"It could be nothing ... but it could be something."
Hello everyone!
Yep, I'm back on that Hallmark channel grind, as I always seem to be as the fall months start coming in and whatnot, though I will admit I might have chosen some other movie to wrap up the summer blogs with.
However, I'd been waiting to watch this particular one for some time so I figured, why the heck not?
I enjoyed the original series and am looking forward to see what this new rebrand looks like; originally, it was called Murder, She Baked, which was a cute play on Murder, She Wrote, but for some reason the channel execs have decided to go for Hannah Swensen Mysteries from now on.
To be clear, as long as we GET some new mysteries, I'm down for it being called whatever.
I feel like this used to be a staple in programming, and I'm really happy it's back.
Sweet Revenge: A Hannah Swensen Mystery, is up next!
I will have the links to all the previous movie reviews down at the bottom of my blog, because lo and behold, I actually went and watched them ALL back in the day. I think I watched them over the summer holidays!
But anyway, for those of you new to the series:
Hannah Swensen (Alison Sweeney) is a baker in the town of Lake Eden (this was renamed from Eden Lake for some reason), who owns her own bakery, and was driving her poor mother to distraction by being single until not just one but TWO guys were fighting for her affections through the course of the original series. Eventually, she turned down the dentist and decided to give it a go with detective Mike Kingston (Cameron Mathison), and while she was at it she also kept investigating murders that happened in her town.
Now, six months after the couple's engagement, things are beginning to move apace.
Aka, Mike has been drowning in work, making the time they spend together a lot less than what you'd expect, Hannah has put in some COVID-approved barriers in her bakery (those plexiglass panes over the counter? Dead giveaway), her sister Andrea has moved to Seattle, and her other sister has just dropped in to visit. She's a photographer and jets around the globe a lot, but that still doesn't stop her from trying to weasel out of her mother attempting to marry HER off.
Said mother, might I add (Barbara Niven) has somehow gotten sillier during the break between movie series, and is now a published author, whose debut novel is going to cause trouble later on, but I'll get to that in a second.
Because see, not all is well in the town of Lake Eden.
There's a fitness instructor, Ronnie, that everyone seems to be out for, and while Hannah tries to defend her, she gets a faceful of juice, and we also later see that the woman is being followed.
Naturally, this then leads to the discovery of her body in the recreational center's hot tub, where Hannah also attends classes - and if you're guessing it's she who finds the body, you'd be right. She also manages to lose her engagement ring, not that I'm sure how THAT happens, other than it being a plot device to allow her to go back and forth between the gym, since the ring was placed in her locker and nobody actually got into said locker until Hannah herself needed things from there.
But anyway, this is a minor plot point that doesn't really go anywhere, other than remind people Mike is a detective, and he figures out pretty easily she lost the thing.
Meanwhile though, the sheriff has called in the FBI to help with the murder because they're so short-staffed, and naturally Mike doesn't like that - in American adaptations, no police officer seems to like the FBI - but eventually finds common ground with the agent, who's actually a very decent person for all that THAT's worth.
Anyway, turns out Ronnie wasn't really making herself popular in their little town, as they find out that she got another fitness instructor fired to get his hours, and that apparently men seemed to glue themselves to her like flies, making their wives and girlfriends angry while they were at it.
Also, there was a box of cookies from Hannah's bakery which was found in the dead woman's effects, and this provides some hilarity because initially, Mike tells her they're chocolate chip ones, but when Hannah actually SEES the photo, she discovers they're MEGA chocolate chip cookies, which is a whole other cookie entirely!
Listen, Mike, don't argue with the baker, alright? LOL
Hannah does some sleuthing on her own to find out who sent the cookies to Ronnie, while Mike and his FBI partner discover that Ronnie was actually married, and had taken off from her husband basically in the middle of the night. The guy explains she was impetuous and did things without consideration towards others, and we never really learn why she left him and was going to divorce him (because she was in a relationship with the gym owner, by the by, who conveniently lies about this at first). He does, however, have her investigated by a PI so that he can find some reason to divorce her.
