really funny in this movie And is really quick And, you know, his opening presence And doing everything Like, it's really His bed is really funny And if it wasn't for Marco talking to him on his way out the door one time You could argue that he's a ghost You could argue that he's a ghost and not real His name is Doug in the movie

[00:19:31] But yeah, aside from Doug Which I loved seeing Doug Jones in one of these movies I want to see him in more of these movies Yes Yeah We know he wants to be Hard pass, hard pass for me, sorry, sorry not sorry Alonzo Fields I have to say the Santa snitch was a pretty good running gag The, the, the, I mean, you know, Elf on the Shelf is horrible Yeah And they make an even more horrible version of Elf on the Shelf And the way that the characters respond to it The way that it keeps popping up at unexpected moments Made me laugh

[00:20:00] And I was like, okay, this is, this is a bit that's working Two really quickly I just want to shout out Sally Struthers Who's in this movie, Bad Bats, Gilmore Girls Love her very much And she's funny in this movie But also She's with John Hurley Yes Like these are not like nobody They know what they're doing Yeah, they're, they're, I really like those two together But, um, also I did get a kick out of the bit Where the girl comes in to pray for her healing

[00:20:31] And, uh, she just I thought she was a ghost I thought for sure she was an angel So don't you say ghost? Put some respect on the board of God All right, all right Don't want to get all occult here Yeah, that's right, yeah, yeah, yeah Listen, uh, if you, if you, if you, if you grow up in the church You hear a lot of prayers And some of them, a lot of them, most of them Are trash So long, they're so long And this girl like gives her a pep talk And then goes, can I pray for you? Yeah.

[00:21:00] And then just says, God please heal her That's it And like her face being like, wait, that's it? Yeah Was funny because, uh, I've been a part of some of those prayers And they're never that short Never It's always like, we're all just trying to say that But for some reason we feel this need to just Show off our speaking skills and wax poetic And, uh, that to me made me chuckle In a hospital on the, on the receiving end of those prayers And I'm, I wish they would end then Yeah

[00:21:30] Yeah, so I did get a little chuckle out of that Yeah, she knows this December the Lord has a full plate That's right Absolutely, get one in, just toss one in really quick I, I would have bet the house that, that, that woman was an angel Like, I, like, that scene was so weird that I was like This is not a, this isn't a real person This is a person that is Yeah, well like, well why are those two people even close to each other A good white what, probably a good white what Let's get to a break Let's get to a break and then we'll come back We'll do the white what

[00:21:59] On the other side of here on Deck the Hallmark Hi everybody, we're back It's time for the white what So we're talking about what in this movie We're going to just go white what I'll start with you, Alonzo I'll give the movie this They announced their intent to have no subtlety whatsoever Very early on Because when the teen girl is dancing in her room

[00:22:27] Lest we were not clear on the fact that You know, this is important to her She has a giant poster on the wall that says Dance club Which is right up there with that guy who had the poster that said French new wave or whatever French new wave, yeah You know, and she, she is rocking out to Legally cleared not queen Right But you know, before she happens I don't know about you

[00:22:55] In a movie where I know there's about to be a car accident I just, that is the thing I cannot deal with It's the worst Especially if the camera is inside the car I'm just like, oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no Going out through the driver's side window is the absolute worst In the passenger seat going out through the driver's side window I hate that angle I hate it so much because I just, it's just I don't know what it is that, that is the, that is such a nails on chalkboard thing That just freaks me out Um, okay

[00:23:20] Okay, yeah, every single one of these characters needs to be sent to a re-education camp Because they're all so completely oblivious to each other And the things that are going on Mainly the kids and the husband to the mom But like, she's obviously also a piece of work As is everyone she's related to And everyone else who exists in this movie Um, y'all You never try things on at thrift stores because bed bugs

[00:23:47] Yeah, yeah, who tries something on at a thrift store? I have You just, you hold it up I never thought about that If it's single digit You take it home and you wash it in hot water Yeah, single digit dollars use You don't, you don't try that on in the store I mean when I was in high school I did But I did get bed mites in Guatemala one time And then after that I didn't and never did it again Yeah Does it surprise you that I do that? Alonzo, try things on at thrift stores? Uh, scans

[00:24:16] You go straight to the, you get off the airplane And you go straight to the thrift store That's right, I don't Try on the clothes And then you go to dinner that night That's exactly right You get it? You hug everybody Don't waste time I don't know if this was an intentional product place or not But I did yell out, King's Hawaiian at one point Shout out Because they were like stacked up on the table there Hey, we're big fans here We love, we have nothing but good things to say Of course, especially if you can buy them at home goods somehow

