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A Complete Review A Zest for Death: A Hannah Swensen Mystery. · Hallmark Mysteries & More

• 0:00
  Eric: This podcast was created by fans or fans and is not affiliated with or sponsored by Hallmark or the Hallmark channel.
• 0:09
  Eric: Hey Sydney.
• 0:11
  Eric: So was a zest for death a yummy, tasty Treat for you, or was it maybe a little bad pie?
• 0:26
  Sydney: I'm gonna go with yummy and tasty.
• 0:29
  Eric: Oh Okay, I think we have a little to talk about.
• 0:32
  Eric: A lot happened in this one, so today we're gonna talk about a zest for death, a Hannah Swenson mystery.
• 0:40
  Eric: This is Eric.
• 0:42
  Eric: And this is Sydney and this is Hallmark Mysteries and more.
• 0:48
  Eric: Hello Sydney, hello Eric, are you ready to do some baking with Hannah today?
• 1:01
  Sydney: You know what I am.
• 1:02
  Sydney: I'm ready to return to the kitchen.
• 1:05
  Eric: Okay, a whole family affair.
• 1:08
  Eric: It is too.
• 1:09
  Sydney: Yeah, yes, this was very exciting.
• 1:14
  Eric: Yes, All right, very, very, very good.
• 1:17
  Eric: So as we get into this, let's just quickly discuss what the movie was about.
• 1:25
  Eric: So, in a zest for death, a Hannah Swenson movie, they say the real estate business is deadly.
• 1:34
  Eric: But no one is more surprised than Hannah Swenson when her mother, dolores, discovers the dead body of the homeowner and regular customer of the cookie jar While house hunting for her sister, michelle.
• 1:49
  Eric: That is one long sentence.
• 1:52
  Eric: Hannah is determined to get to the bottom of the mystery and is convinced that the prime Suspect, mike, and the sheriff, are focusing on isn't the culprit Hannah?
• 2:03
  Eric: Sleuthing becomes a family affair when Dolores, michelle and even her sister, andrea Yay, who pays an unexpected visit, take part in the investigation.
• 2:15
  Eric: As Hannah uncovers clues, she slowly rules out suspects and has led to the shocking truth about the killer's identity.
• 2:25
  Eric: And this, of course, stars Alison Sweeney, cameron Matheson, barbara Niven and a whole slew of other Characters and, as it said, andrea comes back to which I'm sure we will discuss Later on, but I know that many of people made comments that we're very happy for that.
• 2:48
  Eric: So yeah.
• 2:51
  Eric: But before we go, I think we really need to have something to go with this lemon meringue pie.
• 2:58
  Eric: What would you suggest?
• 2:59
  Sydney: I would suggest a, a signature movie cocktail called a zesty lemon.
• 3:07
  Sydney: Things got zesty, didn't they?
• 3:11
  Eric: they did and they got lemony.
• 3:15
  Sydney: Yes, so this is a mix of vodka, lemon juice, simple syrup and then you top it off with some sparkling water.
• 3:23
  Sydney: But when you're shaking it in the shaker you're gonna put zest of half of a lemon, so it's really zesty.
• 3:29
  Sydney: It's kind of like a fancy sparkling lemonade.
• 3:34
  Eric: Yes, I will say I've had this, but without the zest.
• 3:38
  Eric: So the zest will give it that little extra citrus Kick.
• 3:44
  Eric: I think I'll give it a go this weekend.
• 3:47
  Sydney: Oh, awesome, let me know.
• 3:50
  Eric: Yeah, since you, you are not, you're not drinking for two for the next few months.
• 3:55
  Sydney: Yeah, I mean I can just leave the one part out, but I've you ever had a simple syrup that wasn't booze?
• 4:04
  Eric: I.
• 4:04
  Eric: Don't think so like yeah, if you do know, Everything else makes sense.
• 4:12
  Eric: But I've never thrown simple syrup in like a virgin Cocktail type.
