Welcome to Girls Gone Hallmark, a Hallmark review podcast.

I'm Megan and I'm a longtime Hallmark fan and as a reminder, I am joined by a rotating cast of lovely co hosts for these reviews.

This is a bramble Jam podcast.

Views of The Chicken Sisters.

Today, I am thrilled to be joined by film critic and holiday movie expert Alonzo Duralda.

We're breaking down the latest episode of The Chicken Sisters Season two, episode seven, Storms bruin y'all.

But before we talk tornadoes and.

Family drama, I do want to talk to you, Alonso, because your newest book, updated version of your book, have your movie Little Christmas is out now.

As I told you before we started recording, my copy is arriving today.

I say here right now, but it will be here today.

So I'd love to hear a little bit more about that book and what we can expect.

Sure, So this is a book that originally I wrote, came out in twenty ten, and it was kind of early in the game of talking about Christmas movies, not just in terms of you know, the the minted classics.

You're you know, it's a wonderful life's and your your white Christmases.

But also, hey, let's talk about you know, Eyes wide Shut, let's talk about Gremlins and die Hard and The Line in Winter and various other films of different stripes that you know, all kind of fit under the Christmas umbrella.

And you know, it did pretty well.

And it was the kind of thing where I would schlep out every you know, every year when the lights come out of the attic, I would also come out of the attic with.

This book, like, hey, remember I wrote this Christmas book.

Check it out.

And then I realized, oh my gosh, fifteen years of and a lot of new movies have opened in that period.

And then also a lot of classics that I had not known about when I wrote the first edition.

I wanted to throw those in as well.

So it seemed like a good time to do a revised and updated edition, which this one is.

If you have the first book, there is a ton of new stuff in here.

There's more than one hundred films that weren't covered the first time around, lack And if you don't have the first book, this is a great place to start.

And if there's certain titles where if you want a more in depth discussion.

You might want to go back and pick up the first one.

Oh great to know.

Well, I'm super excited.

I am a huge holiday fan all Thanks Christmas, so can't wait to dig into that.

We will of course leave a link to that in the show notes so everyone can grab a copy of Have Yourself a Movie, Little Christmas.

Excellent.

Talking the Chicken Sisters, everyone, let's talk to This season has had a little bit of a different starting point with this show.

I'm curious what your experience was.

Did you watch season one in real time?

Have you watched all of season two?

What are you working with here?

Yeah?

I hopped in at the beginning.

I was one of those, you know, I had already been a Hallmark Movies Now subscriber, and then you know, I did that thing where if you if you renewed your Hallmark Movies Now subscription for a year before it became Hallmark Plus, you saved like twenty bucks.

So yeah, so I was in from day one and watching The Chicken Sisters, which I was very excited about because you know, obviously the cast drew me in, not just the leads, you know, but also I think a lot of the supporting players like Cardi Wong, who we finally got back in this episode after some absence in Rukaia Bernard and folks like that, and you know, where is our where is our gay cowboy?

Like what happened Jake Boy?

Where Nicole?

I have to assume he's coming back for the finale for the wedding, but one.

Would hope his absence has been felt this season.

But yeah, so I've been watching from the get go.

I never read the book, so I came in cold to this world, and I didn't have expectations about season two being like, oh no, now they're straying from the material.

But I think that what we've seen a lot lately in TV is that, you know, you get to show like The Leftovers or The Handmaid's Tale, where yeah, at some point they run out of novel and then they're kind of on their own, and more often than not, at least it has been my experience in the shows that I've watched, the writers come up with cool places to take those things, and I feel like we're, after maybe a bit of a bumpy start this season, we're getting there with Chicken Sisters as well.

Yeah, I would agree with that.

I did read the book and spent the entire first season going well.

In the book, this happened, But I feel like looking back on it, the changes that they made were really smart changes that set themselves up really well for a second season.

I mean, most notably, Frank Junior is dead in the book.

Oh Frank, Yes, so Frank ju It's such a key part of the conflict in this entire both seasons that you can't even really imagine this series without him.

So I think they made some smart changes.

We have a very fun episode to talk about, the Tornado episodes, Storms brewin y'all.