[00:24:46] You get it Hey, dads, maybe take the kids out for ice cream While the sisters are having the decades delayed argument in the kitchen At full volume Rather than everybody gathering on the stairs What is he doing? This is one of the worst dads in the history of dads Guys, crowd around, this is good We've been waiting for this one Like, I love how like, this is the dad who watches his Like his wife slowly descend into losing the ability to walk

[00:25:15] And he'll bring one cup of tea one time And he's like, I got you I'm good Dude, what are you doing? That's terrible So I, I, it was just, I, I And it wasn't until they finally start mentioning family members by name Like, okay, let's, let's, let's go We should, you know Like, yeah, no, this was, this was bad I wrote down show don't tell is for wimps Um, cause they tell, tell, tell, tell, tell Everything in this movie And then yeah, finally, sorry, cancer girl

[00:25:45] I gotta heal cookie mom instead Yeah, tough break Tough break I just like, it's so interesting Like this baking mom I understand that she like, I There's like a weird storyline That they kind of just drop at some point About her wanting to like eat healthy or something And so Well, she keeps saying she's eating healthier But then she's got the hidden little Debbie Right, right Yeah, yeah

[00:26:10] She makes all of these pies and whatnot for the Thanksgiving And then one healthy one that's just called festive fall pie I got, if we don't talk for five minutes about fall festival pie I don't know what the show is Festival fall pie It's called festival fall pie We have to camp for a little bit Just, first of all You hear, I hear it and I'm like, I'm intrigued But it could So apple then, right?

[00:26:39] She made it right after she said she made pumpkin pie And pumpkin cheesecake There's a lot of pumpkin there What in the blue blazes is in the festival fall pie Yeah, is there no pumpkin? There's no pumpkin in the festival fall pie? And then she says it's healthy If you're gonna pitch me a healthy pie First of all, don't And second of all Don't do it after you pitch me pumpkin cheesecake Yeah Don't be like, we've got pumpkin cheesecake And also I've got this health pie It's festive fall pie

[00:27:08] I've got a pizza And then I've also got cauliflower What are you doing? What are you doing? It needs to be the... It's like a quinoa crust What are you doing? Stop it! No! Danny also did mention pizza And she gets mad at her sister for bringing a pizza And I just want it on the record Yeah I promise you

[00:27:36] I'll never get mad if you bring me a pizza Have you seen Pete Holmes' surprise pizza bit? No! He was like, you ever done it? Like I'm not gonna redo the bit But he talks about how occasionally When he and his wife are just hanging out or whatever And it's like 10 at night He'll just order a pizza and not tell her And someone knocks on the door And it's a surprise pizza And he's like, I'm about to change your life forever If you do this with friends and family and loved ones You're the hero And you're 100% right Who doesn't want pizza?

[00:28:05] I can't imagine sitting around in the door knocking And me being like, who did it? Who ordered the pizza? This is part of the re-education camp The communication skills here Like if you have busted your hump to make a special meal That your sister brother's coming Then you tell the sister and the brother-in-law Hey, I've made this meal Whenever y'all get here we're gonna have it So that they don't stop for pizza thinking they're doing you a favor That's right There's so much in this movie where it's like, okay, I get it Look, I live with a planner

[00:28:35] You know I understand that, you know, you like You do things when you are asked You keep clear of the kitchen You stay out of the way as much as possible Because they have a plan And so this lady who is so hyper-focused and hyper-organized Like everybody around her should know her well enough by now To be like, can I help? No, I can't All right, then I'm gonna get far away from you

[00:29:02] To give you all the space you need to make everything just so And no one got that memo They do a bit here I don't know if you found this bit to be remotely funny But when they split up for movie night and both groups are crying Even like Yes One's watching rom-coms, one's watching action But they're crying over the same beats that happen Women be shopping, if you will Dig in a little chuckle But women be shopping And also women be singing They watch their rom-com

[00:29:31] They cry over what happened And the next thing you know They are all singing Hark the Herald acapella together And I don't know what happened I don't know how they got there But that's, you know We should do that Next time we watch a movie We should just start singing Hark the Herald Guys, there is so much empty space in the cookie boxes She puts like four cookies in a box And is like, that's all I could possibly do

