Holidazed - S01E07 - The Manetti-Hanahan Family (Hallmark+ - 2024) ft. Alonso Duralde

[00:00:00] Hi, I'm Brian and I love Hallmark Christmas television shows. I'm Dan and I despise Hallmark Christmas television shows. I'm Alonso and Manetti-Hanahan-Boppi-pa-deedee. This is Deck the Hallmark Podcast! Deck the Hallmark gets this podcast. We'll be friends host this podcast. We hope you like this jolly podcast.

[00:00:32] Hi! Hi, everybody. Welcome. We made it. We did. Eps, the last of the individual. Yes, right. Next week, everything is going to get wrapped up. It's going to be barreling right into it. That's exactly right. It's going to be a lot of fun. After Holidays, we'll be covering some movies that we missed from 2024. Maybe not the hard-hitting stuff that you've come to know and love, such as Unicorn for Christmas and whatnot. I think First Out of the Gates Carry On.

[00:01:01] I think so, yes. Because I'm very excited about that movie and I've yet to watch it, so that will give me an excuse. Believe it or not, there are some white watches in that movie. What? A couple. A couple. And that's its charm. That's its charm. I'm not saying it's going to be good. Feature, not a bug. That's right. Alonzo, hi. How are you? Good. Good. We had some weirdly unseasonably warm weather happening here, which is like, no, not my February, thank you.

[00:01:31] But it's back to being, you know, L.A. cold, which is, you know, summer in a lot of places, I'm sure. What is unseasonably warm in L.A. in late February, early March? What is that? It was like in the 70s. Okay. I think maybe even the low 80s. It was kind of like, no, all my shorts are packed away with the cedar chips, you know. Put the cedar chips on and keep them fresh. Yeah. That's right. Look, you know, moths like my food. Moths get in those cargo pockets real easy.

[00:02:02] They sure do. Dave White has conspired to get rid of all of my cargo shorts. And here's all it took. Say it ain't so. He gave me a front pocket wallet, and that fixed my problem. Because that was my excuse. It was like, I hate sitting on my wallet, cargo shorts. You just tuck it in the side. Literally, the reason I wore cargo shorts for a decade was because I wanted to not put my wallet in my back pocket. Exactly. True story.

[00:02:29] So it turns out, philo.tv slash DTH, you can get a front pocket wallet. Oh, my gosh. Where it has room for like cards, and you can put your, like if you've got cash, it goes in the middle. Man. And yeah. So cargo shorts now, don't eat them. We get a lot of candy around here at the home. If anybody wants to sit in a front pocket wallet, that'd be great. There you go. So I'm live. So I'm live. That's right. Was I the only one that was wearing cargo shorts for their style? I think you were. Yeah, yeah. Possibly, yes.

[00:02:58] I was wearing them because I thought I looked good at them. That's why I wore JNCO jeans. Well, sure. Well, and you were right. Yeah. Listen. Dang right. I still think that there is a place in this world for cargo shorts. I think that there's still a place. Hell. No. I'm not mad at them, but like I don't need them, you know. I get given a couple of years. They're going to be back. And you're going to be like, I shouldn't have gotten rid of all of them. You're going to feel so silly. I mean, everything does come back. Debbie Harry says never throw out any clothes because they will all come back. Debbie Harry.

[00:03:28] You listen to Debbie Harry regularly. You would just tell me the other day. I was telling you, don't throw it out. Am I going to have to like have an education session with you guys about who? Fine. Who is Debbie Harry? Please tell us. Debbie Harry is an icon of shock. An icon of the punk and new wave era. She was the lead singer of Blondie. Okay. Heart of glass. Do we know this song? Did you guys roller skate to it at some point? I've got a heart of glass.