I'm excited to dive into this, and let's go ahead and start with your first impression.

I mean, I want to say this is the strongest episode yet at least it's certainly the most cathartic.

You know, I think that a lot of times with serialized drama, we sort of like we see these misunderstandings and these disagreements go on, and then every so often they just like everybody gets plopped in a room together and they just got to work it out.

And we have a bunch of those like you know that, do you know the the the expression bottle episode?

Yes, you know where we're like, if a TV show is maybe running over budget, they'll do an entire episode where it's two characters in one room pashing it out.

I kind of felt like this was a six pack of bottle episodes.

Yeah, exactly, because you've.

Got all these sort of little mini dramas playing out in different locations while the storm is raging through.

But yeah, I think overall we get to some really interesting places with characters, some wonderful reveals are made, people show who they are in different ways, and so yeah, I found this one really satisfying.

You know, every time I think of bottle episode, I think of the West Wing, whenever we get an episode where they don't leave the White House at all, and you're like, this was a you know, a tight budget episode.

We don't get any exterior shot, certainly no air force one.

I agree with you.

I think this was a highlight of the season.

And I think some people have complained that the season.

Feels a little slow.

I haven't.

I really enjoy these characters and I like the story we're telling this season, so I haven't felt that.

But it's a really interesting way to stretch a several hour period over an episode and not make it feel slow by adding in all the drama of the tornado and all the interpersonal drama happening alongside it.

Yeah, if you're here for the for the conversations, they don't they don't skimp on that.

But if you also just want to watch, like you know, Leah Thompson driving around, is the witness ripping round, she's rescuing people, then yeah, there's a little bit of a little bit of everything for folks.

You know.

Well, let's talk what we liked about this episode.

I'll let you go first.

Oh gosh, I mean, well, first of all, the return of Cardi Wong very excited about that.

I loved the I think the may j stuff was really strong because she has been grappling this whole season with this notion of the Mimi's curse, and I think where she finally sits down and spells it out to him and where what she fears about it and him responding that it's not a curse, it's a tragedy, and that you know, when he talks about how like a bunch of weak men basically you know, walked out on these women.

That is so much the theme of this show in terms of this is a this is a matriarchy.

This is a show about a community where the women really run things, and men are either supportive or an active hindrance, you know.

And so we have, you know, you have your Jay's and your Sergios, who are supportive and who are understanding and willing to work with and love these women.

And then you have your your frank juniors and whoever else, the Mayor who's just being, you know, being a royal pain about everything.

And so for him to really step up in that moment and be like, no, this is I see a lot of weak men here.

This is not about the Mimi's girls, you know.

But then for her to counter with, no, but I'm the one.

I'm the one who's gonna run that.

That was not a twist I saw coming and I thought, okay, but but it totally speaks to everything about that character and what we know about her and how she feels about herself.

And so it didn't feel like they were It didn't feel like a stretch.

It was like, Okay, yes, this does feel like a culmination of all the things that we've gotten to know about may over the course of two seasons.

So that was great.

I thought the putting Frank Junior and gust together was inspired because she is the last person to give him any slack and really ultimately kind of winds up delivering the tough love he needs and kind of putting the hammer down and breaking him, which somebody needed to do.

You know, I don't I think he's probably still around as a villain, but I think at least we had a little bit of redemption in this episode.

And then, you know, I think this stuff with Nancy is great because over the course of this episode, we have seen her finding her voice, finding her footing, becoming somebody who isn't just going to be the little supportive wifey in the background like she is front and center.

I think we're building up to I wouldn't be surprised if the finale of this season was She's going to run for mayor.

That's what I said in the last episode.

I said, is Nancy going to be the mayor?

Yeah?

No, I mean I think she's She's definitely proving herself.

You know, the you know, the whole railroad arm thing, and I love the payoff of the railroad on the train finally comes.

Yes, that was that was awesome.

Was going in the moment, and for a while when I was thinking about it, I thought, oh God, is frank Junior going to run against her?

You know?

But I think maybe now for this episode that that might not be the way they go.

