This is a Bramble Jam podcast.

Welcome to Girls Gone Hallmark, a Hamewark review podcast.

Oh, I was wondering, we'll get to it.

I'm Megan Who and I'm a long time Hallmark fan.

I'm Wendy.

I'm a former Hallmark hater.

If you're wondering what's happening, I think Wendy just read the notes for this episode.

But before we get there, before we get into the mail bag, I want to take a quick minute and talk about the bracket really quickly.

Okay, okay, because I think this is the best place to do it.

I think the best best place would be a Hallmark Headlines episode, but we're not doing that right now, So here it is.

First of all, I want to thank you for doing all of that work.

Wendy took me one of the bracket.

Oh yay and ran it and yay.

Yes.

How do you feel that it went?

I feel that it was the easiest year yet.

And I don't know why.

I don't know if it's because the number of movies or it was just clear who what everybody liked, or everybody behaved.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know either.

I think I think some of our core group had heard our cries saying, don't f this up.

This is this is your chance.

You're coming back to do this against kind of your better judgment because last year was kind of rough, and I think they knew better.

A couple people were like, oh, I don't like this match up, and look, there's a big difference between like, oh my gosh, this is so hard to choose, because there were definitely matchups where I felt like that that's totally fine, as opposed to like, oh I don't like how this met.

Well, okay, that's what happened.

Like anyway, people were lovely and it was a good time and it felt I mean, I didn't do jack, So I was about to say it felt easy, but it just felt smooth, like it ran easily.

Yeah.

I wasn't complaining on the back end to you at all about any of it.

No, and people weren't.

We didn't have people activating multiple new accounts to vote.

Were you surprised by the winner?

No?

No, No, I'm surprised at the winning movie aired it in October, you.

Know, huh.

But other than that, no, I mean, I know Ted Cooper was such a big hit for everybody, So I wasn't that surprised.

I was surprised at the final two.

Oh me too.

The final two were A Keller Christmas Vacation and Merry Christmas, Ted Cooper.

I was I in my mind, I really thought it was going to come down.

Obviously it couldn't have worked that way, but to Ted Cooper and Opry like those in my mind were the final to the top two.

And the only reason I was a little bit surprised those were both five star movies.

For me, there's no bad choice there.

I was just a little bit surprised because I think Hallmark traditionalists might have leaned a little bit harder into Opry.

But maybe the Hollmark traditionalists aren't voting in an Instagram stories, Paul.

Perhaps Okay, we've kept you waiting long enough.

The reason WHNDY was reacting is I couldn't help myself.

And when I was putting together today's list of mailbag notes, I was going through our YouTube comments and this one stuck out at me and I just had to include it, just so you don't think we're front loading with only the nice things people say.

Do you know it?

Yeah, it's from CHRISTA Miller who says I think you two suck at reviewing the pilot show Sue Thomas FBI, that was televised two thousand and two to two thousand and five.

My suggestion is watch all three seasons then critique it.

Okay, it's so funny this person's reacting because we didn't really like that show.

Right.

This is not the first time somebody has given us feedback like, oh, you guys should have given that show a little bit more time, like it turns out really great, blah blah blah blah blah.

We've heard that feedback before.

But when we were reviewing one episodes only, like pilot episodes only, it's literally the premise of that episode.

Yeah, so I'm like, okay, sorry, Like I'm I'm sorry.

I think we acknowledged that we might have liked it more had we seen the whole season, but that wasn't what we were doing there, So it's all right.

Part of me is like wants to be like, I'll show you.

I'm gonna watch it all right now, and look, I'm in the habit of eating crow, so I will gladly come back and be like.

This is a really good show, but should I watch it.

Should I watch it in my downtime, Sue Thomas FBI.

I don't know.

I mean, it's really hard because January right now, there's so much good TV coming out, so I don't.

Really have a lot of downtime.

I think it's okay.

It's okay to I just not everything is for everyone.

That show does have its fans.

After we did that first Impression episode, a lot of people came out of the woodwork and said, actually, they really enjoyed that show.

That's great.

I didn't say it wasn't worth watching.

We just didn't like the pilot.

It wasn't the greatest pilot episode.

It's very dated too.

Yeah, this is true.

This is true.

All right, let's move on.

Okay.

We got an email from Melissa.

She says, love your show, guys.

I discovered it through finding Mister Christmas, but stuck around because you guys are so great.

Thanks for doing it.

I love that you are reviewing Ripple.

I stumbled upon it on Netflix last week when I was home the day after Christmas and was hooked.

I thought it had a hallmarky feel as well, so I'm not surprised to find out it was meant for them.

But glad you guys confirmed it was.

Can't wait to see what you guys do in the new year.

Thanks for listening, Melissa, I'm glad.

I'm glad you're liking Ripple.