[00:03:58] Heart of glass. Heart of glass. Heart of glass for the rest of my life. Rest of my life. You guys are so lucky that I don't actually watch your recaps of that time traveling pond show because the songs y'all don't know. It's just staggering. Philo.tv slash DTH. Dave White is furious. Dave White just popped his head in to give us a disappointing look like Paddington Bear does. What is that? A stern? It's called a hard stare. It's called a hard stare. A hard stare. That's right. Yeah. Can you ask Dave if he still loves us? They want to know if you still love them.

[00:04:30] Dramatic pause. He's thinking about it. Dramatic pause. Yeah. Silence. Fair. He's still thinking about it. Yeah. Fair enough. Get back to us. Fair enough. Oh, man. Let's talk. If it's good enough for Donnie Harvey, it's good enough for me. So whenever you're ready, Brandon. Return to office. Let's do a holiday, shall we? Holiday. Two days a week. Going hybrid, B. Episode seven, the Minetti-Hanahan family. You said it, friend. Hanahan.

[00:05:00] Still a little Han-a-sans. Hanamontana. Hanahan. The Granasi. Can you tell us the last thing we're recording all week? Or is it just me? Oh, oh, yes. Yeah, it's the last thing we're recording. Or the first day, depending on how you are. This is weekend energy. This is peak weekend energy here. It's very punchy. Hanamontana. It's the best of both worlds. We've got the best of both worlds. Nope.

[00:05:29] December 19th, 2025. Man, cut it. Or 2024. Cut it close there on the way to work plus. That's right. And I want a little something like this. The episode starts off with Connie. It's a vlog of sorts about how her husband is being arrested. Now, this is a video from last year when he was arrested for going a little bit too hard in the paint with his Christmas lights, getting everybody mad, getting the neighbors mad.

[00:05:51] The family is now sitting in the dark because husband Chuck went too hard on the Christmas lights yet again. She's trying to show why the no conflict contract is so important. If you remember, Dan, she wanted to implement a no conflict contract for the holiday season because she felt like her family was too all up each other's throats. No drinking, no cursing, no nothing. That's exactly right.

[00:06:16] Chuck is the holdout, but he finally agrees to sign it after a hard stare, actually. The next day, he brings in a battery pack to power the tree, and he can tell that something is bothering his wife because she wants a family photo where everybody is smiling, and she wants her mantle fixed. Who is this woman? What did she do with my wife? He agrees to do it. Borehack. What did she do with my wife?

[00:06:46] Is it my wife? He agrees to, is it Paul Green here? He agrees. That's what I was thinking. He agrees to do it. Hey, Paul. He agrees to do it, and it's like, see, I don't need a contract to be nice. I can just be nice. With the power being out, Chuck ends up getting into a competition with his son, Clark. Clark is a new school fella, drives a Nissan Leaf. Vegan. Vegan.

[00:07:14] Everything that Chuck thinks is wrong with the world, his son is. And so they get into a competition to see who can get the power back on quicker using old school versus new school techniques. They all begin to notice that something is wrong with Connie. They kind of see her being distanced, clearly being frustrated when things aren't going perfectly.

[00:07:35] And she ends up leaving suddenly and driving to what we see is a medical center that is closed for the holidays. Yeah. Shut it down. Shut it down. Shut it down. Now, while she's gone, the family continues to be what the family is. They're fighting. Mom's gone. Contract doesn't matter. They're fighting. They're arguing over things. The important stuff like, who's eating the salami off the roof of the meat house? The important questions.

[00:08:06] Connie sends Chuck. You said it, buddy. Yep. Connie, do you want to make a meat house? Do you want to make a meat house? Put some on the charcuterie. I feel like you'd be more on board with that than you were the gingerbread house. Connie sends Chuck to go get a reindeer for the festival. Turns out they're out of reindeer. He gets an alpaca. Six and a half. Llama? Is it a llama?

[00:08:36] Llama. I never know the difference. Don't make llama people, man. I'm sorry. We'll get letters. They're the best. Yeah. While he's doing that, Katie comes home because she just got broken up with, as you remember from the last one. And so the family comes together to support her. They head to the festival so that she can return the ring.