But yeah, so I think they're setting up a lot and obviously the Amanda Sergio thing has always been at a slow boil, and they really get to pick that up.

But the arrival of Frankie at the end kind of run to me, Oh yeah, where was everybody else during this episode?

Yeah, definitely one of my wishes about that was like, I really would have loved to see Sabrina.

This was a great opportunity for a Frankie and Lindsay moment.

That's a relationship I'm totally rooting for.

But we definitely had a lot going on.

I mean, you really hit all of the high points for me.

May and Jay is the biggest storyline for me.

I just felt like their conversation was so powerful when he was saying, you know, his conversation about these are weak men, and I really liked when he pushes her when he's like, don't treat me like them, and we get that flip where She's.

Like, no, no, I'm them.

They had there was I thought it was the Gus Frank Junior redemption story.

Look, I've been saying all along, I don't I don't want a Frank Junior redemption story.

I don't want to root for him.

Let Frank Junior can write off into the sunset all loved to James Cott, but we needed it for Nancy at least, if for nothing else.

And I think it kind of brings Gus's transformation full circle that she is.

Allowed to see.

You know, she talks about how they both had demons to face.

You know, she was not a great mother, and the fact that she's able to, like you said, given the tough love, but then also see her part in it and kind of she's made amends with her daughters and now here's her chance to finally do something for Nancy, who's done something for everyone.

Else for sure.

And I think it'd be easier to write off Frank Junior entirely if he weren't Nancy's son and Frankie's dad.

Yeah, but because he is, like, we have to give him some level.

We have to hope that he achieved some level of grace, you.

Know, Yeah, that's You're exactly right.

I you want Nancy to have that because she you've seen this entire season, She's just wanted that relationship with Frank Junior back, and she has pushed him and said, you know, you owe me an apology too, like I'm willing to make amends, but I'm not alone in this.

And I really like that she you know, she spends this entire episode trying to save him, which part of me was like, come on, like this is reckless, this is crazy some of the stuff you're doing, but that she is going to get that piece.

I don't really care that Frank Junior has.

It, but sure, no, it's for her behalf.

Yeah, and that they can live in harmony, and you know, Frankie can have a relationship with both parents without feeling like she's betraying her mother by doing.

So exactly, And you know, look, I Margo Martindale said it.

I believe it, and that settles it.

That lovely line in the narration about no matter how old they get, they're always your baby, And so I totally believe that Nancy couldn't stop searching for him, like she had to make sure he was okay before she could get herself to safety.

She is the queen of put their oxygen mask on before your own, you know, even though you're not supposed to do that.

Yeah, that's a great point.

Speaking of our narrator, you know, sometimes she can be quite on the nose, which is the point.

But I did love how can we know how strong our roots are if we're not tested by the wind?

You know, thefore it does beat you over the head a little bit, but hey, it.

Was better than those baseball ones, you know.

Also, I like our moment of levity with our dude bro Christian, who's absolutely loosening.

It in the tornado and he's weak and.

He's scared and he is broke, and the cluckery is not going to be long for this world.

And you know, looking forward, there's some hint that maybe Mimi's has been destroyed by the storm, and so you know, season three maybe about rebuilding together.

Well, I mean, I mean I've kind of already done that because both restaurants are the Chicken Sisters now right and not the premise, and so they have they have two locations in town.

I gotta say this not to jump ahead on the things in the episode that didn't make sense.

But nobody closes a door in this episode in the middle of a tornado, Like, I get it.

The window is shattered, like the things are are higgely piggily, but close a door, people.

Well, I thought it was so funny because Amanda and Sergio stacked those tables on top of each other, and then they have that window right there, and I'm thinking, why didn't you turn one of the tables on its side to block that glass that's gonna be blowing through.

You're just sitting under this table and the windows right there.

I grew up in the South, and in tornado time, it was not uncommon for people to get the masking tape out and do the X on the window so that if they shattered, it would least sort of, yeah, kind of contain the thing.

And I just have a million pieces of glass shattering all over the place.

But you know, I guess they were too busy stacking tables to make that.

They did seem to not have a great setup for tornadoes in a place that gets them often enough to have a tornado siren in town.