Oh.

I feel tortured with that show, Absolutely tortured.

It's funny because I every time I turn on Netflix to watch something, I'm trying to make myself just watch one episode at a time so that I'm only reviewing that episode without any future information, because I think that's what works best for this particular show.

But I'm like, I want to keep going because I need to know what happened.

Well, admittedly I have watched all but the finale episode, so but yeah, I hear what you mean.

I have to always go back.

This is a me process, Like I have to go back and like rewatch it because I can't remember, like what comes from what episode.

I don't want to spoil anything when we're reviewing it.

You know, I have to confess that in the creation of these mailbag episodes, I have neglected a portion of the population, and that is our Spotify commenters.

And I don't know you ever see them, but we get a fair number of comments on Spotify.

Oh, I'm terrified now.

No no, no, no, no, no no no.

I just want to shout out the lovely Sue Adams has left a number of comments there, and I want to give her her moment in the sun.

I want to read a recent one from her included in this mailbag.

It's not in our notes because not only do I forget it every week, so I forgot it this week.

So here, there you go.

Sue Adam says she's commenting on the Finding Mister Christmas reunion episode.

This was an absolute joy to watch, and the two of you being there was an epic surprise.

I screamed.

Of course they loved you.

You are the shining representatives of their main fan base.

You get more people to watch Hallmark through your awesome fun podcast, like me, a competition reality junkie who only this year started watching Hallmark movies and now this show.

Thank you for covering in Happy Holidays.

PS.

Can you please pitch a Midsummer spinoff Finding Mister Summer?

Maybe?

Oh interesting, my name mister Summer kind of like that, you know.

Thank you Sue for leaving all these comments.

I don't see those on Spotify.

I'm gonna have to go over there and just peruse.

You know, God, I still I'm so I love our experience doing Friday Mister Christmas.

That was so much fun, such a highlight of the year for me personally.

Me too.

I hate that we couldn't talk about it for months, but that was super fun and I'm glad like those who listen to us were excited to see us on it.

Yeah, I agree, I agree, Sue, I just want to tell you.

I'm scrolling back through some of her previous comments.

She says, also, please do Traders recaps.

Unfortunately, we have decided we are not taking on Traders recaps as much as we want to, and we'll be watching that show.

We're trying to be smart about where we put our time.

Yeah, but Sue, come join our Patreon.

We'll be talking about and we'll be talking about Traders over there on our pop Culture Club.

Yes.

Actually, we just ran down the cast in our pop Culture Club episode and then the episode as we record this.

The first Traders episodes dropped tonight, so we'll be talking about it in our next pop Culture Called episode.

Yes.

So that's patreon dot com slash Megan and Wendy and I'm not trying to be like clickbaity or like whatever the word is called.

I'm just we just don't have time to do it on our Hallmark channel, our Hallmark channel.

You know, you guys know what I mean on this podcast.

Yeah, yes, yes, unless Peacock wants to sponsor a series.

Of episodes, Oh my god, that would be unreal.

Facebook moderator Mackie she writes in she writes about the Builtmore sequel.

Dustin Reiker, the director.

Announced in the following interview she linked an interview on The Heart Full of Hallmark Podcasts, that the official title of the sequel is going to be called A Grand Builtmore Christmas.

Do you have thoughts on that?

That works for me?

It works for I saw look this news.

I was really excited to see this news.

I'm excited to see a sequel to this movie.

I know a lot of people are like, no, don't touch it.

It was perfect as is.

I agree with that, but I don't think it's like a sequel.

I see it more as like a spin.

Off in the Biltmore universe.

Yeah, I'm really excited for it.

I think it's gonna be good.

I know there are like boots on the ground.

I saw wardrobe designer costumer Keith Nielsen shared a picture last night from the Biltmore estate.

So I'm like, they're there, They're doing it so exciting, very exciting.

Melissa emailed she just wanted to share a few thoughts about the holiday season.

She says, I like both of you felt very unprepared for the season.

I think it's due to having one last week to prepare since Thanksgiving was so late this year.

I don't think I realized that.

Yeah, it was like December Thanksgiving weekend.

Oh you're right, Okay, go ahead, she says.

For me, Mistletoe murders is the standout of the season.

She goes on to say, I know you love twelve dates till Christmas, but I have to say that the character of Kate is very unlikeable.

She's self centered and needs to work on herself before her relationship with Callum will be successful.

I don't disagree.

I thought Kate was likable.

I do think she needs to work on herself, though She's a flawed human for sure.

Uh huh.

The Christmas adye was a nice idea for the story, but as far as Kelly and Aaron, they appeared more as roommates than a couple.

I didn't feel the love between them.

Okay, here's my thoughts on that.

Mm hmm.

It's one of two movies that showed a same sex couple this season.

