Holidazed - S01E08 - The Finale (Hallmark+ - 2024) ft. Alonso Duralde

[00:00:00] Hi, I'm Bran and I love Hallmark Christmas television shows. I'm Dan and I despise Hallmark Christmas television shows. I'm Alonso and they got together and it all worked out and this is the Deck The Hallmark Podcast. Deck The Hallmark, it's this podcast. Friends host this podcast. We hope you like this jolly podcast. Wow, wow, wow. Oh, look out. Wow. Oh my goodness.

[00:00:36] I didn't know he was there. You know, we when we do that when we do the theme song, we it we only see the theme song like you're watching on file of file.tv slash DTH and then the theme song ended and I was met with not one Alonso Duralde, but one Dave White who has a very stern look on his face. Hi, Dave. Hi, Dave White. Good day. I can sense some frustration perhaps with us. Today is your midterm. Oh, no.

[00:01:06] Oh, no. Oh, no. But that's not that's not fair. You have been given an assignment via Instagram to learn something. Have you learned anything in this past week via your own independent study? What I learned this week is regarding regarding regarding one Miss Deborah Harry. Well, I know I learned a lot Dave. So I tell me why don't you tell me what that is?

[00:01:34] It goes without saying like legend trendsetter. I learned that there are a lot of people on the Internet that when they find out that you don't know who Debbie is, get really mad at you. And that I felt a little bit bullied this week. I felt a little bit. I felt a little. Did you indeed? I felt a little targeted, if I can be honest. And so I didn't do any homework, Dave.

[00:02:04] Can I can I tell you this? That's that's unfortunate. Yeah, Daniel. So first of all, I'm not trying to make excuses, but I totally am. Are you? I grew up in a conservative Christian household. I wasn't allowed to listen to secular music till 1995. So I will say that having said that as soon as I as soon as I did a basic Google and Alonzo said Blondie when I was born in 92.

[00:02:25] I did know I did know a little bit about her. Now, I did a very quick Wikipedia search just now. I saw him do it. No, after after we had the conversation about how this is one of the few people who started in the in an underground music scene. And most people that do that when they make it big time, the underground scene believes that they sell out and they just lost their morals.

[00:02:52] This is someone who takes their morals with them as they rise the ladder of success. And they become I saw that and they become an icon in the process. So while Blondie was not on my radar when he said Debbie Harry, I did know that much. Now, that is not nearly enough, I will say. It's not enough. But, you know, sometimes we don't know stuff around here. I mean, but we didn't know Busby Berkeley. You specifically didn't. I didn't know who that was. I'm not going to take that bullet with you. You know, that was this is what I'll say. Oh, Buzz Berkeley's dead.

[00:03:21] This is what I'll say. I, I promise that I'm going to I'm going to put in the work. I'm going to I'm going to do I'm going to do better. And I'm going to take this opportunity to grow and learn from my mistakes. Well, thank you, gentlemen. This will be reflected on your final grade. That's fair. Thank you, Professor. More than fair. Thanks, Dave White. Dave White, ladies and gentlemen, always a pleasure. That felt like more of a pop quiz than anything. I know we were supposed to do work, but it did feel like a pop quiz.

[00:03:51] Yeah, the headmaster is very disappointed. Yeah. You know, I want so badly for Dave to accept me and like me. But you have no desire to work on yourself. Yeah. I think that's that's that's that's I just want. Is it too much to be accepted for who I am? Yes. In a nutshell, yes. Yeah, that's what I'm getting at. Yeah. I feel that.

[00:04:21] Well, we are heading into better brand. Yeah. Just be the best version of you. Get back on your B.S. You know what I mean? I don't again. I don't. We are talking about holidays today. Yeah, we are. The final episode eight weeks later. And here we are. Here we are. And since last week, we did get big news that the mistletoe murders. Yep. Picked up. Bingo bongo. Get more of it, which is exciting.

[00:04:50] And so I don't know, you know, when when we'll get. I don't know if it's going to be a Hallmark Plus situation again. I don't know if that's a an experiment that they would consider to be failed. I don't know. I mean, the article I read said that they are, you know, that Hallmark Plus's mistletoe murders has a second season. Whether that means the show that has until this point been on Hallmark Plus or it's the show that will remain on Hallmark Plus remains to be seen. Yeah.

