Holidazed - S01E03 - The Lin Family (Hallmark+ - 2024) ft. Alonso Duralde

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_01] Hi, I'm Brian and I love holidays! The Christmas show from Hallmark Channel. Sorry, I got away from me.

[00:00:10] [SPEAKER_00] I'm Dan and I despise Christmas shows from Hallmark Channel.

[00:00:14] [SPEAKER_02] I'm Alonso and Andrew Juan's remake of The Wedding Banquet opens April 18th and this is the Deck The Hallmark Podcast!

[00:00:21] [SPEAKER_01] Deck The Hallmark, it's this podcast.

[00:00:27] [SPEAKER_00] And friends host this podcast.

[00:00:31] [SPEAKER_03] We hope you like this jolly podcast.

[00:00:38] [SPEAKER_00] Hi everyone, welcome! Welcome to another episode of Deck The Hallmark! Yeah! Alonso, is Andrew on the guy that did the Driveways movie that we interviewed?

[00:00:47] [SPEAKER_02] He is, we had him on a film and a movie, yes. Great movie. He did a remake of The Wedding Banquet, it just premiered at Sundance and it's going to be opening in April and it is relevant to this week's episode.

[00:00:59] [SPEAKER_00] What is, I have never heard of The Wedding Banquet.

[00:01:01] [SPEAKER_02] Oh, okay. Well, it was, it was Ang Lee's like breakthrough movie. Oh, okay. Gotcha. And it's about a guy living in New York who's, who does a, gets into a green card marriage to help a friend of his out and he's gay. But when his parents in Taiwan find out that he's getting married, they come to New York and they insist on throwing this big elaborate wedding on his behalf, not realizing that, that he is the guy that lives with them is actually his partner.

[00:01:31] [SPEAKER_00] So, yeah, very much, uh, akin to what we're talking about today. Yes. I hear you. Are you excited? Wow. Bowen Yang, Lily Gladstone. Yeah. Kelly McPurray Tran. Let's go.

[00:01:44] [SPEAKER_02] Terrific cast. And, and, uh, you know, this is Andrew's fourth feature and I think they've all been, you know, the, the first three spa night driveways, which we talked about with him and fire Island were all terrific. So can't wait. There you go.

[00:01:57] [SPEAKER_01] Love it. There you go. Uh, we are talking holidays. We're on our third episode. Excited to break that down. Alonzo. Uh, you did break some big news on a Christmas morning last week, which was very exciting.

[00:02:06] [SPEAKER_00] We knew nothing about it here. And I'm just a good thing. I listened to Christmas morning or I wouldn't know what you're talking about.

[00:02:12] [SPEAKER_01] That's exactly right. But I'll let you talk.

[00:02:13] [SPEAKER_02] Daniel never misses an episode. No.

[00:02:16] [SPEAKER_01] I actually have to send it to him early because he can't wait. So anytime we're done, I send it straight to Dan so that he can listen.

[00:02:22] [SPEAKER_00] And I have to imagine how many days it is before Christmas because you announced it.

[00:02:24] [SPEAKER_01] Yeah, I know. I know. I know. We'll do those live from the North Pole, huh? Well, we do them in a sense. Alonzo, what's your big, big news though for people that maybe missed it?

[00:02:34] [SPEAKER_02] Sure. The big news being, uh, I'm putting out a revised and updated edition of Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas, my 2010 film guide. It's been 15 years. Time to update the thing. Yeah. How about that? And that's going to be coming out this fall from Applause Books. It's going to include a lot of movies that we talked about here on Mondays. Um, so if you were kind of wondering what we were digging into in the latter half of last year with, you know, uh, violent night, the trancers and Home Alone 4 and whatnot.

[00:03:03] [SPEAKER_02] Decky Award winner while you were sleeping. That's right. Exactly. Yeah. That's, that's, that's, that was a part of my research.

[00:03:09] [SPEAKER_01] I believe that the page, the chapter four while you were sleeping is just going to say holds the world record for longest applause. The Decky Award. The Decky Award. Sure. Everyone will know what that means. They'll understand.

[00:03:19] [SPEAKER_00] And we didn't even tell you what the, who was like, as soon as you don't have the award anymore, we can't tell you what the name is.

[00:03:25] [SPEAKER_01] We don't talk about it. So, uh, so we'll see what happens next year, but for now, uh, pretty big deal for while you were sleeping. Pretty big deal for you, Alonzo. We're very excited for you.