[00:09:00] It is at the festival that Chuck finds out about this breakup and goes to give Kevin a piece of his mind. And next thing Connie knows, she sees her husband once again being escorted by security guards to police. And he's like, I'm not getting arrested. Can't get in trouble for this.

[00:09:22] And she's like, I just wanted to have one nice Christmas since I might not have a Christmas next year. Might not be around. And everyone's like, what are you talking about? So they make it back home and she says that she might have cancer. And she missed a call from the medical center. Went to the medical center to find out what's up. They're closed down. So she doesn't know. She doesn't know she has cancer.

[00:09:51] She doesn't know if she does have cancer, how bad it is. So she just wants one nice Christmas. She can't handle all this. So she goes to lay down and just have a little bit of a break. So the family decides, let's do this. Let's do this thing. Let's do this for mom. So they fix the mantle. Chuck finally tells his son that he's proud of him because he realizes that his power technique is better. And so yay for that.

[00:10:20] Chuck goes upstairs, has a heart to heart with his wife, says you can do this. I need you all this good stuff. Comes downstairs. Surprise. We are all in our Christmas sweaters for the Christmas card. She's very excited about this. And just as they're about to take the picture, the power goes out. And now, my friends, was Holidays Season 1 of Episode 7 of the Monetti-Hanahan family. We did it. Let's take a break. We'll come back.

[00:10:50] We'll break this episode down here on Deck the Hallmark. We're talking Episode 7 of Holidays. And as mentioned, the final one-family-focused episode. Before everything gets wrapped up next episode, let's share our thoughts on this. Let's start with a hot take. It's where we share exactly how we felt about this episode.

[00:11:20] We do not hold back. And I will start with you. Alonzo. Alonzo, what did you think? Yeah, I think like last week, this episode represents, like, Hallmark getting into emotional territory that it wouldn't normally do complicated relationships and behavior that we don't normally see, mixed with the usual sort of, like, ridiculous contrivances that we have come to expect from this network. But I liked it quite a bit.

[00:11:48] I think it hits on some stuff that's interesting. And also, this episode might do the most lifting in terms of interlocking with the other ones. Like, the fact that we see Katie come over after the breakup, and it gives us a chance to see several moments from last week's episode from a different perspective, or the things that happened in between, which is, I think, would have been the goal for this show if they'd really leaned into it more, I think, in terms of, like,

[00:12:17] I know y'all were not as big a fans of Sister Swap as I was, but I like the idea of, if you have these stories that are all happening at the same time, that, like, someone, a character A is going to walk out of their episode and into somebody else's episode and vice versa, this episode, I think, played with that more than any of the other ones have. Yeah, I thought that this one was fine. It's not going to be my favorite, but it's not going to be my least favorite either. Probably somewhere in the middle.

[00:12:45] There are some scenes in this episode that are really strong. And I found that, I found it to be, like, families are kind of like this. They, you know, when you're family, when you hear your family. Amen. And you can, like, it's one of those things where it's like, I can pick on my brother, don't you dare pick on my brother situation. So there is, like, that believability about it. There's also some of it that I was just kind of like, come on, man.

[00:13:10] Like, the character of Chuck is such a difficult character because he is, like, this character that is so set in his ways. I'm going to do things exactly how I want it, but then will flip on a dime and be very thoughtful. And the scenes where he's being really thoughtful, like, with his wife and with his son are, like, really, really sweet.

[00:13:36] But when he's just being himself, it's so on the opposite side of this type of character that I was kind of getting a little bit of whiplash. Like, this whole, like, he knows that his wife doesn't want him to do all the Christmas lights and go that crazy every single year. But he still does it. But then at the same time, he's like, you know I love you, baby. Like, one of those things.