[00:05:18] So I think, you know, just kind of some of the shuffle, like how the way home was supposed to only be on Hallmark Plus. But after the holiday season and the pushback, they said, no, we'll bring to the network. Chicken Sisters is going to be shown on the network now. And so I'm interested to see kind of how things continue to evolve for the plus. Can I throw a little tease out there? Brands, that you mentioned mistletoe murders. He's throwing out a tease, everybody. This Friday, we have the good fortune of interviewing our new BFF, Steve Lund. Steve Lund. Boom.

[00:05:46] And he has a great story about his role in mistletoe murders. I won't say anything else. There you go. But fun little time there from Steve Lund. I mean, here's the thing. It makes perfect sense for them to run the first three movies of mistletoe murders on Hallmark Mystery as a way to get people to then subscribe to Hallmark Plus to see the next three movies. Makes too much sense. But, you know, we'll see if that's how they pursue it. Yeah.

[00:06:14] And I just, you know, I'm interested to see what happens because I do feel like last year, you know, I haven't talked to anybody at Hallmark, but I think they would say it was a lot. They may be, you know, the question's always been like, how much is too much? Yeah. When does it tip from being possible to no longer being possible for people to consume all of that content? And I don't know. You know, I haven't talked to anybody, but I think that they would, I could maybe expect them to scale back a bit.

[00:06:44] We do this for a full-time job and we couldn't cover everything. Exactly. We couldn't cover everything during the holidays. Unless you are just at home all day, the idea of you being able to watch everything. But I think there were even people that are at home all day. But you've got the movies, you've got the streamer. And they're all on Thursday. They're all on Thursday. And I'm sure we'll talk about this more in our hollier days at the end of this. But, and some of the great stuff got buried. Got absolutely.

[00:07:13] Christmas Eve. Buried. My concern is, you know, come this July, are we going to get anything new on Hallmark Channel for Christmas in July? Or are they going to be like, hey, everybody, it's the network premiere of the unwrapping movies. And we've got three more Cherry Lanes for you. And, and, and, and, like, yeah, let's, you know. I can totally see them putting Cherry Lane in Christmas in July. It 100% reeks of we're paying this for it. We're paying now for what we're going to show.

[00:07:43] And it should. Cherry Lane should have been on Hallmark Channel. Because the first ones were. Like, it just seems so. But would, let me ask you this, Alonzo. Would you have rather seen Holidays, the series, just put out in July? Like, even if it was still on the plus. If Hallmark said, hey, we're not doing anything on, on our networks. But we have this new Christmas show. It's on the plus. And it wasn't competing against 50 movies and all this other stuff. That would have been great. Yeah.

[00:08:11] Because I was trying to keep up with everything. Yeah. And, like, by the time we did our, our ranking episode for the Double Deckers. Like, I had watched all the unwrappings. And I had watched all of the Cherry Lanes. And I had watched, you know, all of that stuff. But it was exhausting. And, yeah, I think, like, given that they, they know there's at least some Christmas audience throughout the year. You know, we, they wouldn't rerun movies on Thursday and Friday night if that weren't the case.

[00:08:40] So, yeah, I think, I think Holidays as a Christmas in July event would have been great. That said, I did subscribe to Hallmark Plus. I'm not averse to them launching stuff on the streamer and making the streamer a destination. But they, you've got to commit to the bit. It seems like they very quickly were like, um, I mean, like, they kind of backpedaled really frantically. They did realize that what people really wanted on the streamer was the new Christmas movie. That's all people have ever wanted for anything. That's all they've ever wanted.

[00:09:09] Yeah, for cord cutters, which they then delivered on, like, December 27th or whatever. But they got to figure out a way to, like, I don't know. They've got a lot of audiences to try and make happy here. I don't envy them the effort. But, but, yeah, it was definitely a lot in November, December. The fact that the finale of the show aired on Christmas Eve, it's like, it just felt like a lot of, a lot of sausage going into not enough casing. That's how you said it. Uh, I, I will say this.

[00:09:38] The plus fits in great as an add-on on the filo. Yes. It just seamlessly goes right in there. I got my filo. I got my DVR. I got the plus. The nice thing. We're all good to go. You know, the nice thing. We've always, we talked about how amazing the one button ad skip has been for, you know, a year plus now. Literal years. Um, but when you add the Hallmark Plus, you also then have the option to watch it on the, via Hallmark Plus without any ads. You have to do the one button ad skip. So it's a really, it's a win-win. It is a win-win for sure.

[00:10:08] Filo.tv slash DTH. You also can watch our show and see Dave White. And I think that's a big one for everybody. Let's talk holidays, shall we? The finale is what they called it. And it did air on Hallmark Plus on Christmas Eve 2024. And it went a little something like this. The Minetti, Hanahan, their power comes back on. Remember they got the generators. The battery is good to go.