• 4:18
  Sydney: Yeah, oh.
• 4:21
  Eric: Maybe it may be good, but it does sound very refreshing.
• 4:26
  Sydney: Yes, you need something refreshing for this movie.
• 4:30
  Eric: Okay, Well, alright, so before we get going, I have one question for you, so our friend Andrea Said in her review that they were dressed too cool For being is supposed to be in the winter.
• 4:49
  Eric: Did I completely mess where it referenced the timing of the year?
• 4:53
  Eric: Because I did it was winter and she made that comment and I watched it, and I watched it twice and I didn't catch it either time.
• 5:05
  Sydney: I don't think it was winter, because I mean they're referencing the calendar at the end and they said it was May.
• 5:10
  Sydney: April, may yeah, april, may yeah all right, andrea.
• 5:14
  Sydney: Sorry, but it was not winter in Minnesota, so I mean, when they filmed was it was that winter.
• 5:22
  Sydney: Oh, that could be, I don't know.
• 5:24
  Eric: Yeah, yeah, I don't know, I don't know it'd be spring.
• 5:31
  Eric: It'd be about that time actually because they filmed it in the spring.
• 5:33
  Eric: I remember Okay.
• 5:35
  Eric: Yeah, I don't know what she was talking about.
• 5:37
  Eric: Maybe I just misunderstood her, so, oh well, you'll find out.
• 5:39
  Eric: All right.
• 5:39
  Eric: So now we dive into it, now that that mystery is solved.
• 5:46
  Sydney: Would you like about a zest for death?
• 5:48
  Sydney: It was very mysterious and foreboding, like I love when they start off with like ooh, a mysterious box, it's a dark night.
• 5:59
  Sydney: She's looking over her shoulder.
• 6:01
  Sydney: I'm like is she going to get whacked now or is it going to be later?
• 6:05
  Eric: I thought she was getting whacked then.
• 6:07
  Sydney: Yeah, I kind of seemed like that.
• 6:09
  Eric: It's very mystery, 101, where they die there.
• 6:12
  Sydney: So, yeah, and I still loved and I mentioned this last time how Mike was such a clueless man, and that first scene with him where she's like why haven't you talked to my sister?
• 6:28
  Eric: And I was being a guy, I would do exactly what Mike did.
• 6:32
  Sydney: Yeah, and I also like I think it was just because I was hungry, but I really wanted that peanut butter cookie.
• 6:41
  Eric: The cookie jar was rocking in this one.
• 6:44
  Sydney: It was.
• 6:44
  Sydney: They had everything.
• 6:46
  Sydney: They had some deconstructed eclair, they had like double chocolate cookies.
• 6:53
  Sydney: They had lemon meringue pies.
• 6:54
  Sydney: They had all of the stuff.
• 6:58
  Eric: Okay so I have a question for you the apple ginger cascone when he talked, when she talked to what was his name?
• 7:05
  Eric: Purbus.
• 7:07
  Eric: Ken Purbus, oh yeah yeah, I was just requesting the little tower of this sponge sugar and the croquembouche.
• 7:14
  Eric: Yes, have you actually heard of?
• 7:16
  Sydney: that before.
• 7:17
  Sydney: Yes, actually it's something that's like really for celebratory stuff over there.
• 7:23
  Sydney: It's like a wedding cake, like comparison type thing, Like it's very fancy.
• 7:31
  Sydney: Have you seen it?
• 7:32
  Sydney: It's like a bunch of little.
• 7:34
  Sydney: They look like donut holes, basically stuck to a tower.
• 7:38
  Sydney: That looks kind of like a.
• 7:38
  Sydney: It looks kind of like a tree silhouette, yeah yeah.
• 7:41
  Sydney: And then okay yeah.
• 7:43
  Eric: Yeah, so when I was over there I remember looking in the bakery windows they would have that it looked like a Christmas tree of donut holes, basically right.
