Hallmark Christmas movies are basically Westerns. Like that most American of genres, they're all about the undeniable pull of small-town living, or how a rustic life is more fulfilling than a chaotic one in the city. As a result, just about every Hallmark Christmas movie involves someone returning to their small hometown and being drawn back to a simpler way of life. It's all about how the ordering force of civilization can lead one to lose touch with one's roots, and a return to the hometown means a return to the self.

This is such a cliché at this point that Hallmark has leaned into it, even occasionally subverting the trope. In the aptly named "Small Town Christmas," for example, a successful big-city writer on a book tour winds up stopping by a small town ... which turns out to be the hometown of a man she once met in the city. Of course, they fall in love. It's also the plot of "Haul Out The Holly," a film where Christmas movie queen Lacey Chabert, playing a woman named Emily, goes back to her small hometown, only to find that her parents have left for the season. Usually, it's the family that brings people back to themselves, but in this case, her character gets drawn into a local Christmas decorating contest ... and wouldn't you know it, she falls in love in the process.

In addition to dealing with the conflict between small-town and big-city living, so many Hallmark Christmas movies are also about the conflict between small and big business. That's also a trope right out of Westerns; it's the plot of one of the best Western movies — "Shane" — which pits rustic individualist farmers against wealthy land barons threatening to buy up the town. On the Hallmark Channel, however, people only tend to be farmers if they're farming Christmas trees; otherwise, these movies love to pit toy store proprietors, pastry chefs, cookie bakers, and the like against encroaching big business. How can a soulless corporation understand the festive wants and needs of the average person the same way a small business owner can? (Actually, maybe these movies have a point!)

Bonus points, of course, if the small-town business owner falls in love with someone who represents big business. That's what happens in the generically-titled "Christmas in Love," in which a small-town baker charms the hunky, out-of-touch CEO whose conglomerate just bought the place where she works. In "Gingerbread Miracle," a woman who's moved back to her small hometown tries to help a local bakery find a buyer who understands the magical charm of baking in small towns; will she fall in love with the baker's son or the guy who's trying to buy the place?

Read More: https://www.slashfilm.com/1728759/things-happen-every-hallmark-christmas-movie/

So Help Me Todd’s Cancellation Still Stings, But Its Creator Has Another New TV Show In The Works

https://x.com/DEADLINE/status/1859709106933920037

More than a few TV viewers spent the middle of the 2024 TV schedule mourning the plethora of shows canceled this year, with one of the most debatable decisions being CBS’ move to end So Help Me Todd and its quirky legal dramedy. Even all these months later, fans are still missing Marcia Gay Harden and Skylar Astin’s mother-son duo. While we can’t expect the network to suddenly reverse that decision, we can celebrate creator Scott Prendergrast landing a new small-screen project. ...

*** ***** *** ***** ***

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Prendergrast isn’t linking back up with CBS this time around, and it’s Fox that came out on top, landing Pennies in a competitive bidding with others. Though the network didn’t put in a full series order, the project was given a script commitment plus penalty, which pretty much guarantees that the creator will get paid no matter what, with Fox having to pay out if execs choose not to move forward with it. ...

*** ***** *** ***** ***

Hard to blame Fox for jumping at the chance to work with Prendergrast, who previously showed off his acting skills on Silicon Valley. After all, So Help Me Todd wasn't canceled due to poor ratings, and instead of excised alongside NCIS: Hawai'i due to its schedule being overly stuffed post-strikes. So if Pennies has the same kind of impact on audiences, it could end up being a huge hit.

https://www.cinemablend.com/television/so-help-me-todds-cancellation-still-stings-creator-another-new-tv-show-pennies

Zaslav talking up Trump’s win, the MPA being like “we’re so excited about this, Disney forcing Rachel Zegler to apologize for nothing comments about Trump. Yeah, the industry is 100% kowtowing to his incoming admin in a way it didn’t the last time around. Seems bad.

@emilynussbaum

Just watched The Apprentice, which did a solid job explaining how a vapid nepo-baby brine shrimp turned into a sociopathic sea monkey in the brackish waters of 70s/80s Manhattan... Strong was excellent as Roy Cohn. Sure hope nothing like that happens in real life