[00:10:33] And Chuck is thrilled because the entire neighborhood will now thank them for his life. Revel in the glory of his. That's exactly right. How down before me. That's exactly right. The next morning, the power is still out for the rest of the neighborhood. And the power lines are down everywhere. Dan and I are getting PTSD from the hurricanes. Yes, absolutely. And Josh shows up to bring Nora some coffee. And she is surprised that he is still here. She's supposed to be on a plane.

[00:11:02] But she's not upset about it. He comes in and surprises her and helps her finish the bike that she was putting together. Remember you had to install it. You had to put the bike together. Some assembly required. And she asks why he's not on his flight. And he says, it was canceled. So that's why. But he's not upset about it. He's not sorry. He asks if something is happening between them. And she says, what's happening feels like a repeat of high school. They're in different worlds.

[00:11:32] She tells him that he should go so that Theo doesn't get confused. And she thanks him for coming by. And he says, okay. And then he touches her arm. What arm touch? Lucy and Annie go to find Lucy's sister, Sylvie. They find her at the bakery. And Sylvie apologizes for making things so crazy. And Lucy responds by saying, I need a little crazy right this very minute.

[00:12:00] The Manetti Hanahan's invite the neighbors over. But Kevin, Gabby, and the dad are not interested in going over. Their mom, though, insists that they are going. Chuck heads over to invite them after his wife implored him to do so. And he comes face-to-face with Manny. And they agree on a Christmas truce. Once inside the house, Gabby and Katie make up.

[00:12:26] And Katie even helps Gabby finish her cooking audition video. Danny is talking to Chuck when he notices Linda. And they go to talk. And she is thrilled to learn that Danny told his gal pal that he doesn't want to jump into anything new right now. Lucy and Sylvie encourage Annie to take a chance. Take another chance. Go and talk to the boy that you like. And who knows what happens when you talk.

[00:12:57] They bring some of the Joy Bars, the leftover Joy Bars. And they are a smash hit once again. Plus, Sylvie invited Cole. He's going to be by later. Theo figures out that Josh had been at his house that morning. And insists Nora take him to see Josh so that he can give him his Christmas gift. Grandma Lynn tells her family that she's not feeling great. Blaming too much Frito Pie. And who hasn't? But it gets her thinking.

[00:13:26] What if she's not around next Christmas? She tells Marcus and Ella that she wants them to get married today. She calls over Wally, who happens to be an ordained minister. And is like, we're going to do a wedding today. The Lynn family is left scrambling, trying to figure out what to do. Marcus begs Ted to just tell his grandma the truth. Danny and Linda continue talking and laughing until Evan walks in and sits right between them. Theo gives Josh his gift.

[00:13:55] It is a picture that he drew. Josh loves it. Big fan of art. Evan pulls Linda aside and says he thinks that they both know that he's not her forever guy. And he acknowledges that it's obvious that she and Danny are the real deal. Maybe they should give it another go. She thanks him for making her feel good, even while getting dumped. Grandma Lynn and Connie discuss health scares.

[00:14:22] And grandma calls in a favor to try to make sure that Connie gets her test results ASAP. Annie goes to apologize to Max for kissing him unexpectedly. And then he kisses her back on the cheek and says he's glad they both feel the same way about each other. Grandma Lynn asks Ted if he's excited about the wedding that they all get to watch together. And he finally comes out to her and she says that her heart is broken, not because he's gay,

[00:14:49] but because he didn't feel like he could be honest with her. The kids run in announcing that the llama, Dasher, is missing. Chuck seizes the chance to put on camo, as he always does, and lead a rescue mission. But Kevin shows up with Dasher before he gets far. Chuck apologizes to Kevin for what he said about him and Katie and invites him inside. Kevin sees Katie and Gabby hugging and apologizes to Katie.

[00:15:17] He puts that ring back on her finger and they kiss. Danny wastes no time trying to shoot his shot with Linda again, giving her two tickets to Paradise, which in this case are to Norway to see the Northern Lights in person. And they kiss. Connie gets a call. Two tickets to Northern Lights. There you go. That was way better. That's really good. That's really good. God. Debbie Harry would never. I know. Connie gets a... She would have worked in Aurora Borea. She would have.