I'm sure Hallmarks treading lightly of like how much?

Which I mean, like, what are you?

What are you expecting?

She's just saying that there was no chemistry between them.

Well I'm not.

I'm not sure one hundred percent what she's saying, but I think your point is correct that they needed to be Hallmark was perhaps being a little bit too careful.

Yeah, they know who their audience is and they don't want to ruffle any sort of feathers.

Yeah, yeah, which.

Ruffle.

She closes by saying, on another note, I'm fifty two and call my parents every day to check in, just to my opinion, but call your parents more often.

They will appreciate it.

This is a throwback to a conversation we had regardedly on Patreon.

Was it?

And then it came over to we talked about it in a Hallmark episode.

Yeah that's nice, Mike.

Why are you calling me every day?

My dad is waiting for a phone call for me.

I'm on as soon as done.

Recording here, I will call and check in you've been sufficiently shamed I have.

I was like, is this signed by my dad?

Ah From Chantale, She writes, Ladies, I know I'm probably too late, but I wanted to warn you that you will feel even more sad after listening to the Mistletoe Murders podcast on Audible because it is so good and then you have an undetermined amount of time that you're anxiously awaiting both the TV and audio series.

It's torturous lol.

As a side note, the writer is Canadian and I was so excited to hear some of my very local towns and cities mentioned.

We talked about it on our Patreon episode.

You and I both are currently listening to season one of Mistletoe Murders on Audible.

It's very good.

I'm listening on Amazon Music by the way.

Oh interesting, Yes, perfect, because when I and perhaps the technology got the best of me, but I couldn't.

I think you need to have an active Audible subscription to be able to listen on Audible, but it's if you have a Prime subscription, you can listen on Amazon Music.

So got it.

Chantelle also also writes, I screamed when you guys came out during the Finding Mister Christmas Reunion.

I've been listening to you ladies for so long, back when I was yelling at you guys through my phone, when you were just starting this and mispronouncing names and didn't have a lot of Hallmark knowledge.

And now you're being invited by Hallmark.

I'm so freaking proud of you girls.

You looked amazing and did a great job interviewing the guys.

Yeah, I Nile meter.

Sticks out in mind.

Yeah.

I think we did a number on Aaron craig Ow as well.

Yeah, yep, yep, yep, yeap.

So thanks for being a long time listener, Chantel.

I just have a quick question.

Did you you I know you and I watched our portion of the reunion together.

Did you show that to anybody else?

My husband?

Yeah, like that's family.

Oh my my parents watched it and then they showed yeah yeah yeah, yeah.

Yeah yeah like my mom.

So my mom I had.

My mom had been talking about it for so long.

So on Christmas Eve, I was like, so did you see it?

And she was like she got this look on her face and she was like no, And my dad goes, you should have heard her when she realized she forgot to record it, like she in the other room was like oh, and he like came running in and I was like, it's fine, I could show it to you right now.

So we just watched our three minute segment and then my aunt and Ilkle came over.

She's like, Mark, go over here, you gotta see Megan's we watched it.

Oh that's cute.

Yeah, my parents said they watched it, and then they showed my step grandparents, who are our both nearly ninety years old.

They they sat them down and watched it too, and I was like, that's sweet.

I mean, I shared it on my personal Instagram too.

I don't know how many people were like looking to find it or anything, but yeah, it was exciting.

I enjoyed it.

It was very exciting.

Diane writes, it was awesome to see you on the Finding Mister Christmas reunion.

I was wondering if after the Holidays you could review Happy Howlidays with Ezra.

I'm not a fan of the movie, and it really shaped how I feed the guys in season two after the acting challenges.

I can't help but wonder if that's why Craig wasn't a true leading man in his movie.

Craig did a great job, though I don't think we're going to go back and do Happy Howlidays.

No, we sailed it.

Yeah, I mean you can assume from a reaction here while we thought about it.

Ezra A is the nicest man, a good human, produces role wholesome positive content on Instagram.

Definitely rooting for his success.

You can listen to our interview with him.

I really do wonder the details of getting from leading man to Craig's role in A Make or Break Christmas.

I really want to know how that shook out.

I'm okay with it not being a leading role.

I think there's me too, But again, I do think Craig should have been given more.

Should do.

I think there's a big difference between not a leading role and what Craig was given.

I thought he did great in what he was asked to do.

I hope he'll get another chance.

But I do think some people really do get caught up in the fact that Jonathan kept saying a leading role, a leading role, a leading role, and then it wasn't that.

I care less about that, but I will continue to beat the drum of let him do more than some react to Hunter this entire time.

Yeah, okay, yeah.

Diane finishes by saying, do you think the second Homemark Christmas movie at Builtmore Estate could be his merry wife from the first movie.

I sure hope it is.

I think the answer to that is no, because we have a whole new set of actors.