Meanwhile, Hannah discovers that the cookies were sent by the fitness instructor who was later fired, though he explains that he didn't actually accost her or anything, she'd lied about that to get the job.
And apparently she was also receiving flowers from someone, which is yet another clue that leads them to the security guard, who had initially shown concern for Ronnie after her car was vandalized (speaking of vandalized, Hannah, her sister and her mom end up at the junkyard at night looking for it because of the colour of the spray paint, which leads them to the wife of one of the guys fawning over Ronnie, and she admits she'd done it ... but the three women do get caught and thrown into a jail cell for a little bit first, until Mike springs them).
With the finding of the flowers, there's a little click-click in Hannah's brain as she connects a couple of other dots, as well as something someone else says, to lead her to the security guard who had ACTUALLY killed Ronnie - and might have killed Hannah to, by locking her into the sauna on high heat, if she hadn't figured out to start the fire extinguisher, and if she hadn't called Mike just before going down there so he comes rushing in to get her out.
It should be noted that this is all happening alongside the mom's book release - and at the private reading, Hannah suddenly discovers the topic, while Regency era, is actually her own love life! And that her mom is still salty about her not picking the dentist. Why am I bringing it up? Because at the very end, there's a release party, which Hannah and Mike both leave (in their Regency costumes) to go get that security guard, and Hannah's costume gets totally ruined with the fire extinguisher at work.
It's a rental, Mike!
But, all's well that ends well, the guard is apprehended, and the petty robberies Mike had been investigating all over town were actually done by the fired fitness instructor who needed the money, so he can return to the party with Hannah for some leisure time, finally, since the FBI agent is like 'I'll do the booking and the boring paperwork, you go have some private life, will you?'
Hannah and Mike also manage to have a full conversation between them, the first in the entire movie, where they clear the air about the wedding too: while her mom wants a big affair, Hannah would like a small wedding, and Mike's totally on board with that.
He also promises he'll do better about accepting help in the future, because he's used to doing things his own way as it was always just him ... but it's not just him anymore, there's two of them.
And with that, and one last kiss, which Hannah's sister captures on film for posterity, the movie comes to a close.
It's a fun, amusing installment to kick off the new series with a lot of callbacks to the original, though it's sad that there's no original sister anymore, since the new one was never really mentioned in the first series. However, the plot does at least advance in the romance department, that Hannah and Mike are now considering their future more actively, and it brings out a nice little murder to stretch your little grey cells on.
It's not QUITE Agatha Christie, but it IS enjoyable on a Sunday afternoon (particularly if it's raining), and I had fun trying to figure out just which of the guys that was all over Ronnie had done her in.
The one thing I wish they'd explained better was why she landed at Lake Eden. Okay, so she made decisions without thinking about them, but why would you leave your rich husband to barely make ends meet on your own? Was he abusive? Was it mentioned somewhere and I just missed it? That one left a little to be desired, in my opinion.
And also, what IS it with Americans? Or Canadians, whichever. At one point in the movie, Hannah gets home in the evening to hear someone - or something - moving about in her house. She takes a rolling pin and goes to investigate, only to find it's her sister in her own bathtub.
But, listen here: if I were the one coming home, into an empty house, and I heard something? There'd be no rolling pin for me. I'd back out the door REAL FAST AND REAL SLICK, and get the hell out of there to the nearest neighbour, where I'd asses if I need to call the police or not. No way in hell am I investigating all on my own, that's the easiest way to get yourself killed! Seriously, people. SERIOUSLY.
BUT, I digress! Overall this is a fun, entertaining watch, and I hope Hallmark continues to make more of these, because Alison and Cameron have a great working chemistry, and the supporting cast is also lovely to watch.
More, please!
xx
*images and video not mine
Murder, She Baked:
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