[00:15:47] She would have. Connie gets a call from the doctor with good news. The test came back negative. Chuck tells her that this is the best Christmas gift ever, and they hug. Stacy tells Josh that while she doesn't think that they're forever partners in life, she believes that they're still great business partners and wants to keep working together. She then leaves to catch the flight. Grandma Lynn tells Ted and Marcus that they're lucky to have found each other, and she looks forward to the wedding whenever it happens.

[00:16:15] Ted suggests that they just go ahead and get married right then and there, and Marcus is all for it. Josh takes this opportunity with Nora and shares his feelings, and they end up kissing. What is... Cole, I guess, is that his name? Cole shows up, and he and Lucy share their feelings. Everybody's sharing feelings, Dan. Lots of sharing feelings. It's wedding time. The wedding is beautiful. There's confetti, and an absolute banger of a song plays as they all run outside,

[00:16:44] and they take a big neighborhood picture together. And my friends was... Holidays, the finale! We did it. Good job there, Brian. Let's take a quick break. We'll come back, and we will break this down some more here on... Back to Hallmark!

[00:17:13] We're talking Holidays, the season finale, series finale, who can say? You can? I mean, it's got to be... At least for these guys, right? At least for these guys. Yeah. Let's see what I think. So let's share our thoughts on it. We're going to start with a hot take. We're going to share exactly how we felt about this movie, and I'll start with you. Alonzo. Alonzo, what'd you think? How'd they do? Yeah, they had a lot of loops to close, and, you know, I felt like they pretty much gunned through it in a satisfying way.

[00:17:41] I think everybody got what they wanted, both the characters and the viewers. You know, obviously, these are not all created equal. We would have maybe liked to have spent, you know, more time with Loretta Devine and Dennis Haysbert and less with, you know, Sylvie, but whatever. I think this is like, you know, as catharsis theater goes, where you're just like, this

[00:18:09] and then this plot line ends, and this plot line ends. You know, they have found an organic way to put everybody under one roof, which is, I think, it goes a long way to making this work. One of your listeners, Elizabeth, actually had a really interesting idea that she shared on Instagram for what a season two would look like, which would be that Gabby has a show that's not unlike Lacey Chabert's celebrations. They come back to the cul-de-sac to try and, like, film everybody's Christmas and just get

[00:18:38] in the way and annoy everyone. I love this. And basically all the families have to, like, work together to, like, make the documentary crew go away. I love it. I think that's a really fun idea. That is a fun idea. I love that. I agree with Alonzo. You know, I talked about at the end of my days, I was like, I don't think that there's any way that they can do this well. Same. And personally, I was pleasantly surprised. I thought that this was really good.

[00:19:04] Granted, to Alonzo's point as well, the Sylvie storyline, that whole family, if we just take that out altogether, one, everybody else gets a little bit more time, which I think is nice. And it was the storyline that they kind of kept coming back to for the shortest amount of time, so it was clear to me that they also didn't care. And so we, you know, just do seven episodes. Get rid of them. And I think what you have then is a really, really, really great show. And I agree.

[00:19:33] I didn't actually, I'm dumb. The power was out everywhere. I didn't even think about the fact that this finale would all take place under, primarily under one roof and was such a great way to do it and to get everybody's stories told without it feeling like it's jumping all around, even though that it is. And so overall, really, really pleased by this finale. Lots of great feels. Lots of great moments. Was it, did it go a little too fast? Could we spend a little bit more time with people?

[00:20:03] Yeah, we could have, but we weren't able to because of the amount of families that there are. And so for what it was, it was really, really good. Dan? Yeah. I mean, it's not one of my favorite episodes of the series. I don't think that they could help that. It is exactly what it says it's going to be on the box. But to Alonzo's point, you know, it's not like they have to just close all these storylines. They also have to come up with new plots that get these storylines together. So to say it's overstuffed is an understatement.

[00:20:32] I mean, the llama disappears. It runs away. That's how they decide to get dude back over to actually get the blessing of John C. McGinley and an apology and blah, blah, blah. So yeah, it feels really overstuffed. The stuff that works is awesome. The wedding at the end and they do the confetti, really cool. But not my favorite. In fact, I would say that the arc of this particular television program, the opposite of Mistletoe Murders where it started off and I was like, Mistletoe Murders, I was like, this is fine, but it's kind of generic.

[00:21:01] And then it kind of reached new heights. Whereas this one starts off in very new and different territory for Hallmark. We have some really good episodes early. And then it slowly kind of descends into more of a generic territory for me. And there's nothing they could do. I'm not mad about it. I just wasn't nearly jacked about this episode as I was about three or four earlier in the year. So yeah, it's fine. I think this is a success. I said last week it would be a success even if this episode sucked. This episode didn't suck.