Yeah, you'd think that, like the restaurants would have a cellar maybe to go into the only.

One who had a cellar was well Gus and Nancy I guess both had Tornado sellers.

But Yesron certainly didn't.

No, no, not at all.

And you know this episode again that I think the deck the Hallmark guys have talked about with Gus.

This show is very convenient about when she is and isn't a horder and does and doesn't have MS.

Oh yes, yeah, we did get a little bit of a break from that.

You know, she seems to be Nancy seems to have magically broken her of you know, she had that one hoarding closet, but she doesn't really seem to have any other tendencies that have spilled over.

But you know she she needed to be able to knock get down the stairs in this episode so that Frank Junior can step up.

You know.

Yeah, well we've already started talking about our wishes, but let's just keep going in that direction with this episode.

What else?

What else did you think about watching this?

I mean, like, god, you know they I get frustrated with a will day or won't they episode?

Or rather it's like amand in Sergio need to either like you know, kiss or get.

Off the pot.

You know, like I totally agree.

But I and I hope that one of the upsides of the Frank Junior redemption such as it is, is that we aren't going to drag out this divorce plot because it seemed like it was like she filed for divorce, but then he was going to use the televised kiss against her and court or something, and just like, could we just sign the papers and let's move on, and you know, not not drag this out, but but yeah, with with it an improved Frank Junior, I'm not sure.

And with restaurant guy admitting that the Cluckery is Baker villain, we don't know who the villains are anymore, but you know, I'm sure to look her up with something.

You know.

My biggest complaint was Nancy was reckless, and to me, it was fine to a certain extent that she was reckless with her own life.

She was on this mission, you know, to save the town, to save Frank Junior.

But when she finds Jen, when she finds Cardi Wong with his baby, and she says that baby to shelter, you know, she runs into Frank Junior's apartment to look for them, but leaves them in the car.

I don't understand why our goal is not to get them into the first available shelter.

And she's like, I gotta get you home.

No, you don't need to get them home, get.

Them to anybody, just put them inside anybody with the basement were in shape.

Here, it just not come on.

May shredding the seating chart to prove her point.

I'm very curious what the wedding is going to look like.

Obviously all of our venues have been destroyed, most of the applies have been destroyed.

You know, we're going to get probably a much more sincere ceremonial back.

Yeah, yeah, but I thought, why are you doing that?

You know?

I think it was like, don't ruin everything like we some things are roden, you know, he had just.

Broken the plates the chairs.

But I found it very frustrating that she destroyed the seating chart to make her metaphor.

I mean, yeah, it's very onhr given how type a she is.

But I think also if her point is we shouldn't get married, then I guess you can undo the seating chart because we shouldn't get married.

And yeah, this episode ends with her seeing what we don't see, which is I guess like the tent and all the everything else, you know, being all thrown about, and I believe Again, Daniel was like, well, that's on you for setting up an outdoor wedding that far in advance, in the middle of the summer in the South, because you never know.

I said the same thing, Why are we setting up chairs any earlier than the day of the wedding.

It's still unclear to me when that's when he is supposed to be in this timeline.

Sure, but you could have made the joke of like, well, Sabrina is a New Yorker and she doesn't get that the weather patterns are unstable, and you.

Know, like just in dirt in New York.

I mean, you wouldn't you know, It's like true they do.

You wouldn't know everything was going to be soaking wet in the morning.

I just the whole thing.

You know, the bows are going to be saggy.

It was a it was a misstep for the plot point.

Oh God, did Sabrina shelter in place with Guster, because I really needed to see that.

You know that that's a real miss too, and we didn't need a lot of it, right, just like a little glimpse of one scene.

Of I'm talking her down out of a panic, and then you know, a nice couple.

I don't know.

Yeah, Gruster is another one of our good guys in this season.

I really did miss not getting a Frankie and Lindsay moment.

I'm brooding for those two.

I don't I really don't know if they're ever.

Going to give it to us or if it's just going to be the world's longest tease.

Yeah, you know, it's funny.

I'm so dense and I usually I'm on the lookout for this kind of thing.