• 7:53
  Sydney: Yes, so if that is the best way to look at it, okay.
• 7:58
  Eric: So I was thinking of it when you said the sponge sugar, like it was this Thin framing of sugar and it was a delicate type.
• 8:09
  Sydney: Well, I think they do like, they do around like.
• 8:14
  Sydney: So then there's the donut hole looking things and then covering them.
• 8:18
  Sydney: Is this really like like syrupy, almost caramel looking sugar that goes around it, and I think that's probably what she's talking about.
• 8:28
  Sydney: I don't know Okay.
• 8:29
  Sydney: I mean she's.
• 8:30
  Sydney: They made the comment like in there where she was.
• 8:33
  Sydney: Like everyone knows, you go to Paris for croquembush, not Versailles.
• 8:36
  Sydney: And I would say, I don't know.
• 8:39
  Sydney: I mean Versailles is where Marie Antoinette was and I think that they probably had the best croquembush then.
• 8:48
  Eric: Let them eat cake.
• 8:50
  Sydney: Yeah.
• 8:52
  Eric: And yeah, we won't get into those details.
• 8:55
  Sydney: Yeah, we'll talk about that.
• 8:56
  Eric: I will say yes.
• 8:57
  Eric: Watching the movie made me hungry.
• 8:59
  Sydney: Yes, oh, my gosh and Bradford Ramsey Wow.
• 9:07
  Eric: I was.
• 9:07
  Eric: I thought wow.
• 9:10
  Sydney: Well, norman was MIA.
• 9:12
  Sydney: So I'm like, here we go, there's a new man in town, or new old man, I should say, because he's from our past.
• 9:21
  Eric: Yes, and I will discuss that.
• 9:22
  Eric: So what's funny is in the scene I made the little joke about this on our stories is if you read the book you would know that Hannah, when she went off to college she got a little bit naked with said professor until she got caught by his fiance.
• 9:43
  Eric: So they didn't quite cover that in the hallmark where she's like oh, we kind of dated, it wasn't too much, but in the book it is a little X rated action there for Hannah.
• 9:57
  Sydney: Wow.
• 9:58
  Eric: Yeah, yeah, so the professor was definitely a bigger character.
• 10:04
  Sydney: Well, she seems like she's not telling you everything.
• 10:07
  Sydney: Anyways, she's not even wanting to talk about it.
• 10:11
  Eric: We've talked about it before with her.
• 10:12
  Eric: Hannah is definitely shady with the, with the guys, yeah.
• 10:18
  Sydney: And the fact that I'm a cat lady.
• 10:20
  Sydney: Of course, I love that Moishe was there and she was taking pictures of.
• 10:28
  Eric: We open up your phone, what percentage of the pictures would be cat pictures?
• 10:34
  Sydney: I would say a lot, and I did just take a couple recently because the cats have their fall, bandana is on so I had to capture that.
• 10:44
  Eric: So you finally took the summer bandana off and put on the fall bandana.
• 10:48
  Sydney: It was time.
• 10:49
  Eric: It's time Well, so yes, for me I'm not a cat person, as you know, but if I looked at mine with the dogs, it would probably be 70% dogs and then 30% like 70% dogs, 20% family and 10% just random things that I've taken a picture of, that I would have taken the picture of and deleted.
• 11:15
  Eric: It'll be like at the grocery store Am I supposed to get this click?
• 11:19
  Eric: And for some reason I never delete pictures.
• 11:23
  Eric: So I'll have, you know, a picture of some shampoo or something like that.
• 11:28
  Sydney: Oh my, yeah, you're like.
• 11:31
  Sydney: This one says it'll, it'll help.
• 11:32
  Sydney: And also, I was so happy to see Andrea.
• 11:38
  Sydney: As you know, she makes all the difference.
• 11:41
  Sydney: I mean, honestly, I feel like Hannah even looks better when she's there and Dolores shines even more.
• 11:49
  Eric: It's like it just adds so much for me, and she wasn't there that much, but just didn't gave you enough.