[00:21:31] It just was, it was too little of what we liked and too much of what we didn't. And I think we all were expecting that. And I was, and so I was not pleasantly surprised. I was just not surprised at all. I was just here for it. It's time for all the feels when we talk about what in this episode gave us feels. Alonzo? Look, I am not immune to the appeal of a gay wedding on a television show, particularly a Hallmark television show.

[00:21:58] I mean, you know, Dave and I were early adapters in that front or adopters rather. Trendsetters. Yeah. I mean, you know, we, we got married in 1997 just because we honestly didn't think it was ever going to be legal in our lifetime. So obviously, you know, the last 25 years has been a real ride. But no, I thought it was, it was lovely. And I do have some weight what's regarding, you know, Nene, but nonetheless, in terms of

[00:22:26] like the actual doing of it and, and, and the emotions expressed are, I thought that was lovely. I also liked the callback with Loretta Devine and the new girlfriend doing the sort of spaghetti Western show now. That was funny. That, that the guys had done in the, in their episode. That was, I thought that was great. Um, listen, it's, it is, it had been, uh, six episodes since we had seen Theo. Mm-hmm.

[00:22:52] Uh, and Theo continues to just crush, uh, when Theo comes in and gives them the gift and they, like, he sees it and he's like, oh my gosh. And then they hug and like, I don't know. I just think that this kid crushed it. And, uh, I, I, you know, it had been so many weeks that I kind of forgot how great Theo was. That Theo, Theo crushes. You get it, kid. Um, and then when, um, you know, Danny and Linda, you know, know that they're going to,

[00:23:20] they're going to be back together now when the scene starts and it's, the camera is outside of their room and it's coming in and there's clothes on the ground. Yep. Oh yeah. They made a decision. What is, what is that? Turns out they're just packing. Where are my pearls to clutch? Turns out they're just packing, but we know what you were doing. That's right. And, uh, Hallmark, that was, uh, uh, clever and it made me laugh when, when it's just turns out that they're packing and throwing stuff around. Um, and then that whole scene was just really.

[00:23:49] He's, he's now got Sir Darius Blaine to live up to. So. I know. Yeah. Good luck. Good luck out there. No more phoning it in. That's exactly right. But a really, a really great scene, uh, all around. Alonzo, I'm, I'm not joking. The Royal movie that aired on Sunday, uh, has a line where the, the Prince asked this woman, he says, I've got a proposition for you. They go to her face. They go back to him and he goes, not that kind in a Hallmark movie. So things are happening. I see.

[00:24:18] I had the showdown in the hallway outside of the bathroom is mine as well to like, that was a really fun scene with Sir Darius Blaine and Dennis Haysbert in, in the first episode. And for Loretta Devine and this new girl to be doing the, basically the same thing. And the roles have been now reversed of who is now jealous of whom I thought that was wonderful. And that was fun. And it was an easy callback to let you remember why that storyline was so great to begin with. And so, yeah, more of that. That was fantastic. To show you how dumb I am though.

[00:24:45] Like that scene happened right after, um, Annie and her mom were like, we got to go find Sylvie. And I forgot about this one. I was like, what is Sylvie doing in this house? She did it close enough. And then I figured it out pretty quickly. For a brief moment I was like. But when they go, hey, we got to go find her. And it cuts straight to this woman. Yeah. And I was like, what is happening? But yeah, that's, you know, I'm just dumb and that's fine. Uh, let's, uh, take a quick break. We'll come back. We'll get to the way, what, the, what, the Hallmark here on deck the Hallmark. Hallmark, no one tried to push back on me saying I'm dumb.

[00:25:16] That hurt. Well, it's just like, you know, sometimes you say, oh, I'm dumb. And then people are like, no, no, no, no. I just felt like you were fishing for a compliment. Totally fishing. Yeah. I love. Put a worm on that hook. I love fishing. Uh, let's get into the way we went. So we talk about, uh, what in this, uh, episode made us go away. What? I'll start with you, Alonzo. Well, okay. So kudos to the solar battery actually becoming, you know, a plot point and them, you know,

[00:25:43] like fixing it from the end of last week where we were wondering why, why they were also plunged into the blackout. But as ever with these things, it raises more questions than it does, uh, answers. For instance, um, uh, where does Ian Harding get coffee? If the entire neighborhood is plunged into electricity. Yeah. You know, for starters, there, there was that one.