[00:03:35] [SPEAKER_00] And, uh, and so do we get our, everything's cool stage of the cycle of Alonzo writing a book right now, which is awesome because shortly we're going to be like, you know, I got to get going on this. And then he's going to be done. Oh, he's done. Okay, great. Oh, he's already passed. Oh, wow. We're back to pump. We're full circle.

[00:03:55] [SPEAKER_02] We're back to not hating. Yeah.

[00:03:57] [SPEAKER_00] I think I've heard I'm not writing a book again three times from Alonzo. So I'm going to see, I'm excited what book you write next. We can get back, get back in the wheel again.

[00:04:04] [SPEAKER_02] Michael begins anew.

[00:04:06] [SPEAKER_01] His next, his next book is called how to never write a book. That's right. Um, Alonzo, we are very excited. Comes out this fall. Correct? Correct. Very excited about it. And, uh, maybe we'll bring you on to talk a little bit more.

[00:04:24] [SPEAKER_00] I don't think so. Maybe. We'll try to schedule it. See if we can. All right. We'll see.

[00:04:28] [SPEAKER_01] Talk to my people. I don't want to make any promises. That's right.

[00:04:30] [SPEAKER_00] Alonzo's getting pretty big. I don't know if you see his jacket, but he's getting a pretty big deal.

[00:04:35] [SPEAKER_01] Don't say anything else. File it on TV slash DTH. Yep. File it on TV slash DTH. I'm a lyrical master. I don't know what the day is. That's right. Pretty, pretty big deal today, Alonzo's. Um, and I'm excited to get our, uh, featuring. I don't know how they do it with books, but like we're bait. We basically helped author. We basically helped write the book.

[00:04:54] [SPEAKER_00] It's going to, we're going to at least get a coauthor. I'd say minimum. Minimum.

[00:04:59] [SPEAKER_02] I will happily give y'all copies. Yeah. Okay.

[00:05:05] [SPEAKER_00] Paperback or hardback? What am I getting here? A Kindle?

[00:05:07] [SPEAKER_02] I think, I think it's all paperback. Oh, there will be a Kindle. I say that's true. Yeah.

[00:05:12] [SPEAKER_01] Uh, let's talk holidays, shall we? Uh, we're, we're on, uh, episode three of season one. This week we're following the Lynn family. Uh, this episode originally premiered on November 21st, 2024. And it went a little something like this. Uh, Ted and Marcus go into a literal closet to talk about what just happened with grandma out there back in episode one. As you remember, Dan, I know that you remember. Oh, for sure. Uh, but there was this whole thing. Grandma came into town. They were all very afraid.

[00:05:41] [SPEAKER_01] And, uh, Ted hasn't told his grandma that he's gay. And when the opportunity presents itself, instead of coming out and being honest, she see, she finds out that they're planning a wedding and she assumes that it is Ella that is getting married, not Ted. So now they are in the closet and they're having this conversation. The rest of the family soon quickly joins them in the closet as well to discuss. Uh, and Marcus is like, I don't understand why you guys are all so afraid to just tell the truth. And, uh, they're like, grandma doesn't like, grandma doesn't like change.

[00:06:09] [SPEAKER_01] So there's nothing we can do about it. Marcus is not happy and he leaves. The next morning, Ted tells Marcus that he just needs a little bit more time with this and ask him to just go along with it a little bit longer. Marcus reluctantly takes off his engagement ring, ready to go along with the plan. Grandma controls everything, including when Marcus and Ella are going to get married. She has everything figured out.

[00:06:35] [SPEAKER_01] She demands that they have a photo shoot so that she can put the pictures in the newspaper so that everybody will know that they're getting married. The photo shoot does not go well at first, you know, considering the whole, they don't love each other thing, but Ted goes and gives them a pep talk and things start looking up until grandma drags him to her fortune teller. It turns out Ella and Marcus are going to be a perfect couple, which makes Ted feel worse somehow until he finds out that they tricked the fortune teller and that fortune was actually

[00:07:05] [SPEAKER_01] Marcus and Ted. So that makes him feel better. Things are beginning to look up until somebody recognizes Ella from her social media. Now, Ella on social media has gotten a bit of a following for kind of going against the grain, bucking the tradition of marriage, bucking the tradition of traditional gender norms and stuff like that. And that's what she promotes on her social media. So this person is shocked to see that Ella is planning a wedding. It seems to go against everything that she stands for on social media.