[00:30:01] It's crazy Hannah Swenson would never It's crazy how much wasted space there is in these boxes Maybe they'd be, I don't know Easier to like put somewhere out of reach of dog If you didn't have a thousand boxes Each with three cookies in them And then last but not least At the church They have to leave She has to go deliver the things Her son Nick is going to drive her And Nick is driving like a maniac And Nick, buddy

[00:30:29] I don't know if I need to remind you About the last time Your mom was being driven around crazy like that Yeah It didn't go well I had PTSD from the opening credits I know I thought for sure something was going to happen Like I've just Fool me once I can't, I can't handle this So Nick, just like I know that you're trying to help your mom out But also mom's clearly uncomfortable And maybe you can understand why she might be uncomfortable With you swerving throughout traffic

[00:30:59] I don't know Dano? Is there any way we could have somehow made it Without the Four minute montage Of introducing family members Through different renditions of We gather together That happens at the beginning of this movie It's four minutes Long It's another bit that I actually don't hate the idea Of each kid having their own like motif Of the same song But boy it went on forever It is just like

[00:31:29] What are we Like that is a 45 second deal And they make it four minutes in this movie And I was starting to wonder if it was me Like I was like, am I high? Like why in the world Are we clear this is Thanksgiving Because it's Thanksgiving Show not tell Also it's Thanksgiving Tell, tell, tell, tell, tell Plop, plop, plop, plop, plop, plop, plop, plop, plop A lot of this movie Early on I wrote down This is like the behind the scenes Of a Hallmark movie

[00:31:57] So like Hallmark knows when to end the montage And this movie is like We're just getting cranked up Which was interesting Is that an opened nutty bar she's eating? It was, yeah Like I'm not, look Eat whatever you want to eat The thing about Little Debbie's is Is they are packaged in a way That once you open that package You better eat that snack cake Like they're not designed To be oxidized

[00:32:26] For long periods of time Like, you know, we can talk You don't think they're shelf stable? Yeah, exactly This is not a shelf You know, I don't know if you've seen that video Of the McDonald's french fries Similar situation here Like I'm not here to Food shame I love a nutty bar But when you open The plastic on that nutty bar You had better eat the nutty bar Or wrap it in foil Or a Ziploc bag Because it is not lasting long I can't imagine Popping in for a

[00:32:57] Exposed to air For hours, days, weeks, months Nutty bar to eat it? Am I crazy there, Brad? Maybe I need to start trying this Like maybe that would help me Around the holiday season When I'm, I don't know Eating four to five Christmas trees In a setting Maybe I just need to open one Take a bite and be like Okay, I'm done I'll come back for it Knowing I can't come back for it Yeah, what is the superhuman willpower Involved in eating one nutty bar? Yeah, I think The people that eat one Pop-Tart And put the other one Back in the box Like what? I don't think she has a problem I think she could stop right now

[00:33:26] If she wanted to I think she's pretty healthy I think that's where my anger is Is that there's a reason There's two nutty bars And it's not to let one hit the air It's the, it's the first one's A warm up gang Yeah Like they're, that's what they're there for It's a Twix You don't eat one Twix bar Like you gotta, you gotta get Left and right in there You know what I mean? That's crazy town John Hurley and Babette From Gilmore Girls arrive And they say they're hungry Because, and I quote Those airline snacks taste like sawdust What? What? Like I don't like

[00:33:56] You know what you're getting With airline snacks, right? Peanuts? Pretzels? A Biscoff cookie I like a Biscoff No one's saying it's high art But also like it's pretty standardized for a reason I mean it works for a reason Then those two characters proceed to wake up their daughter Early in the morning by singing very loudly And she is awakened No one else in the house is awakened

[00:34:23] There are throngs of children in this house All sleeping through this I just need to know how that happened Like why did she wake up and no one else was bothered by this? Is it her? Why did that happen? They know grandma's coming and in goes the plug That's right, yeah And then last but not least Because this is the most important Wait what? This is why you don't medically professionally treat your family

[00:34:52] Guys, there's a thing called a HIPAA violation And to reference what that is You should watch all as Marian Bright This sister who is professionally treating her sister As a physical therapist Proceeds to share her medical diagnosis With her family members Without consent I am not short changing this to say That woman could go to jail

[00:35:23] They kind of dance around that Because the sister thought the husband was in But that's not her No, you can't do that But also she's not her active Oh, I think she is She's not She moved across the country so that she wouldn't be Yeah, she lives hundreds of miles away So that she wouldn't be her PT anymore Yes But at some point she says it, right? But she was her PT at one point Yes, and then she moved away from her sister Because she didn't want her to be a burglar anymore But she got to see the files