[00:14:03] And it's just kind of like, I kind of had a hard time wrestling with how wide of a spectrum the character of Chuck was. Even though he gives some of the best scenes in the episode. So, like, it's a tricky character for me. But overall, yeah, I like the episode okay. Yeah, yeah. He's an uptight Marine with a hyphenated last name. He contains multitudes. Well, I was about to say, like, you don't call John C. McGinley to be Phil Dunphy. Like, you got exactly who you – that's my favorite part of this.

[00:14:33] I will say what I agree with that Alonzo says is what I wrote down is this episode had to be last. I think they built it that way. If this episode wasn't last, it doesn't make nearly as much sense or pack nearly the punch that it does. Because they slowly, like, let that drip of the faucet of the other stories turn into a full, like, holistic neighborhood in this episode. Not that every story is represented, but that the stories are intertwined and they make sense here the most. It had to be last.

[00:15:03] It's not perfect. I think I probably like the Lewin family. That's the one, right, with Dennis Haysbert. Yeah, that's my favorite. I think that's probably my favorite. But I think this might be second favorite. John C. McGinley, I've talked about him every week, but no one gives a father-to-son, I'm-proud-of-you speech on television quite like this guy. And he did that for years on Scrubs. Like, his entire personality on Scrubs was Dr. Cox is the worst, he's terrible, he's awful, but he's a good doctor and he actually wants the best for you.

[00:15:33] And that doesn't excuse a lot of what Dr. Cox says. If anything, it's a reminder to us who have parents who are young to go ahead and tell your kids you're proud of them and not wait until they're 40 to tell them. You know what I mean? Like, to try to be a good father right now. Early and often. I'm not defending the actions of Chuck, but I'm here to watch him.

[00:15:55] I'm here to watch a guy slowly who bristles and who has always done things his own way slowly but surely embrace veganism and solar power and his kid and being proud of. Like, listen, if that means a guy who is hot and cold and, you know, puts his American flag up in the front yard and turns around and says maybe solar power is best, then awesome. Great, great. I'm here for that. That was my favorite part of this.

[00:16:25] Some of it is a little bit more like this family also turns on a dime on each other. Like, they're mean at times and then they're very, very supportive at times. I think depending on how you grew up, that probably reflects, you know, that could very easily reflect how you grew up as well or maybe it doesn't. In my case, I was a little bit shocked by how mean they were, but I also came around on them pretty quickly. Uh, the mom not knowing her diagnosis was my big issue with this episode.

[00:16:52] Um, it seemed like a very, very specific data point in a, in a, in a story that was unfortunate that we have to watch on television. Like, you know, if that data point is moved a week in either direction, we probably either have all the information or none of it. And it just, it seemed like, you know, it, it seemed just too convenient for this particular episode. But aside from that, I dug it. I had fun and I'm, I'm interested to see. You dug it. I am interested to see what we do in the last one.

[00:17:21] Cause I think they've got a lot to do in 42 minutes and I'm not sure that they can, uh, they can do it all. So there's that. Uh, let's get to all the feels when we're talking about what this episode gave us feels. Alonzo. Yeah. I think, uh, I was raised in the house of sarcasm. Yes. So I definitely, I don't, I don't think I've seen a lot of portrayals of how a family can be really bristly to one another. And yet there is an underlying affection that makes it okay.

[00:17:49] And so I thought they did that pretty well. And, and, and the, the major blowups are happening between in-laws, which is, you know, a whole separate set of circumstances. Um, the, the, the, the sister and the sister-in-law having their disagreements about stuff. But I, you know, it was kind of cool to see Hallmark take on a family that isn't like either all nicey nice or all like super shut down.

[00:18:14] You know, there is this thing where I think I know with my own family, like outsiders would hear the way we spoke to each other with the guy. Oh my God. What? Terrible. Like, no, that's just, that's just how we are. It's just what we do. Um, I don't know if it's a Spanish thing or just a uniquely our family, but it was just, that's how we roll. That Kevin Giraldi, he can get out of control for you. Yeah. Yeah. Kevin. He's nothing but trouble. Um, and you know, got to give it up to Hallmark MVP, Asriel Delman.