It didn't even cross my mind to be shipping those two, But then between hearing y'all and Jackson, I'm.

Like, oh, oh yeah, that okay, sure, And so.

Yeah, I don't know if the show is going to go there or not, because again, like our season one, Gay is one of them we haven't seen at all, and the other one hasn't popped up in very in several weeks now, so who knows.

Yeah, you know, we get at the beginning of season two, we get Patrick saying that I can't even remember Jake Boy's characters in this, but he's off helping his sister who's just had a baby, And so to me, that sets it up like, oh, he's gone for a few weeks and in theory he should be.

Back for the wedding.

The wedding.

Yeah, yeah, I mean he was a key player.

I'm sure he was doing something else.

I don't think he was written out of the show.

It wouldn't make sense to me, like if Patrick's still there that he wouldn't have at least made a couple of appearances.

Yeah, I mean, I'm sure it was a schedule conflict or whatever.

But yeah, I think that character provided, if nothing else, just like insight into May's past that was valuable and I think would have been a good sounding board for her this season.

And so, yeah, I have actively missed him.

I hope he pops up.

Yeah, Amanda kind of steps into that grounding role for May, which has been nice for their sister relationship.

But yeah, I've missed him too.

The Frankie Lindsay It's something I've been talking about since season one.

Wendy and I were big fans of that storyline.

I felt like it felt very much like they were leading us down that path.

We shall see.

There's a lot to still wrap up in episode eight, So there's certainly going to be some threads left loose at the end of this season.

And we haven't heard anything about a season three renewal at this point.

So yeah, and I worry because I know the numbers have not been great, which is depressing because you know, I bailed out of Way Home sometime in season two.

I just it stopped grabbing me.

And I've never cared for when calls the heart.

But like this show, I think is really sharp, and you know, there are times when the writing's really good, great cast, you know, lovely premise, and I think that you know, as we've seen in this season, in the sort of post novel season, there are directions to take these people and these stories, and it would be a bummer if you know, the show isn't mediocre enough for all our channel viewers and mass.

You know, yeah, it doesn't seem to have people in general.

The feedback I get is not super positive among the big swath of Hallmark viewers.

But I think it's a super interesting show.

I mean, I like what Hallmark is trying to do here with this.

I talked to somebody who said they watched season one and they didn't they saw the season two premiere and bailed, and I was like, Okay, that episode not great, but it actually does get better from there if you want to dive back in.

Yeah, I mean, they're trying to set up so many things in that episode.

They really can't get into anything, and they.

Didn't really close the loop on the kitchen clash thing all that well in terms of like literally over the course of the season, the only person who's even mentioned it as a reason to come to the restaurant turned out to be Sergio's X.

Oh yeah, like, no, there's you.

There's no like signage about it.

There's no like out of town lookie louse, Like there would be some kind of impact that being on that show would have had on the restaurants, ostensibly because the way they pitched at the first season was like, Oh, we're gonna we're gonna make you know, it's gonna really make us in a in a big way nationally if if we're on this show.

But then they had never followed up with that in any way, so it's kind of like, well, what was the point then?

Yeah, you know, season one we have shawna selling merch and then that's excuse me, episode one, we have Shawna selling merch and then that it all just fades away and now we're focused on everybody else.

Oh yeah, where it was Shawna during the tornado?

Where was Shauna?

Indeed?

I mean, Shawna would have had a great storyline.

I'm surprised she wasn't.

Doing Maybe she had a shelter that she charged people to get it.

We're apps all right, let's talk or did you see that moments from this episode any stand out moments for you?

I did like the fact that when when uh uh drank Junior gets Gus into the basement, he immediately starts picking up his childhood toys, like that's the.

Focus, you know, everything else make it.

He's like, ooh the bus, you know?

In that moment, I thought it was just a standout scene for me.

When Gus is like look around the basement and envision who put all of these things here?

Like who did it?

And who's it for?

Yes, She's like, your dad didn't do it.

You didn't like she set this up for her family to be able to ride out the storm.

Again, the metaphor is a little double there, but I really liked that moment and another standout moment for me which I mentioned earlier, but Jay saying to May, I think is really powerful.