[00:07:33] [SPEAKER_01] And so they take a picture with Ella and now Ella is very concerned that this is going to get posted on social media. Grandma gives Marcus her ring to give to Ella and then tells Ted that she wants him to take over the family business. The engagement announcement goes out to the local papers. And so the family spends the day going around and getting all of the newspapers that have now gone out.

[00:07:57] [SPEAKER_01] Marcus opens up to Ted about how he's actually having fun planning this wedding because he actually feels like he gets to plan a wedding that he wants, not just all the things that Ted wants. And Ted apologizes and promises in this marriage to not railroad his opinion, saying that their marriage will be one of compromise. They're about to kiss, but grandma interrupts them and asks Marcus to come inside and explain

[00:08:23] [SPEAKER_01] the food that's on the table because Ted's mom made all of Marcus's favorite dishes so that he would feel like he's at home. Grandma actually loves all the food and she claims that she loves change. It was actually her husband that didn't like change. She loves change. She brings up the fact that all of her friends can't find the newspaper anywhere. Just then the power goes out, just like in the last episode. Ted runs outside to find lanterns and stuff or something. I don't know.

[00:08:52] [SPEAKER_01] But Marcus follows them outside and it's raining and it's romantic and they end up kissing in the rain as grandma watches from inside, clearly surprised. And that, my friends, was Holiday Season 1 Episode 3 of The Lynn Family.

[00:09:09] [SPEAKER_00] We did it.

[00:09:11] [SPEAKER_01] We did do it. Let's take a break. We're going to come back. We're going to break this episode down, share our thoughts here on Deck the Hallmark. I feel like Monday we're always really on it. And then as the week goes on, we lose that a little bit.

[00:09:31] [SPEAKER_00] You think so? You think this is when we're great here?

[00:09:35] [SPEAKER_01] I think we're great here. We just said Deck the Hallmark. It's perfect. Oh, for that. Yes. I got you. I got you. It goes out the window.

[00:09:41] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah.

[00:09:41] [SPEAKER_01] Maybe it's because Alonza's here. You're trying to impress Alonza.

[00:09:43] [SPEAKER_00] It's probably when Brian shows up, right?

[00:09:45] [SPEAKER_01] Wouldn't you think so? That would make sense. Yeah. Brian, what do you think? He said yeah. Brian agrees.

[00:09:51] [SPEAKER_00] He's weird. What are you going to do? It's a weird thing for him to agree with.

[00:09:55] [SPEAKER_01] Let's talk holidays. Episode three of the Lynn family. I had a little. I don't know. You ever get that happen and you're like, you don't know how to handle it, so you just have to power through? I know I do as a professional podcaster. Let's break this episode down. We're going to start with a hot take. We're going to share our thoughts on this one. Alonza, what do you think of the Lynn family?

[00:10:15] [SPEAKER_02] You know, I think this is a pretty strong episode. It, again, just kind of kills me that it was part of the sort of paywall purge of all the queer content this year on Hallmark. I mean, apart from some supporting characters in the main channel movies, you know, like your groomsmen, your Cherry Lane, Jonathan Bennett, you know, this all got kicked over to the streaming service. I do hope that it one day makes it to the big channel.

[00:10:44] [SPEAKER_02] But, yeah, I think that, you know, again, this does touch on a thing that happens in a lot of families where there's the older relative and people are worried about not telling her and she's not going to understand. And, you know, maybe the younger people are underestimating the older relative's tolerance for new things and for change and, you know, not giving them the credit they deserve for being more open-minded.

[00:11:11] [SPEAKER_02] So, I think as a farcical setup, they are working that pretty well on this episode. And I think the fact that the sister has this identity as somebody who on social media is very much against the idea of, like, traditional romance and, you know, I never thought I would hear patriarchy scattered in a Hallmark show. You know, they find some fun stuff to do with that.

[00:11:36] [SPEAKER_02] So, yeah, I think this is one of the stronger episodes and I hope that more people get to see it.

[00:11:42] [SPEAKER_01] Yes, I agree. It is a strong episode. It's a lot of fun. And the music. Oh, it's unbelievable. Banger after banger in this episode, which I don't know if that says more about the songs that are in this one or the songs that are typically in regular Hallmark stuff. But all the songs in this episode were really great. But, yeah, I thought that this one was a ton of fun. The final scene, steamy, steamy, and left a lot of intrigue for what's going to happen

[00:12:11] [SPEAKER_01] at the conclusion of this. And so, job well done on them. I think this one played with that better than the last one, which was just like the power goes out. They're like, what am I going to do? This one, I felt like, even more so, I'm mad that I have to wait now for a few more episodes to find out how this thing is going to conclude itself. Although, I suspect that what we'll get with Grandma being like, I actually like change. Yeah, she's going to get on.