[00:18:41] Uh, that kid, uh, we, he was great in, uh, um, we need a little Christmas. And, uh, and this one, he was just like with the, with the zingers. He's, he's going places that, that child, and he's going to win a deckie one of these days. Mm-hmm. Uh, the, the conversation where, where he says that he's proud of his son. Yeah. Hard, hard to beat that. Yeah. Real good. Real good moment. Dave? John, I, I just get the feeling that John C. McGinley can do this role in his sleep.

[00:19:11] And that is not, uh, a criticism. He could have done less work than he did in this and been perfectly fine C+. He's an A+. Like, the scene with his wife, I think there's some really good moments, uh, moments where he goes from authoritarian to, I just, I can't live without you. And I think, I thought that was a pretty good character move. I thought that the scene with his son is, is great. It's, it's better than just a, I'm proud of you. It's like, I'm wrong. You're right. Which is fantastic.

[00:19:40] So yeah, I think he gets the gold star this week. He, he is. And I, I would. He did. He got the gold star. He got the gold star. Oh, wow. But he's like, what is, I just want to see him on more stuff. He's great. And, and, uh, so yeah, he crushed it. And we have not, we have not said the name Virginia Madsen. Oh my God. She's great. But I, Oscar nominee, legendary. Oscar nominee, nominee Virginia Madsen. And she's wonderful. But I feel like she, even though she has a lot of the plot gets kind of shortchanged on screen time a little bit.

[00:20:10] Somewhat. Yeah. And I think is also maybe given she, she, she's, she's forced to be kind of the wet blanket of this thing. And also what she's given to do is, is the most kind of like, it takes you, it took me out of it the most. And so I think she's doing probably the most of anyone with the worst, like material material. Yeah. I'd agree with that. Yeah. You've never given me the gold star. That's not true. That's fundamentally not true. Every week I give you the gold star.

[00:20:38] You literally won't let me leave here on Thursdays. You're like, where's my gold star B? That's what you say. You say that to me. You know it. Yeah, I do. I do. I do. I'm a gold star B. I don't know how to tell you. Let's take a quick break. We'll come back. We'll get to the way one, the what the homework here on. The homework. Welcome back, everybody. We're talking about holidays.

[00:21:08] Episode seven here on the show. It's a Monday. Alonzo's with us, of course. Let's get to the way what is where we're talking about what in this episode made us go away what, Alonzo. Well, I think the big honking wait what here, Dan already touched on, which is the oncologist who thinks it's hilarious to not get back to you for Christmas. I just wrote down Oakview Medical Center's closed for the holidays. Nothing I can do about it. It's closed. It's closed. I'll call you once.

[00:21:35] You know how healthcare facilities work. When it comes to busy times of the year, shut it down. They got other places to be. They're not going to leave you a message. You get the one call. No voicemail. No, that's it. There's nothing. That's on you. That's right. You actually signed something at the doctor saying whether or not the doctor can leave you information on voicemail. Like, and most people, I mean, I let them. If you have information to tell me, leave me on a voicemail.

[00:22:02] But to say it's a one and done and then we're shut down for the holidays, not even an emergency number, is crazy. It's crazy. It's reckless. Yeah. Yeah. And you know that they could have written around that where it would be like, oh, you know, I can't get results until January. But obviously we have to have in the finale that. Yeah. So they leave us in this weird limbo, which is dumb. There's just, there's no way, there's no way that she does have the cancer. There's no way she does.

[00:22:31] Because if she does, this doctor should be put in jail. Well, to have the news, to call once and be like, she should really get this info. But it's Christmas. There's two reasons I know that she doesn't have cancer. Number one, this episode also features a plot line where someone who's already been able to have a kid finds out that after months of trying, they're going to be able to have another one. That's number one.