[00:26:06] Um, generally speaking, they don't even try to like make it look like a storm has happened in terms of like the sky is clear. There's not a, there's not a pine, there's not a, a pine needle on the ground. It's 70 degrees in May, wherever they're shooting this. Like not, no, no, nothing is overturned. There's no telephone pole leaning. And that was all you needed. Beggars can't be choosies. One branch, you know, that's all I ask.

[00:26:36] Um, I just watched this movie that is unfortunately not very good called Opus with, um, uh, I owe a Debra from the bear. That's right. And, and, uh, John Malkovich and John Malkovich plays a, a, a sort of legendary reclusive pop star who comes back with a new album and they go to his like compound in Utah. And the joke is that every, like in every scene, John, uh, uh, uh, uh, John Malkovich is wearing another crazy outfit.

[00:27:05] And, and like, it's even commented upon by the characters that he's like constantly changing costumes. John C. McGinley in this episode, not only goes full camo, he has more than one ugly Christmas sweater. Yeah. He is really making the most of it. He is just like, you know, you, you think he was playing Liberace or something like a good costume changes just keep coming. So that was crazy. Um, how long did it take Sir Darius Blaine to get that mimosa? Thank you. That's my big one.

[00:27:33] Sir Darius Blaine is gone for years for a mimosa. Like hand squeezing the oranges. In my defense, he said, can I have one? I said, sure. And then I saw it. I drank his as well as mine. I had to make another. He's got a juicer out there. He's doing a whole thing. He's waiting for the champagne to like vintage. I knew when Mosey's were mentioned that we would be getting a mimosa. Thank you, Alonzo. Love you.

[00:28:01] As someone that doesn't have many weight watts in this episode, you can't just send a guy for two mimosas, which are probably pre-made at the very least. It's two things to pull. Like, and then he's gone for ages, just ages. And there's 40 people there, maybe, maybe 20. I don't know. And they couldn't go to the store. The power is like, it's out. Like you have what you have. Indeed. Yeah. You had to make do, but presumably you have champagne and orange juice, you know? And then finally, this was the Nene thing.

[00:28:31] I get it where she's like, oh, I'm not upset that you're gay, but I'm hurt that you didn't come tell me. They could have really pushed back a little more on there are historical reasons why gay people don't come out to elder members of their family, especially when this character has been presented as such a battle axe. Yeah. That everyone is terrified of.

[00:28:54] And the therapist, you know, fiance does kind of tell her, hey, look, if you're going to make everybody afraid of you, they're not going to divulge things to you. And so there was at least a little bit of mention of that, but they kind of let her off the hook for that one. I just want to say like, look, you come out when you're ready. Come out when you feel comfortable and come out when you feel like you're in a safe position to do so. And nobody gets to dictate that to you. Yeah.

[00:29:21] Wait until she finds out that her own son has been lying about way less important stuff his entire life. Yeah. Yeah. Just try not to upset her. Just to placate her. Yeah. Like they let her off the hook way. I can't believe no one is being honest with me. Anything else, Andrew? That'll do it. Have we talked about the deadline for her cooking video being Christmas night? Christmas Eve night? Yeah. Yeah. Like that's what day is it? Christmas Eve or is it Christmas day now?

[00:29:50] It's now Christmas day. It's Christmas day. That's what I thought. And so she's like, yes. So she's like, I got to upload this video in 12 hours, which I would assume means like 1159 Christmas night. And so that's an interesting time for a deadline of a cooking video. You know, way to go. You guys, I guess. Everyone's waiting for it. Everyone's waiting for it. But and then I just got to kick out of the fact that, you know, she Nora doesn't want Theo to know that Josh came over. Right.

[00:30:18] And so she's like, get out of here. It's going to be confusing. You know. And then Theo sees the coffee cups and he does a lot of the legwork here. He's he says, was it Santa? Teeing up. You were teeing up. Teeing up. An excuse. Teeing up. So but she's like, I guess I can't lie to my kid. About there was a lot there.

[00:30:47] She created hoops that didn't need to. Yes. If you're like, do if you're, you know, your buds, if you're doing the Santa thing, just roll with the Santa thing. What is presented to you? Yes. And yes. And the Santa. Oh, he did. He did come. I didn't even notice. Dano. Yeah. I only have two left. At one point, very subtly, John C. McGinley calls Dennis Haysbert daddy in this episode of television.