[00:12:39] [SPEAKER_00] It's not like she's going to die. And they were like, thank God.

[00:12:42] [SPEAKER_01] She's going to be fine. Spoilers, Dan. But I get like very convenient that right before this happened, Grandma was like, I actually like change. So, that's nice. So, I imagine that we know what we're going to get here. But really well, really, job. Dan?

[00:13:02] [SPEAKER_00] It was a great job. You landed that plane like a pro. What's going on with that banner behind you? I don't know. The alien is about to come through. Don't ask, guys. Don't ask. It's a fire marshal thing, and that's not a joke. We're fire compliant. We are. Today, anyway. So, this is the best episode of this by a mile. And it's for all the reasons that Bran and Jam Master Jay mentioned. It is.

[00:13:29] [SPEAKER_00] The music is fantastic in this episode. The performances are great. And like the most shocking thing about this episode is the sister who gets words like toppling the patriarchy and, you know, challenging gender norms. Like, I was like, we were breaking glass ceilings. I didn't even know Hallmark knew we were there in this episode. And that was awesome.

[00:13:53] [SPEAKER_00] Now, it is my lack of tact and nuance that angers me whenever we do this thing. Like, I couldn't watch Everybody Loves Raymond regularly because they all just gaslight Ray's mom into thinking she's right because they don't want to have a conversation with her all the time. And it had nothing to do with somebody being in the closet. It was just, we don't want to bother Raymond's mom. And it would drive me nuts. And that's the premise of that 10-season show. Like, Happiest Season.

[00:14:22] [SPEAKER_00] When we did that on this program, I loved that movie. But I also said and admitted, like, this comes from a place of someone who never had to hide who they were a day in their life. It's so frustrating to me that they're doing this. Like, I was, like, actively angry watching this. Like, this is an old woman who is, like, single-handedly keeping people from being happy.

[00:14:49] [SPEAKER_00] And the way it's handled is just bonkers to me. But they go above and beyond to explain that it's the wishes of this character and it's the blah, blah, blah. Like, I don't disagree with it. But, like, everything in me is like, tell this person to get over it or F off. Like, that was hard for me. And then my only actual critique that wasn't about me and what I need to work on is that

[00:15:14] [SPEAKER_00] it gets to the point with this grandma where we go from sublime to ridiculous and her not knowing. Like, it gets to the point where I think she's in on it. Like, when she's doing all of these wedding planning things that she happened to book in a 36-hour span, you're just like, she has to know, right? Like, she has to know.

[00:15:35] [SPEAKER_02] Is she just daring them at this point?

[00:15:37] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah. Yeah. And then when we find out that she doesn't, it took a little away from me. But I am very much in the weeds here nitpicking. This is the best episode of this. So much to love. I thought it was really, like, witty script, too. And I can't believe Hallmark wrote a lot of this and put it on television. And I certainly wish that it was on terrestrial television and not just behind the paywall of the plus. Having said that, best of the season so far. No question about it.

[00:16:04] [SPEAKER_01] Best of the season. We had that. Yeah, we did that. We had it queued up. Yeah. I don't know what to tell you. There are different types of horns. Yeah, different types of horns.

[00:16:18] [SPEAKER_00] It's tough over there.

[00:16:21] [SPEAKER_01] It's time for all the feels. We were talking about what gave us feels. 76 trombones. What gave us feels.

[00:16:25] [SPEAKER_00] Well, Alonzo started podcasting. He's like, one day somebody's going to refer to me as Jam Master Jay. I just know it.

[00:16:30] [SPEAKER_02] Hashtag goals. Yeah, my feels this episode were, I mean, like, they're a great couple, these guys. You know, I like the way they communicate with each other, the way they kind of talk through stuff. You know, as much as I would have really, really loved it had that whole opening sequence taking place in a closet with nobody calling attention to it.

[00:16:53] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah, they had to. It's Hallmark.

[00:16:55] [SPEAKER_02] We're never going to get that. But, like, it was still as a visual metaphor, I thought quite potent and useful. I think Jasmine Chan, who plays the sister, Ella, is very funny. And, you know, as the sort of third part of the kind of farcical triangle here, I think more than holds her own and is not just sort of along for the ride. Like, she has reasons for doing it and responses to things as she's doing stuff. So, yeah.