Do you think I'm one of these men?

Then don't treat me like one?

Of course that's what.

Then we get the flip flop.

But I like he's holding her accountable for these things, like he's not just rolling over and dying in the face of her panic.

Yeah.

Yeah, I don't know when I was looking more, but panic works there.

Yeah.

I think it is a rare example of a TV show where like couples in a relationship talk to each other the way couples in a relationship do.

Where he's like, okay, by your saying this or by your acting this way you are saying about me the following things, and I don't appreciate that, you know, and I don't deserve that.

And so yeah, I thought all that was really that was quite well handled by the writing and by the acting.

I totally want to make hush puppies using a microplane onion.

Now, that sounds like a great idea.

That's a Rachel Ray moved to microp your onion for sure.

Look, if I can get actual cooking advice from a Hallmark thing, I appreciate it because I still remember that movie where Lacy Shabert's parents were Baker's and she said, well, you know, my mother said the secret ingredient for cookies is vanilla.

Extract revolution thereic you don't say, lay measure with your heart?

All right?

Did you have a feathered friend of the week?

Who'd you love this episode?

Oh?

God, so many chances.

I mean, I gotta say Nancy.

I think this is really the episode where, like I said, they've been building up to her finding her voice, finding her independence, making a if she had a weakness of being too much of a caretaker, they're turning that into a strength in that she is like looking out for the community from starting from the railroad arm now all the way to like you know, turning on the siren and making sure that everyone's evacuated.

So yeah, I would say this is absolutely Nancy's episode to shine.

Yeah, I chose Nancy last week, and so just on principle, I didn't choose her this week.

But I thought it was a nice full circle moment where she's kind of been forcing herself into these leadership roles a little bit this season, and we come back around to.

Where the town Hall.

People are like, all right, Nancy, what now?

And I think that.

They were acknowledging her role in all of this.

Yeah, I'm going to give it to Gus this week for calling out Frank Junior.

But she does it in a way with just the tiniest bit of kindness, and I think what that does is allows him to actually hear what she's saying.

She's not just throwing barbs at him the entire time, although she does plenty of that, and I think that allows for his full redemption as it were a.

Few drops of honey in the vinegars.

That's right, That's right.

Well, Alonzo, where's the best place for people to find you outside of this episode?

Well, I'm on Blue Sky at Adiraldi and Alonso dot Doaldi on Instagram, and I write reviews for the film Verdict, and you can listen to me on various podcasts, including Linoleum Knife, which I've done with my husband Dave White for fifteen years now.

Yeah, it's crazy Breakfast podcast.

Yeah, I do feel like the old Gray Mayor at this point.

Breakfast All Day with Christy Lamire.

You can catch out on YouTube war as a podcast, Maximum Film on the Maximum Fun Network.

And I pop in on the regular on Deck the Hallmark to talk about non Hallmark, non lifetime Christmas movies.

That is usually the gig.

And do please pick up my new book, Have Yourself a Movie's Little Christmas, the Revised and Expanded Edition.

Yeah, I can't wait again.

We will link everywhere you.

Can find Alonso in the show notes of this episode.

Thank you so much for joining me for this episode.

This was a great time.

Thanks for having me.

I kind of feel like I'm in a bubble on this show, and I don't really know that many people that watch it, so it was great to be able to dig into it.

I totally agree.

Are you looking forward to the countdown of Christmas season?

Oh?

Yeah always.

I'll be in Greenville for the Deck the Hallmark Marathon, so make sure to check that out.

Amazing, we can't wait.

Well once again, Alonzo, thank you for being here, and thank you for listening to this episode of Girls Gone Hallmark, a Bramble Jam podcast.

If you love this podcast, we love your five star ratings and reviews.

You can leave them right in the podcast app you are listening in.

We'll see you.

Goodbye.

All right, friends, Before we go, just a quick heads up, you're about to hear some ads die.

Little gems help us keep the show running and the Hallmark love flowing.

So do with that info what you will, grab us neck, hit the.

Skip button, or maybe just maybe listen in and discover your new favorite product.

Bye.