• 11:59
  Sydney: I mean just the scene with the three of them and they're going through the trash.
• 12:03
  Sydney: I'm like, yes, more I need this.
• 12:07
  Sydney: It's very much like it was like the olden days, and and then, lastly, I enjoyed the whole.
• 12:15
  Sydney: Oh, Hannah was in there with the intruder and then Mike was.
• 12:20
  Sydney: It got spicy.
• 12:21
  Sydney: Things were spicy.
• 12:23
  Eric: Definitely there is that tension.
• 12:26
  Sydney: Yeah, what did you like, eric?
• 12:29
  Eric: All right, I will start and then I'll also end with Dolores.
• 12:33
  Eric: Dolores, just in every way, rocked, she rocked, she looked fantastic.
• 12:42
  Eric: She was absolutely hilarious when she was, you know, talking about this.
• 12:47
  Eric: I don't remember what the phrase is, but you know the secret lover she was.
• 12:52
  Sydney: She was like.
• 12:52
  Sydney: You know, I'm not going to do a fair, a fair to kill.
• 12:59
  Eric: And then when she makes her suspect list.
• 13:01
  Sydney: She got Hannah on it.
• 13:02
  Eric: And then the scene later when Hannah's snooping at the house while Dolores is supposed to be distracting, and you know when they're done in Dolores like we definitely have to work on your like, your little codes and stuff like that Dolores was just absolutely fantastic.
• 13:22
  Eric: So, yeah, loved everything about Dolores.
• 13:25
  Eric: I will say and you know we've had our little battles about Mike and how he, how he was at the end of the last one and I thought he was absolutely great in this one and he is apology was exactly what he should have said that you know what I messed up.
• 13:47
  Eric: I messed up, I got all the pressure from the sheriff and I didn't do what I should have done of, you know, communicating better with you.
• 13:57
  Eric: So I liked that.
• 13:59
  Eric: And this is this may be a little hot take with you, because I know you're not usually the biggest fan of Hannah and her dress.
• 14:10
  Sydney: Wait a minute, you're skipping ahead.
• 14:12
  Eric: Well, I'm saying what I like.
• 14:14
  Eric: I know, I'm just saying I thought Hannah looked Usually she doesn't look this good and I thought she she looked, she looked pretty, pretty good in this and I shouldn't say Hannah herself, but her like she had a better wardrobe than she normally has.
• 14:29
  Sydney: It's because Andrea was there.
• 14:31
  Eric: Okay.
• 14:31
  Eric: So, andrea, she had she felt a little bit of pressure with that.
• 14:36
  Eric: So so I'll know, like I say, it's mostly really liked.
• 14:42
  Eric: I really liked Dolores.
• 14:45
  Eric: I thought she was just great.
• 14:47
  Eric: Yeah, it would be almost fun to go ahead and just do a little side episode where it was.
• 14:54
  Eric: It literally was Dolores trying to bumble her way through solving a case, and it would just be a little pink panther-ish kind of.
• 15:04
  Eric: Thing where she always is not necessarily doing the right thing, but somehow just stumbles on it and makes it all happen.
• 15:11
  Eric: Yeah.
• 15:13
  Sydney: Yeah.
• 15:14
  Eric: Yeah.
• 15:14
  Eric: So I thought it was all not good and, as we said before the food, it just really made me hungry looking at that cookie jar and I would like to hang out in there, and I don't even like pie, but that lemon meringue pie looked good yeah it did.
• 15:32
  Eric: I'm not a pie crust guy, so that's why.
• 15:35
  Eric: Oh really yeah, okay, I'll do the cake, I'll do like the cupcakes, I'll do the cookies, not really Just a little bit, not really Just a pie guy, but I like quiche.
• 15:48
  Sydney: What are your favorite fall?
• 15:50
  Sydney: What's your favorite fall dessert?
• 15:52
  Eric: My favorite fall dessert Probably a zucchini bread.