[00:17:24] [SPEAKER_02] And I think Lucille's song, who plays the grandmother, is, you know, comically formidable. And so, yeah. So everybody's hitting their marks here.

[00:17:36] [SPEAKER_00] You said comically formidable while you were watching this. That's exactly what you said.

[00:17:40] [SPEAKER_01] And I say, you know what that is. Just say on the count of three. One, two, three. Comically formidable. That's right. And then we do that occasionally. We do. It's not often. All three of us. That happened again that we sync up. It's unbelievable. I was going to bring up the character of Ella because she might be, like, the funniest side character that Hallmark's had in a long time, aside from the finish line with our boy who is on a different level of funny.

[00:18:10] [SPEAKER_01] But she's just, every scene, when she brings to comedy, it's a scene stealer. So she's great. She's really, really good. And made me laugh multiple times. Dano?

[00:18:23] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah. I will echo both of these gentlemen, but I will narrow it down to a very specific line in its reading. I don't want to spend Christmas in an Asian reboot of The Birdcage any more than you do. I can't believe that was on Hallmark. Like, I can't believe she walked in with all the confidence in the world and said that line. I lost it. I thought it was great. I couldn't believe it. And then she's great the rest of the way. They're all great.

[00:18:53] [SPEAKER_00] The couple is great. They're all great. But that line especially made me really, really laugh. Because, I mean, what a callback. What a deep cut for her to realize it and then say it. I mean, never in real life. But, like, since we're watching a TV show, you may as well hit all those marks perfectly. And she did.

[00:19:08] [SPEAKER_01] That's right. Let's take a quick break. We'll come back and we'll get to the way what's in the holiday.

[00:19:15] [SPEAKER_00] Holiday. You're just never going to get it. We're going to finish it. You're going to finally get it.

[00:19:19] [SPEAKER_02] What's your holly? What's your day? That's right. There you go. Nailed it.

[00:19:23] [SPEAKER_00] That was the correct one. Thank you. Honk, honk. Deck the Hallmark. Hi, everybody. Welcome back. All the delay. Nailed it. Nailed it. Nailed it.

[00:19:35] [SPEAKER_01] Mondays are good days. Mondays are good days for us. Let's get to the way what's here of episode three of Holidays. D'Alonso, what made you go wait what?

[00:19:46] [SPEAKER_02] A lot of my wait what's revolve around the newspaper. Yeah. And the fact that grandma owns it. Early on, we get the line that she bought the paper because they were going to discontinue her favorite section, the obituaries. Let's camp out on that for a second. What newspaper would eliminate the obituary section? Like, what possible reason? Like, oh, it's a big money loser for us.

[00:20:15] [SPEAKER_02] We've got to get rid of that so we can run more Garfield or whatever. That didn't make any sense to me.

[00:20:22] [SPEAKER_01] You bring up an interesting idea, though, how we considered more Garfield.

[00:20:26] [SPEAKER_00] How we've thrown it out. You want more than the one a day that the newspaper would give you? You want two Garfields? He's a funny cat. Let me guess. You're going to tell me that he hates Mondays and loves lasagna. That's not what I'm going to say at all.

[00:20:39] [SPEAKER_01] He has one of the most underrated Christmas specials of all time. Never seen it. Garfield's Christmas. Great special. Alonso, keep going.

[00:20:46] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah. So just that and then the idea of, like, them, you know, snagging all the papers, which is a funny idea. But, again, in practicality, it's like I'm imagining some people get those delivered to their homes and they're not, like, rooting for people's yard to steal those. Does this newspaper have a website where people could just get this information online? And then that leads to a whole other thing of, like, how big is this town?

[00:21:10] [SPEAKER_02] Which I know we've asked before, you know, because they've got the one cop played by, you know, Aaron Cahill, who spends most of her time doing crafts, apparently. Also, how Chinese is this town? Because they've got, like, the wedding pavilion ready to go and the bridal shop that sells the red dresses.

[00:21:29] [SPEAKER_00] The red dress? Yeah.

[00:21:31] [SPEAKER_02] Like, it's like, who else is Chinese here besides y'all? You know, who are grandma's friends? How many of them are there?

[00:21:37] [SPEAKER_00] Do you think this is, like, portrayed as a small town but secretly Seattle?

[00:21:43] [SPEAKER_02] You have to wonder. Like, I mean, I think it's one of the press notes I saw. Like, they said it was somewhere in Oregon. But, like, I'm getting heavy Vancouver here, which is I'm sure where they shot it. But it's like – but specifically in terms of, like, having this enormous Asian community. Yes, if they said it was Vancouver, then, like, oh, well, that explains everything. That explains a lot of it, yeah. Yeah. And then, like, building upon that, okay, she owns the newspaper. But what is the family business that Ted is now going to be CEO of?