[00:22:58] And number two, Brandon and I reference often a very special episode of Home Improvement where Jonathan Taylor Thomas, they think he might have thyroid cancer. And then that's when Tim Allen gets to deliver the line. Or it could be a goiter, which is nothing like Tigers 7, Yankees goiter, which is a line we say in the office all the time. And it turns out he has something that's kind of scary, but not cancer. And that's this episode feels like that entirely. It would be shocking to me if there was any other conclusion. Shocking.

[00:23:27] Yankees 7, Tigers goiter. That was the message they didn't leave was goiter. That's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, he could have just said Yankees 7, Tigers goiter and we'd have gotten it. We would have gotten it clear as crystal. That's right. Gold star for that episode. Gold star. I, it would be giving this movie all the credit in the world to have it be an intentional thing that they have a power, a little mini generator. And the only thing they plug into it is the Christmas. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:23:56] Like there's a refrigerator in this house that people keep opening and closing and putting meat houses in. And it's like, is that on? You know, would it be better just to leave it out in the garage? I couldn't. I couldn't keep straight where, when they did. It's the power.

[00:24:25] It's a power. It's the power. The power. The power is plugged into an outlet on the house. And I just, and then he's installed. I know he works for the company, but he's self-installing this solar stuff, which a big energy company has to come in and turn on. And I, at some point I just threw my hands up and went, I'm sure it makes sense to them, but it doesn't make sense to me. It doesn't make sense to me at all.

[00:24:55] I'm not even going to get into the idea that like, if he's got the solar power and the battery and the blah, blah, blah. Like why does their power go out when everybody else's goes out during the rainstorm? Yes. But that's a whole other kettle of fish. Yeah, that's exactly right. And then finally, at one point, John C. Reilly, John C. McGinley. Boy, imagine John C. Reilly in the room. Now we're talking. Can you imagine? Cooking with gas. John C. McGinley says, I've never lost anyone under my command. Really?

[00:25:24] No one. Were you in the United States Armed Services? Yeah. You were in Afghanistan. Yeah. Not a one? Impressive. Yeah. He should still be there. Yeah. How did you should be at the Pentagon? Like what is up? Sheesh. The only one that I have is they are at the festival and mom says, I might not be here next Christmas.

[00:25:53] And the next thing you know, they're at their house where she's like, okay, let me explain. Which means they went the whole car ride home with her being like, I'll tell you when we get home. They have to sit there in silence wondering what did mom mean when she said she might not be here next Christmas. I'll tell you at home. Dang it. Shut your mouth. Right out here.

[00:26:19] And then unfortunately, she said it in front of the children. That's trauma for them. The thing I know about kids is they never ask about death. Yeah. They never ask about it. They're never hyper fixated on death. Never. If you say I might not be here next Christmas, they take it really well. They don't stay up all night. They're cool. They're just like, I'm sure she'll explain that at home. They're just, kids are so cool. They let it roll off their backs. They're like, none of us are promised tomorrow.

[00:26:48] And they're just like so chill about it. So it's like really, really smooth. Seize the day. You know what I mean? Seize the day. Dan? John C. McGinley earlier in this, early in this episode is with his daughter and his daughter is telling him what she would like. And he says, you don't start your negotiation with your highest demand. Yes, you do. Like you don't start your negotiation with less than you want. If you do that, you'll never get there. What you do in a negotiation is, is you're like, I want all of this.

[00:27:18] And then I'm willing to concede and back up, back up, back up to give you what you want. It's the opposite of what he said. If you don't start higher than you want, you'll never get there. It's not, that's just not how that works. Am I wrong? We call that the Barack Obama. Am I right? Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Very good. Nicely done. We've talked about how this is hardly winter the whole time.

[00:27:44] But nothing cements the fact that this is not winter or Christmas more than a wide drone shot with deep green grass in all of these lawns. I'm talking like bluegrass. Like I'm talking deep, just like it is, it's like a true green commercial. I mean, the Scots guys like feed it. It's like, it couldn't be more lush. The sprinklers are going to come on any minute. Just put some guys did. They digitize snow and everything.

