"Maybe it's time to come home."
Hello everyone!
As a departure from my usual movie reviews I'm doing something a little bit different tonight. That's mainly because I was literally bouncing up and down in my seat yesterday while watching the subject of tonight's blog post, and yes, I do recognize that I'm weird.
Oops.
But I accidentally stumbled on this series when the DIVA channel started airing it here and the premise sounded extremely promising to me. Then I got hooked about five minutes into the pilot episode, probably because of the actors, and then of course the plot.
See, I have this motto for myself: if it makes me yawn half an hour in, I stop watching.
It never happened with these movies, however, and I think Hallmark may be on to something with this series.
I'm talking, of course, about Signed, Sealed, Delivered, and it's latest installment, To The Altar.
Now for a very brief rundown of what, specifically, this is all about:
Eric Mabius spearheads the cast of this show where he portrays Oliver O'Toole, an employee at the United States Postal Service; specifically, Oliver is the leader of a motley crew of misfits working at the Dead Letter Office (DLO). This means that they strive to find the owners or recipients of letters that ordinary postal employees couldn't deliver for some reason or another, and at the start of the series they're joined by Shane, a young woman transferring from Washington who wanted to work at the Direct Line of Operations but ended up at the other DLO instead. Since then, however, the Postables, as they call themselves considering they have different resources and outreach to the rest, have managed to solve a number of mysteries, reunite loved ones, Oliver got divorced from his flighty wife, Rita and Norman, the other co-workers, admitted their feelings and got engaged, and there are countless hours of jokes at Oliver's expense for being ... well, I'd say he's actually slightly Austistic if anyone asks, but never got placed on the spectrum.
Anyway.
By the time To The Altar rolls around, Norman and Rita are neck-deep preparing for their wedding, Shane is taking Rita for a girl's pampering time, and Oliver has no clue how to throw a bachelor party, which is probably why it's a good thing his dad knows a thing or two about the twenty-first century.
Also, they have no way of finding Norman's grandmother, who seems to enjoy travelling the world but never leaves a forwarding address to begin with.
Meanwhile, however, Shane grabs a package befor it gets auctioned off, trying on a wedding dress she'd found inside, and cue my poor heart when out of all people Oliver walks in behind her and sees her in white. I pretty much almost fainted when he quietly snuck up to help button her up down the back.
I swear, these two. Oliver might occasionally act like an awkward fifteen-year-old but my heart just does mini explosions every time it happens anyway.
While doing this, however, Shane discovers a letter in a hidden pocket, and the Postables embark on a new mission: to find the recipient of the wedding dress and perhaps reunite her with her mother. This includes but isn't limited to a little sleuthing in an archaic high-society hotel where Oliver can show he knows how to distinguish different tea leaves, and Rita meeting a famous wedding gown seamstress who ends up making HER dress, too.
They do in fact find the recipient from a blessing sown into the dress lining itself, but they learn that she'd already married, and that her mother had never reappeared after leaving on a grand adventure. The girl had then taken the stories her mother told her and wrote them as books for others to read and be inspired by.
As for the Postables, they're inspired to hunt the mother down, and eventually they do in fact find her, but realise that she had unfortunately been diagnosed with some psychological problems and ended up on the street as a result, before checking herself into a different hospital for treatment to get better. Rita implores both mother and daughter not to waste time: her own mother had recently passed within just days of the wedding and Rita understands how precious time is.
So with THAT happily ever after on the way as mother and daughter are reunited, the Postables can now focus on the actual big event for themselves.
And luckily, too, since a lot of things go wrong and there have to be last-minute alterations, like getting Norman's grandmother via video call and hosting the wedding at a barn (because angry skunks nested under the original church for some reason). Also, both the bachelorette and bachelor's parties go off without a hitch, and the two pairs of friends exchange words of advice in light of the coming future.
I was particularly fond of Norman and Oliver's exchange, since throughout the series Oliver, despite his own setbacks and quite literal quirks, has become sort of a mentor and older brother figure for the rather eccentric Norman, who shyly and with a lot of stammer admits that he "had never been to the movies" before Rita.
I may be way off my game here but I think we all know what THAT means since he keeps repeating that sometimes you just want to wait for "the one" and such.
Oliver kind of knows, too, and he makes sure Norman realises Rita and he are the stars of their own movie, they aren't just watching it - they'll know their lines when the time comes.
Cue the awwwwwwwww.
At the wedding proper (after me getting over that RAMON is marrying them and offering couples counselling on top of everything else), Norman and Rita say 'I do', and Oliver has an important thing to share, as well.
Having been contemplative all week leading up to the wedding, Shane notices something on her man that makes me fall out fo my chair when she does, because Oliver and his father had previously shared the rather amusing story of how O'Toole men usually propose wearing an ugly green tie because of an old family tradition and legend.
And guess what Oliver's wearing as best man to Norman's wedding?
Yup, A GREEN TIE.
Down on one knee, he proposes to Shane, which for him is a MASSIVE step considering how terrible his first marriage was (where he didn't even get to propose to begin with), and Shane tearfully accepts before they rejoin Norman and Rita for one last toast, and one last dance.
Fin.
Oh my goodness can I just say I'm SO IN LOVE with this series?!
There's something about all four of these misfits that just warms me through and through, they have their own quirks and stories and troubles and yet, whenever they're in a room together or presented with a challenge of a dead letter, every single one of those quirks comes into play and they solve mysteries left, right and centre.
This might be one of the better productions Hallmark has pushed out over the years, and it helps immensely that all four leads, who beside Mabius include Kristin Booth, Geoff Gustafson and Crystal Lowe, are just so likeable.
Also, yes, I have a soft spot for Eric Mabius. Sue me.
But if you're not too busy doing that, check out Signed, Sealed, Delivered in the meantime! I promise you won't regret it.
xx
*images and video not mine
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