If it was his married wife, we'd be getting Palaha back.

Yeah, okay, yeah, which would have been a fun spin too, I think.

But from what we know, Chris is busy, right working on other stuff.

Yeah, Chris is busy.

And I don't even know if that was a conversation to do.

I know people had talked about, like they should make that movie.

I like this direction better, like keeping it in the vein of the original Biltmore movie.

Yeah, I think so too.

I think they still leave room for doing his married wife at some point.

Sure, you know, might be so cool.

Dog just ran by with something in his mouth, and he ran down the side of the house, and I wonder if he's got like a secret stash of stein.

Never go over there, I'll report back.

Oh no, he just came.

He just came back with the same thing in his mouth.

So He's like, I got a pile of goodies over here on the side of the house that you don't know about.

He has these chews that he loves, but like they're the only thing that lasts.

I'm a reasonable amount of time, but they still don't last that long.

And sometimes he'll when he gets one, he'll run to the backyard and bury it, which pisses me off because I'm like, you just buried ten dollars in the Yeah, so he's burying.

He just dug one up, and now he's bearing it again.

This is this is the life of recording a podcast from your kitchen table.

I was like, you know, no, I saw this morning a black crow and I had a rodent in its mouth.

I was like, no, no, please don't drop that on me.

Oh no, yeah from Sarah.

Oh mg.

My daughter and I just watched last night's reunion show Finding Mister Christmas.

When they did the teaser of what was going to happen later in the show and you all were shown, I freaked out.

My daughter had heard your voices but not seen your face, so she had no idea why I was excited.

I just kept saying, Megan and Wendy Megan and Wendy.

As soon as she caught on, she was as excited as I was.

How did you two keep that secret?

What was it like being on set?

How did that opportunity come about?

We talked about it at length, but Megan, do you want to weigh in?

Well, let's talk about the how did you keep the secret?

Part?

It's called signing an NBA.

Yeah, it's called We wanted to be asked back, but it was hard because it was such a fun day.

I mean, obviously we talked about it in the Finding Mister Christmas reunion episode of this podcast.

If you haven't listened, we talked about the reunion, but we mostly talked about ourselves, and I wanted to talk about it.

There were so many things and so many times during our recap of the show that there were relevant things from our time on set that I wanted to have an opportunity to bring in.

But I was really excited for it to finally come out and to finally be able to we were there.

Yeah, it was.

We had a really fun time on set that day.

Please go listen to our recap of that This question, how did the opportunity to come about?

I know that has come up a couple times, and I don't know if we fully addressed it on that recap episode.

I think you're right.

How did the opportunity to come about?

The production company Super Delicious TV, who creates that show, makes that show, produces that show reached out to us?

Yep.

And I don't want to like say specifically who, just because I don't want to like a follower of us who works for them.

She kind of like put the ball in motion.

We talked to producers first over a zoom call, and then we were invited out.

And yeah, it was.

It was very organic how it happened and kind of surprising, and I'm just I'm so glad that they reached out to us because I think it was genuinely like it.

It was genuine how much we love the show during season one.

So I am so glad that came through, and I'm glad that we had the opportunity to be part of it in a little way exactly.

We have an email from Lisa.

Lisa sent us a lot of thoughts on recent movies, but I did want to share this one little tidbit.

She says, I think you should have some kind of contest maybe to raise money for a favorite charity or something like that, and the winner gets to record a podcast with y'all.

That would be so much fun.

What are your thoughts on that way, Megga, do you know if you know me, you know I immediately went to the logistics of that.

That's immediately where my brain went, like, how would we even do that?

What kind of con Like That's where I get hung up?

Mm hmmm, what are your thoughts?

Part of me loves the idea of it, like raising money for a charity, and our friends at Deck the Hallmark do something like that during the holiday season when they kick off countdown to Christmas.

They have like a whole like live show that they fundraise for local charities and whatever, And I think that's super admirable.

Yeah, I part my where my brain goes to is like nobody listens to us that much to Like I.

Did have that thought of like nobody really wants that prize.

Yeah, I'm like, who wants to be sitting with us?

Like I don't want to be humbled when nobody They're like, I'll donate, but please do not let me wait?

Yeah, exactly pass on the opportunity.

Thanks Lisa, We love that you're such a supportive fan, and you think that there are people who would find that to be a compelling prize.

They're like, can I just have the cash equivalent, which is like a five Starbucks skills card.

Hey, that's a wrap on this week's Listener Mailbag episode.

Please keep your emails coming, girls, Gone Hallmark at gmail dot and again you can send us a voicemail nine four nine three two nine eight zero nine zero.

We love to hear what you're thinking about these movies, the podcast, and life in general.

We can't wait to hear from you.

We'll see y'all next time.

Goodbye, bye.

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