• 15:55
  Eric: Yeah, is a zucchini bread, a fall dessert?
• 15:59
  Sydney: I don't know.
• 15:59
  Sydney: I mean, that wasn't really.
• 16:02
  Eric: Zucchini bread ala mode.
• 16:04
  Sydney: Oh, okay.
• 16:06
  Eric: So I'll throw some ice cream on it, like a cinnamon zucchini bread with cinnamon ice cream.
• 16:16
  Sydney: Oh my gosh.
• 16:16
  Eric: That's fallish.
• 16:19
  Sydney: We're getting a crazy flavor profile here.
• 16:21
  Sydney: You're getting your vegetables.
• 16:26
  Eric: Yeah, it's healthy, it's good for you.
• 16:27
  Eric: Oh good, I think they're going to start serving it in school.
• 16:32
  Sydney: That's great.
• 16:33
  Sydney: I love that.
• 16:35
  Eric: Now is there anything that you maybe didn't like about Hamas?
• 16:40
  Sydney: and Zul.
• 16:41
  Sydney: Oh, eric, I'm glad you asked.
• 16:43
  Sydney: Oh, let's start with sweet silly real estate agent Joanna and her deciding to say that it's never been better to buy a house.
• 16:56
  Sydney: I can tell you.
• 17:01
  Eric: You're having some personal PTSD on this, huh.
• 17:06
  Sydney: Like when was this film?
• 17:08
  Sydney: Like two years ago or something, not now.
• 17:10
  Sydney: What, yeah, I did?
• 17:14
  Sydney: I got some PTSD when she said that.
• 17:17
  Sydney: I was like, wow, you're real, really something, yeah.
• 17:22
  Sydney: Also, one thing that like icked me with Hannah was like that she followed the victim into her room when she was putting that box away.
• 17:36
  Sydney: It's like when you just sit at the counter while your friend puts her thing away and comes back.
• 17:41
  Sydney: You know that was kind of weird that she followed her upstairs into her bedroom.
• 17:46
  Eric: Well, we have discussed, like you know from the last one, that Hannah has some boundary issues.
• 17:52
  Sydney: And that was like a weird one for me.
• 17:55
  Sydney: I would not be following my friend into her bedroom, and they don't they're not even that close.
• 18:04
  Sydney: It's just she just orders a pie from you every week and thinks your pies are great, so whatever she doesn't play with Michelle, yeah my job.
• 18:15
  Sydney: Yeah, I thought it was also kind of silly when Michelle was like, yeah, this house has so much potential, when all she saw was the kitchen.
• 18:25
  Sydney: Really, she was just taking some photos and walking around the kitchen.
• 18:30
  Sydney: She's like, yeah, this has potential.
• 18:32
  Sydney: I'm like you haven't even seen any of this house.
• 18:36
  Eric: What else do you have to see the kitchen and maybe the like bathrooms master bath.
• 18:44
  Sydney: And the closets like Dolores says you know, I mean the flowers.
• 18:50
  Eric: All right, you were talking about your house.
• 18:52
  Eric: So what's your take on?
• 18:55
  Eric: How do you feel about retractable, or was it track like track lighting?
• 18:59
  Sydney: Oh, recess lighting.
• 19:00
  Sydney: I think I have recessed, so I mean, that's fine, I don't really care.
• 19:09
  Eric: Isn't track lighting like 1990s?
• 19:12
  Eric: I?
• 19:12
  Sydney: was going to say that seems like you're in an art gallery or something I don't know.
• 19:18
  Sydney: But also thought Hannah looked kind of crazy when she went into that restaurant and she was asking Karen to see her receipts and everything.
• 19:29
  Sydney: I'm like honey, no, just take a breather.
• 19:34
  Sydney: And you will be surprised to know that I thought like was playing to Koi.
• 19:42
  Sydney: When Hannah came by the station the first time around and she was kind of talking to him about stuff he's like yeah, we'll see.