[00:22:13] [SPEAKER_00] I thought I just missed it and I was just embarrassed and didn't want to say anything.

[00:22:16] [SPEAKER_02] I don't – I honestly don't know. I don't know what it is. And then also, she's visiting, right? So where does she live? Does Ted also live there? Like, there's a lot of unanswered questions about the whole structure of what we're doing here.

[00:22:31] [SPEAKER_01] Yeah, more than fair. So Ted walks in the next morning after the closet conversation and I see, you know, a relatively large bed. Queen, potentially king. I think probably queen. And the full thing has been slept in. And can I ask you this? Can I ask you how you operate? When you go somewhere that's not your home to sleep, how do you handle the bed?

[00:22:59] [SPEAKER_00] Like in the morning?

[00:23:00] [SPEAKER_01] No. Do you sleep on one side and only untuck the part that you have or do you do a full thing?

[00:23:06] [SPEAKER_00] I do a full thing because most of the times it's side tucked and I'm longer – I'm taller than the bed is. And so I have to undo the tuck around the whole bed in order to get to sleep.

[00:23:18] [SPEAKER_01] Because if I'm by myself, I never even deal with the other side.

[00:23:21] [SPEAKER_00] No, I literally go and untuck the blanket around the entire bed before I get on it. So I wasn't a great ask there.

[00:23:28] [SPEAKER_01] Fair. I don't like a side tuck. But once it gets past halfway, I no longer care.

[00:23:33] [SPEAKER_00] If it's tucked on the bottom, it's like pulling down on my feet.

[00:23:35] [SPEAKER_01] I no longer care once it gets past halfway. That's all I'm saying. But he cared because when he first walked in, I was like, oh, they're sharing a room because the whole bed was undone. No, they're not.

[00:23:45] [SPEAKER_00] He does at some point say, I'll do another night in the guest room. So I think when they first got there and they thought the grandma was going to be in Palm Springs, I think they were in the bed together. Okay, great.

[00:23:54] [SPEAKER_01] But he does – he talks about how – do you miss me or whatever? Did you sleep well? He's like, yeah, I slept well. It's actually a great bed. But I did miss you. And he's like, you missed my snoring? He's like, your snoring is like my own personal white noise machine. No. No, sir. No, sir. No, sir. No, sir. No, sir. No, sir. No, sir. No, sir. No, sir. Everyone in hell snores. A nightmare.

[00:24:20] [SPEAKER_01] I can't imagine somebody being like, if only someone was here to snore right now, then I could fall asleep. That was unfortunate.

[00:24:29] [SPEAKER_00] Dano? Yeah. So I just – my entire being says stop appeasing this woman. And that was hard. That was hard for me. And some of that is not a wait what because some of it is the wishes of the grandkid. And so obviously like that's their story to tell. But some of it I just felt like was like above – like not wanting to tell her about the change in the menu. Like of the food.

[00:24:57] [SPEAKER_00] Like that was a big – like this son not being able to just be like, it's in my house. We're doing a different menu. It was driving me personally bonkers.

[00:25:06] [SPEAKER_02] But how much of it is her fault and how much of it is everybody else accommodating what they think that she wants?

[00:25:12] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah, I think it's their fault. No, no. I would say this is not like everybody loves Raymond in that sense. I think they've decided that they don't want to step on anybody's toes. I mean like when my wife and I got married, her parents gave us money to get married. And then they came back and said, we want this one thing. My wife did not want that one thing. And I looked at them in the middle of that and was like, hey, we appreciate the money. We're going to spend it how my wife wants to spend it. If you want to do this, you can have your money back.

[00:25:41] [SPEAKER_00] I literally said that to them. And you know what? They were cool. They were cool. They were like, okay, we get it. We understand. We're not going to get that. That's fine. And so like that is my natural way of going about things. And this family is so worried about any sort of confrontation with this woman who doesn't live there. Like I'm with you, Alonzo. I don't – you've not given her the ability to change or the chance to change. And that's crazy.

[00:26:12] [SPEAKER_02] But then we have no story. That's right. We don't have any story.