[00:35:51] Because apparently she's still listed as like the medical contact manager Okay, there it is Okay, so she still is a professional on record She gets to look at those files That is true That is, you can't do this I don't know, but how does it work? If you're not anymore and your family And you're telling family If you have access to those files You can't talk about her diagnosis to anyone other than the folks that have access to those files Period But her husband would have access to it Not those files, not without her wife's consent You have to sign that

[00:36:21] If you went and got sick, you could sign something saying Caitlin couldn't see anything If you wanted to Again Which, yes I'm playing devil's advocate here Which she clearly has PT's sister thinks that I know it was a happy accident I know that she didn't do it on purpose Thinks oblivious husband already knows all this Because sister with the cane Didn't dissuade her of the notion that she had shared all of this with him

[00:36:47] So I'm willing to give her the benefit of the doubt here In that she assumed she was having a conversation with the husband of the patient That was already aware of these things I don't think she did it on purpose I do think it was an accident But the whole point of being a medical professional is Remove yourself from situations of assumption like that Sure And I have a wife who is probably better at it than anyone And I think that is probably part of where this was such a glaring issue for me

[00:37:15] Like my wife will treat someone who is a kid My wife's in pediatrics A child of someone who is a dear close friend of mine And I will not hear about it until they bring it up And they're like, what do you mean she didn't tell you? And I went, she can't tell you And they were like, well she can tell you And I'm like, not Sarah Thompson No she cannot And they're like, well let me tell her that she can talk to you about And they will go and be like, Sarah you can talk And she's like, okay, you told me that's fine She won't do it until then Like very, very specific

[00:37:45] Not if it's shared in the confessional That's right Let's get to what the hallmark is Where we wonder what could have been What are we still wondering about? That's what we're talking about right now Alonzo, what questions do you have? Yeah, I just want to know like Is she healed healed? Or is it just like this moment of, you know, adrenaline From all of the stuff in the hospital She says I'm starting to feel better There's at least a hint of that That she's healed healed Which is so devastating

[00:38:15] I want to know how she's doing circa Like St. Patrick's Day Yeah, that's interesting because I got to be honest with you The way that I took the whole ending was her Like the realization that she got in the dream Was that her life is good because of family And so I'm feeling better was I'm no longer Man, that's how I took all that You have somebody pray for you And then she sits And then she holds her cane And she looks and went Actually, yeah, she stands up And there's no pain in her hand

[00:38:43] Yeah, I thought there was a clear They did want to keep it a little bit veiled Because it's the movie theaters And they don't want to scare people But they 100% intimated strongly That she was being physically healed by a prayer Sure Yeah I do I know I said like Doug can't be a ghost, right? Or whatever Or an angel Because of Marco talking to him But he also is in her dream

[00:39:11] And is aware that it's a dream I don't know I think There's something to it I think she just dreams of him I think if anybody in this movie is an angel Maybe it's the people who suddenly know The backup vocals for the daughter's song That's being performed for the very first time Yeah, that's right A lot of years there's a rash of angels going around Because mine was like

[00:39:37] How is that patient near her in the hospital And not an angel? It's a very different thing that's going on with that patient Yeah, apparently, you know Oncology just shares a wing with everybody else Right, yeah Rheumatoid arthritis, oncology, just the flu It's just all one big Look, it's like in Music City Mistletoe Where she goes to sing for the kids in the hospital And there's a grandma there That's right, I'd forgotten about that movie already

[00:40:06] What is she in the hospital for? Is it for the arthritis or the hitting of the head? I thought All of the above All of the above? We don't know We don't know We did it, everybody Congratulations to us We'll be back next week With another movie Which is Christmas Rider? The Christmas Rider Yeah Let's do the Christmas Rider

[00:40:35] Come and hang out with us I love it It'll be a fun one Until then Maybe the first to wish you a Merry Christmas Deck the Hallmark It's a Bramble Jam podcast Produced by Brandon Gray Ad-free podcasting Live video watch-longs Movie chats So much more All that BrambleJamPlus.com

[00:41:05] All that? All that and more You're about to hear some ads That help keep the lights on Here in the old studio Thanks for listening Or don't listen It's really up to you at this point It's at the end of the show I mean, you're listening to me Hi But here they come I promise they're coming Yep, here they are Happy day