[00:28:13] Why can't they do it in this neighborhood? I don't understand. And listen, I grew up in Hopkins, South Carolina and Lyman, South Carolina, two towns with a combined 3000 people in it. I rode in the, in the bed of a truck places my whole life. I literally didn't think there was anything wrong with a kid riding on a major four lane highway in the back of a pickup truck until I was in my twenties.

[00:28:43] I, that's just how I was raised. But since I've had kids and think of, you know, head injuries and safety and how people drive, consider me shocked when they pull up to this festival in an SUV and they open the trunk space of the SUV and three children are sitting crisscross applesauce in the back of that thing. That was bonkers. It's the year of our Lord 2024.

[00:29:10] When this came out, there there's, there is seats. I'm pretty sure Vanessa dial in the double deckers is a, is a certified like seat specialist for children. This I could, I couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe that this episode that is so progressive and forward thinking about so much as like, you know, when you have a Ford expedition and you have not enough seat belts, what if the children all ride in the trunk? I couldn't believe it.

[00:29:38] I couldn't believe it happened and they acted like it was no big deal and people do it. And maybe people are doing it, but I just, I just, I don't think the people that do it are the people that are also like our kids don't eat sugar. That's right. They don't eat meat. Yeah. Those are different people. Yeah. And I'm not, listen, if you do that with your kids, it's your, your decision. I just was shocked to see it on Hallmark. I was shocked to see it anywhere. If I see it in Greenville, I'm surprised. Those kids clown cart out of there. Like it was no big deal. Yes. And they, when they opened the tree, like they opened it, what were you going to say, Lonzo?

[00:30:07] No, I think they figured that Giles Panthen in an elf costume was going to dazzle us so much. That's right. There is a slow motion Giles Panthen walking out in a, in an elf costume and they're not going to realize that these kids were all sardined in the back. It distracted us for maybe two kids getting out of the back, but there's four. There's four kids. Listen, I love you, Pan. I mean, you just, are they playing bubble gum in a dish back there? They're like, what are they doing? This is crazy. Put a seatbelt on the child.

[00:30:35] They're not even allowed to sit in the front seat yet. Dan's so woke. Seatsteak. Yeah. I want to keep kids alive. It's unbelievable. How dare I? I'm just crazy. Let's see. Did I cover everything? Blah, blah, blah. Yeah, I sure did. That's it. Back to you. Once you did that full blah, blah, blah, you figured it out. I lost all my, all these listeners because I'm woke. I'm sorry. It's okay. It's okay. Okay. It's time for What's Your Holly? What's Your Days? It's where we talk about things and stuff in this segment.

[00:31:05] Alonzo? Yeah, my Holly is like, you know, again, I think that this episode, like several others, sort of shows Hallmark wanting to stretch its idea of what it will do in the Christmas space,

[00:31:20] you know, in terms of letting characters be a little more complicated or less, you know, like nice all the time or just, you know, containing contradictions within themselves or being families that aren't of the kind that are usually presented in a positive light here.

[00:31:39] And then, you know, my days is that they ship this thing off to Hallmark Plus and I can only hope that, you know, maybe it gets a rerun in Christmas in July or once the season starts. So the people who don't get the streamer actually get to watch it. I'm very concerned going into the next episode because we have so much story to wrap up. And I believe it's not like an extra long episode, right?

[00:32:08] It's still just 42. Oh, my God. That is all that. Let's recap. So you've got. Ian Harding and Aaron Cahill. Right. And so he, is he going to go to Australia? Is what grandma now knows that the guys are gay, even though she thinks one of them is marrying her granddaughter. What's the big. Oh, we think that Dennis Havesbert might be getting back together with. What's her name?

[00:32:38] Loretta Devine. But he's got a girlfriend in the picture now. So that's right. Lindy Booth doesn't know where her sister is. Thank God for that one. And they gave away all the bars. Oh, no. The bars. Yeah. Holland Roden and the other dude are now. They broke up. On the splits. That's right. And Gabby still hasn't recorded her audition reel. And Virginia Madsen might have cancer. That's seven. That's a lot for one episode.