[00:26:14] [SPEAKER_00] I also don't know why dude is getting so upset by some of this wedding planning stuff. Like he is actively angry about this green tux. And the green tux is funny. But like it's fake, bro. Like they're not actually getting married. Like he's so angry about this. And I'm like, I think it's supposed to be played for laughs. But he plays it like he's really mad. He has to put this jacket on. It's like just try the jacket on. I don't know. I can't believe I'm going to have to wear this right now.

[00:26:43] [SPEAKER_01] It's a nice wedding. If you marry my sister. Yeah.

[00:26:46] [SPEAKER_00] And lastly, and this is a big one. And this once again might just be me as most of this episode clearly was. They go to great lengths to – who's the guy that's the fiance that's visiting that's not in the family? What's his name? Marcus. Marcus. They go to great lengths. They call Marcus' mom. And they make all his favorites, which is a fun like my mom who's from India. And she grew up in the Midwest and loved Midwestern food. Basically, some spices from all around the world.

[00:27:11] [SPEAKER_02] Beer, cheese, samosas. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:27:13] [SPEAKER_00] So really – it's a really fun idea. Can I tell you something? If you think a really fun idea would be to make all of my nostalgic favorites like my mom used to make and have them all on a spread and they all taste just slightly off from how they're supposed to taste, I'd rather just eat Domino's pizza. That's your hell. Wow. Like that is my absolute – like it is everything – like the reason that you have such a fond memory for those things are not because they're gourmet.

[00:27:43] [SPEAKER_00] It's because they taste a very specific way. They came out of one specific oven, the smells in the house, the whole thing. And it's a really nice gesture to be like we made all of your favorites and we got the recipes. But you know they're all going to taste slightly different. They're going to be a different brand of this, a different that. And the idea of sitting down and having to smile through that and tell everyone thank you because the thought was so great is my literal hell. Like I was like – like everything – we made all of your favorites.

[00:28:11] [SPEAKER_00] Now they're going to taste about 80% of what they should taste like. But we made all of your favorites.

[00:28:17] [SPEAKER_02] Don't do anything nice for Dan. He will throw it in your face. Yeah, that's the message.

[00:28:21] [SPEAKER_00] That's what we heard here. I don't know. I don't know. I write a story in the book that we all wrote together. Yeah, but look. But the mom gave the recipes to the other mom. It's still not going to taste right. It's not going to taste right. You and I both know it's not going to taste right. You know – you and I both know it's not going to taste right.

[00:28:38] [SPEAKER_02] But the effort deserves a reward. The effort is great.

[00:28:41] [SPEAKER_00] The effort is great. But the effort is all put in for it to not taste right. But – Eh, you use Sargento without Velvita. That's exactly right. Well, Sargento over Velvita. I think we all agree there. But I think that there's something to be said for like – I don't want – you know. There's some things you can't convey in a recipe. Yes. I don't think – the thought is very nice. I'm trying.

[00:29:08] [SPEAKER_01] I'm not with you, but I'm trying.

[00:29:10] [SPEAKER_00] But the idea of the reason you love those things so much is they're – the exclusivity of them is so high. You can only get them at a very specific place and sometimes a very specific time in your life. And so it is a nice gesture, but I just was kind of like – so there's that.

[00:29:27] [SPEAKER_02] There's just in old news. You're a monster.

[00:29:32] [SPEAKER_00] Thanks, Rev. Run. Back to you, Brian.

[00:29:36] [SPEAKER_01] It's time for – are you Hawley or all your dad? Back to Roni and cheese. Alonzo, you go for this last segment.

[00:29:46] [SPEAKER_02] Yeah. My Hawley is that, you know, the fact that this exists and that it is being done this well, I would like to think bodes well for more of this from Hallmark. Maybe I am being crazily optimistic given that they seem to be gently, you know, stepping backwards on this front. But we'll see.

[00:30:07] [SPEAKER_02] And, yeah, my dazed is that the fact that people didn't subscribe to this streaming service more is somehow going to get blamed on this show as opposed to this show not doing well being blamed on the fact that people weren't subscribing to the subscription service.

[00:30:25] [SPEAKER_00] Have we – like, have we – is that an official take? Is that the people aren't subscribing to Hallmark Plus? Is that true? I don't know.

[00:30:32] [SPEAKER_02] I think there's – I think they were sort of disappointed by the launch and I think that they're trying to kind of – I think what they've realized is that it's not so much about exclusive programming as much as people just want access to the stuff they would have gotten on the channel. Like, I think if they had launched the channel or they had launched the service and been like, by the way, all the new Hallmark Christmas movies premiere the next day on Hallmark Plus, then people would have loved that.