[00:31:15] And not since Harry Connick Jr. and Will Smith and Independence Day. I think he said Danny. Nope. I'm pretty sure he said daddy. Go look. Haysbert answers to either, I would imagine. Yeah. I paused it and rewound it. And it's very, it's under his breath. Like he's going to get him a refill. But when I, and I heard daddy, but I was like, his name's Danny. So he must have said Danny. Cause I don't know why you would say that. I don't know why you would either. That's why it's a win. I mean, I like it. Yeah. I'm here for it. I mean.

[00:31:45] Let me turn on the closed captions. Yeah. Maybe you can figure it out. Um, and then my other one is pretty straightforward. Alonzo mentioned it basically, but listen, we were at without power for about 10 days here in Greenville, South Carolina. And some folks in Western North Carolina are still getting their grid back up and running months later. And I'm not here to say they shouldn't have made this because of that. This is still wonderful television. What I am here to say is, is that everyone is acting amazing, uh, for not having any power

[00:32:11] because it, we went out on us in September and the weather was perfect for a power outage. Like most nights, it wasn't too hot during the day. I mean, like you could open your windows and like we got through, it's supposedly freezing cold on December 24th, wherever they are. And most of these people, when the power goes out, they talk about if they're going to go over to, to John C. McGinley's house or not. Like they would rather, they're like, should we go over? Should we stay here? They're having a thing. We could freeze to death.

[00:32:41] None of them have any blankets on. Everyone's doing their makeup and putting themselves to get like, this is not what happens in a power outage. You know what coffee is? I can tell you it's a propane powered blackstone griddle with a pot and Bustelo instant coffee and water on it. That's what it is. These people are acting like it's a minor inconvenience. We could stay here. What is it? 55 in the house? NBD.

[00:33:08] We can see our breath or we could go over to the one house with power. Like they are acting like- I had to wait two hours to get a mimosa? Forget it. The mimosa service really slow. I'd rather be here in my freezing house. I mean, I don't need to charge my phone for sure. Who cares? That was the part that like, listen, we in our, in our neighborhood, the power in my 13 years there has gone out for never, never more than 30 minutes ever by hour 12.

[00:33:38] We're all like, what do we, what do we do? What are we going to do? What's the plan? Imagine if it was Christmas on Christmas. Christmas. Yeah. Yeah. That was, uh, that was tough. I did have a little PTSD from that. Remembering all the times of that. Um, I do have a, uh, an update. Okay. Close caption update. Thanks to Philo. Uh, he does say daddy. I told you. I rewound it. I know.

[00:34:07] I, I just was like, surely he said Danny. Cause that's his name. Danny's close to daddy. Well, what I was saying before you interrupted me was not since Harry Connick, junior Will Smith have two dudes who are trying to appear to be like quote unquote menly men exchange that term in such a caveat. Like it was great. I'm not mad at it. It was just so shocking. U S Marine, U S Marine Chuck. Who is like, don't tell me what to do ever.

[00:34:36] I'm like, like it was just a, it was crazy. It was a crazy scene. It was a game recognized game. Yeah. Yeah, it was. And, uh, yeah. I, I, what does that say about Danny though? That he did like, he just heard daddy went along with it. Yeah. It's another person calling me daddy. What is it? Thursday. That's exactly right. Oh, you're Dennis Haysbury. You get called that. Yes, you, yes, you do. Uh, believe you me. Believe you. So around the office alone.

[00:35:03] I mean, we just, um, let's get to, are you, what's your Hollywood? What's your days? That's right. Um, what, I mean, what are you still wondering? Like, what do you even do here? Alonzo? I mean, look, my Holly is, I, I, I, I think for, for as much as we love to pick these things to death and find the, the, the, the stuff that is nonsense or that could have, you know, required maybe another draft of writing on the whole, I think I love the ambition of this.

[00:35:32] I love them taking the hallmark Christmas thing that they do and turning it into episodic television. Uh, I love the idea of intertwined stories, even if they don't intertwine them nearly enough. But for a first go at this, which this kind of represents, I think it's pretty admirable. And I hope that, you know, the fact that it wound up on the streamer and not on the main

[00:35:56] network doesn't, um, you know, like chill the idea of them doing something more like this, whether it's a season two of this or another show like it, because I think that there are historical examples of good episodic TV shows about, uh, Christmas. There's that, um, that there's a Norwegian show called home for Christmas. That's on Netflix. And I like a lot. There was an Australian one that they remade with Dennis Leary, uh, that I'm forgetting that

[00:36:26] what it was called. It was a couple of years ago. It was Dennis Leary and Elizabeth Perkins. They remade it for American television. Uh, it was sleepy kitty ball would know I'm blanking, but anyway, this has been done and can be done really well. And it gives you all the, all the, you know, I know that they could do this when calls the

[00:36:48] heart, they have a program that goes 12 episodes and double the characters of this where nothing happens and they could make, gosh, if they did that with this group of characters, if this group got 12 episodes and every week summer featured more than others, but it isn't just a spotlight on a family. They're all intermingling. You know what? Sign me up right now. Interesting though.