[00:33:07] Seven for 40. That's six minutes of plot line. They're going to do. There's just no way, right? There's no way. Cancer plot line in six minutes. Get out of here. Yes. I don't know how they're going to do it all and do it and give them all justice. Like some of these storylines. They're all going to meet at Lindy Booth's bakery with the wrapped tables. Yeah. And like just down espresso and talk to each other real fast. Real fast. I love it. Like Sorkin style. Yeah.

[00:33:33] The only way that you can do it is make it not believable at all. Like every storyline is just going to be like, hey, oh, my grandson's gay. Yay. Yes, exactly. Okay, great. Wonderful. Wonderful. That's the end of that one. On to the next one. Hey, I found my sister. Yay. That's the only way that they can do it. And I'm concerned. Call me skeptical. I don't know if they're going to be able to pull it off. Yeah. I would say this.

[00:33:59] The best we can hope for in most every Hallmark movie, for me anyway, is like 20 or 30 minutes of really good stuff, you know, with the hour, 50 minutes of you had to put it in there. I think those proportions are reversed for holidays. I think it has been overwhelmingly good, if not great at times. I think most of what we've gotten has been really solid. And then there's been a little bit of we have to do this because it's Hallmark.

[00:34:23] And so it has enough goodwill built up with me for me to be underwhelmed by the finale and still call it the biggest success of the Christmas season of last year, I think. I think that's where I am. They would have to really fall on their face in the finale for me not to say this is the best thing Hallmark did during the Christmas season of last year. And so I know that the finale is going to be shortchanged. I know it. I can't imagine them sticking the landing on all of this stuff.

[00:34:51] The only way they do that is if they act like the Lindy Booth plotline doesn't exist. The bar's actually sold? Here's $100,000? Because I would rather them just do maybe three of these storylines for the finale or maybe have an hour and a half. It should have been a six episode season just like Watch McCall. Watch McCall. And so that I know that I'm going to be disappointed. That was a show with six episodes. It was a show. It was not three movies. That's a way around it.

[00:35:20] No, absolutely not. No, I like this more than Mistletoe Murders. I do. I think that Mistletoe Murders I would like to see continue more than this because I think they've built some characters that I want to see where they go. But as it stands right now, this even with a finale that I'm prepared for disappointment, I still feel very strongly that there's enough good here to really recommend it. It's tough because I think this is a more impressive feat. Yeah. But I think stem to stern I enjoyed Mistletoe Murders more. No, I would disagree with that. Okay. I think I enjoyed the stern of it.

[00:35:49] That's why we're both here. We are. That's why we're both here. Yeah. I think Mistletoe Murders finished really strong. But I think as soon as you said stem to stern, Mistletoe Murders was out because I think it took a while to really get going for me. Less stem, more stern for you. More stern. The stern killed. Stem not so much. He's all about that stern. Are you stem or are you stern? That's right. You get it. Now, the finale does spend a lot of time actually on the widening of the hallway just letting you know. Oh, thank God. I forgot. I forgot. Are they going to pass the inspection? Dude, that was number one on my list. How did we not get to that?

[00:36:19] Yeah. We did it, everybody. Congratulations to us. We'll be back next Monday for the finale of Holidays. So come on back for that. And then we'll be back tomorrow. Dan, you, me, Brian, Reluctant Royal. Come on back. Until then, maybe the first to wish you a Merry Christmas. Deck the Hallmarks of Brayble Jam podcast is produced by Aaron Shea. What? For more information on Deck the Hallmark, you can go to deckthehallmark.com. For more information on the Deck the Hallmark family, you can go to bramblejamplus.com.

[00:36:48] Deck the Hallmark is presented by Philo TV. For a free trial of Philo, go to philo.tv slash dth. 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.