[00:31:01] [SPEAKER_02] And I think that's what a lot of people expected and didn't get. And so I think they're sort of like frantically trying to make it work in that way because, you know, it's not like you're going to get people to sign up just for things like holidays or the Chicken Sisters. What they really want is to be able to see, you know, three wiser men and a boy the day after it airs because they don't have cable anymore. Right.

[00:31:23] [SPEAKER_01] Right. Yeah. That makes sense. Or just get Philo and then you can get all of that.

[00:31:29] [SPEAKER_00] Oh, that's a hack there. Philo.tv slash DTH. That's probably the way to do it.

[00:31:33] [SPEAKER_01] My Holly is, weirdly enough, the rain in this episode was great. It was like that. Part of the reason why the scene at the end works so well is the harder it's raining, the hotter it is when it comes to those type of scenes. And the rain was coming down. In the words of Hilary Duff, let the rain fall down. And it did. And so kudos to them for making that happen. Shout out to rain. Shout out to rain. I don't know what the deal is with it, but it's happening.

[00:32:04] [SPEAKER_01] I don't know what's happening. What's happening with it? Like, what's the deal with the rain? What's the deal with the rain? That doesn't work. My dazed is I am now pretty much convinced that there's going to be little to no overlap in each episode with the other things. And I'm bummed that we're not going to get anybody walking by the ornament contest and being like, that ornament sucks. Or something like that. Because there's some great opportunities for that. But I don't think we're going to get that.

[00:32:35] [SPEAKER_01] Or even just somebody being like, hey, does anybody know where my newspaper went? Like, things like that. I'm pretty convinced we're not going to get any of that in this show. And that's unfortunate. Sister swap it.

[00:32:46] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah, I'll go dazed first because I do think that, you know, since I know that the last episode is going to be all of the endings, I have a very real concern about losing steam on these stories. I think whatever story gets to be right before the finale, I think, has the best chance to feel whole and complete. And I'm just worried that you just don't have the momentum you think you have. And I would love to be proven wrong there.

[00:33:16] [SPEAKER_00] But I'm very worried because, as Bran pointed out, these are now individual portions of Hallmark movies. They're not. It isn't a bunch of stories being told at once like episode one was, which I think was great. I think these are just like little snippets of Hallmark movies. And I think they're almost better. Like, I didn't think the way to make Hallmark movies better was to cut the runtime further. But I think this episode proves like it was this episode's better than most Hallmark movies.

[00:33:44] [SPEAKER_02] Now that it's on the table, you know.

[00:33:46] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah, this episode's better than most Hallmark movies I've seen. I would say it's most being 50%. I think it's better than probably 70 or 80% of the Hallmark movies I've seen. So I'm worried that they're not going to have, and this is pure conjecture, obviously. You've seen it, Alonzo, so you can't really react. But I just don't feel like that finale's going to have near the punch that it would if we just got the ending now. For all of these. Like, I don't know. And that's a legit daze. The Holly for me was the music.

[00:34:16] [SPEAKER_00] I thought the music was phenomenal in this. Even when they use a Christmas song, it's a fun rendition of a Christmas song. There's a lot of originals in here. It really plays into the episode and it feeling new and young and fresh. Like, everything about this episode of television feels like it was made by a younger generation than what has been making Hallmark. And so the music was a huge part of that.

[00:34:41] [SPEAKER_01] We did it. Congratulations to us. I mean, this is what I would propose. And Alonzo, you listen up here, buddy. What if next week we do this again?

[00:34:53] [SPEAKER_00] Yeah. Okay. I can make that work. Dan, are you in? I guess. I was just texting my people. I'm in. I'm in. I'm in. I'll be back for one more week. And that's it.

[00:35:02] [SPEAKER_01] Come on back next week. We'll do episode four. We'll see if we can get Dan to stay for some more. I don't know. Fingers crossed. We're going to find out. But come on back. And then come on back tomorrow for another episode of Deck the Homework. Until then, maybe the first to wish you a Merry Christmas.

[00:35:17] [SPEAKER_00] Deck the Homework is a break. The Bramble Jam podcast is produced by Aaron Shea. What? For more information on Deck the Homework, you can go to deckthehallmark.com. For more information on the Deck the Homework family, you can go to bramblejamplus.com. Deck the Homework is presented by Philo TV. For a free trial of Philo, go to philo.tv slash DTH.

[00:35:42] [SPEAKER_01] 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. Happy day.

[00:36:00] [SPEAKER_03] Happy day.

[00:36:00] Thank you.