[00:37:15] My, now my Holly is, can we do this with when calls the heart and just see what happens? Season, season premiere. We're setting up what's going to happen. Then the next batch of episodes is cause I'm always like, let's just spend a whole frigging episode with bill. Let's spit like, let's do it. Rosemary and Lee. Yes. Yes. Yes. All right. One too many guys. I, let's do it now. Let's go back to evergreen and make that a series.

[00:37:45] I know. I know. I just, I, that's that. So that's the thing. And my days does, of course they won't learn any of the good parts of this. Yes. My, yes. My, my days is, I don't think they'll do this again. You know, I don't think they will, but you know, I'd like to be wrong. Dan. Yeah. We spent most of the holiday season talking about how we were, we almost had regressed Hallmark, not we.

[00:38:10] Hallmark had regressed when it came to content that gave some more inclusion and featured people across the sexual spectrum that they were doing in previous years and they didn't. And so I did lament that some. This wedding is really nice at the end of this. And I would have loved that to be a movie on the Hallmark channel, multiple of them. But I don't want the fact that I was mad on this episode and that lament to take away

[00:38:35] from the fact that Hallmark tried something new with really good people and it by and large worked really well. So I hope the takeaway is more of this, not the, the, the, some of the squabbles that I had with it. The takeaway should be yes, more, but maybe do the, and if you're sitting there going, we can't afford all this, take away the bottom 10 movies that you're chucking out there every year because you and I all know there's a bottom 10.

[00:39:02] We could have done without no, you know, very rarely is one of the flagship movies of the Christmas season in the bottom 10. Very occasionally like a CCB would make an appearance from time to time, but most of the time that bottom 10 is their add-ons. They're very Vermont Christmas. They're operation nutcracker. They're to have into holiday. They're trading up Christmas. They're private princess Christmas. Guys, give me this show over this, you know, these bottom really 20 movies.

[00:39:31] So you're saying quality and not. It's crazy. And here's the thing. The reason I don't say it like that, Alonzo is, is that they did 50 this year. If you take 10 out, they're still doing 40, which is the number they did in the last, done the last four years. So yeah, I guess quality over quantity, but you can have the same number of quantity. We're accustomed to and still give us the good stuff. Yeah. Maybe, maybe don't acquire the unwrapping movies. Believe in Christmas.

[00:40:00] We don't have to air that on our network. Thank you, daddy. You're welcome. Hey, we did it. We're, we're done with the TV shows. We, we, we, we finally conquered it. It only took till March. Next week, we're going to start going over some of the movies that we missed from different networks, streamers, et cetera, um, that are apparently quote unquote worth reviewing. I don't know who decides.

[00:40:27] Uh, we're going to start over on Netflix next week with carry on, carry on, um, you know, a couple of big names in there. Carry on my wayward son. Yeah. I guess we'll do the Jason Bateman movie months later. Yeah. The fact that he deserves. Listen, the fact that we spent time on unwrapping Christmas and Jason Bateman, Taron Egerton did a Christmas movie and we are like, just, just now. We'll get to it in April. What is it? The odds of March? We didn't even get to it on Deck the Netflix. Not even on Deck the Flicks. That one lost it on Deck.

[00:40:56] You guys are wrong for that. Well, it was a timing thing. It didn't come out to the 19th. Did we couldn't get a screener? Uh, I, the, I, it wouldn't have come out until. So we didn't want to stay. I got you. Our season ends on the 20th. We could have. If you really wanted to. Could have done it on the 19th. I was around. Yeah. Okay. I'll keep that in mind for next year. But it's, it's a. Please. It's a win it. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, we did it. Congrats to us. Um, I say we'd be done. I say we'd be done. We'll be back next time with another one. I say we'd be done.

[00:41:26] Those are all words. Until then, maybe the first to wish you a Merry Christmas, Daddy. Deck the Hallmark is a Bramble Jam podcast. It's 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. Deck the Hallmark is presented by Philo TV. For a free trial of Philo, go to philo.tv slash DTH.

[00:41:52] 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.