• 19:52
  Sydney: And I was a little annoyed at first but then I thought, well, maybe he's trying to be this way because he doesn't want things to get funky again and he doesn't want to like leader on thinking that she's part of the case and then have a backfire on him.
• 20:06
  Sydney: So it's kind of like going back and forth between that.
• 20:09
  Sydney: But what really irked me was when they were in the car and he was like saying, hey, I heard about this professor and you know, I think you should have told me about him.
• 20:21
  Sydney: Why should she?
• 20:22
  Sydney: You aren't calling her.
• 20:26
  Eric: Does she really?
• 20:26
  Sydney: deserve to give you an explanation about this.
• 20:29
  Sydney: And then she, and then she kind of backs up down and says, yeah, you're right, I should have been honest with you.
• 20:36
  Sydney: And it's like no, first of all, he came into your place of business to buy goods, which that's what happens, and there were some pleasantries kept coming again and again.
• 20:49
  Sydney: Well, that's because her food's good.
• 20:50
  Sydney: But either way, it's none of Mike's business.
• 20:55
  Sydney: You can call her.
• 20:55
  Sydney: I thought that was very annoying and also I cannot believe that Andrea was in the movie for like 30 minutes and then she was catching a flight home.
• 21:09
  Eric: It wasn't even 30 minutes.
• 21:14
  Sydney: I needed her to be in more, yeah.
• 21:19
  Eric: I was trying to figure out.
• 21:19
  Eric: If they're like, okay with our budget, we can afford to have her, so we have to cut Norman, so we can't have both.
• 21:28
  Sydney: Oh my God cut, Michelle.
• 21:30
  Sydney: You said you got on.
• 21:33
  Eric: Team Michelle last time.
• 21:34
  Sydney: Yeah, but if it's between the two of them, bye, she can't cost as much?
• 21:38
  Eric: Well, I guess Probably not.
• 21:40
  Eric: Andrea probably doesn't cost that much either.
• 21:41
  Eric: But okay, Anything else?
• 21:46
  Sydney: No, no, it's your turn, Eric.
• 21:48
  Eric: Okay, so mine is Hannah in this one and you kind of alluded to a little bit, but I think she was just like pretty much a villain in this one breaking into the house yeah, you know we talked about before her snooping and stuff, but I mean she's just breaking the law left and right and then, like you said, going in and hey, let me see the receipts, you know all that stuff and it's just as we said, boundary issues and I know it's what it is, but she, I just found her being way too nosy of the little baker trying to solve the case.
• 22:37
  Eric: And you know, last time I was defending her and I thought she was doing a good job.
• 22:43
  Eric: And this time I just, you know, Hannah, it just Mike, you know, and Mike even called her out on it saying, yeah, we are doing our due diligence, we know what we're doing.
• 22:53
  Eric: And when she walked in this office kind of demanding that you do the investigation this way, so why?
• 23:00
  Eric: I was all pushing Hannah and saying she was all on the right last time.
• 23:04
  Eric: This time I've jumped over to the other side and I'm back on team Mike and so the other thing you're talking about she walks into the house and it's like, okay, this has some potential.
• 23:16
  Eric: But she's got this.
• 23:19
  Eric: Oh, I'm looking for the starter home and the two homes she looked.
• 23:22
  Eric: Yes, they said the first one was like out of her budget, but even Joanne's home was absolutely gorgeous and what potential.
• 23:30
  Eric: I mean you walk in and it was being sold like as is and it was like beautiful home.
• 23:39
  Eric: She wouldn't have to do anything to it, you know, and it would be, it would be absolutely fantastic.
• 23:44
  Eric: So I found that kind of a little bit funny.
• 23:48
  Sydney: Yeah.
• 23:49
  Eric: I also, for whatever reason, I didn't like the whole Jed character.
• 23:55
  Eric: Oh, okay, they were formed a plumber.
• 23:59
  Eric: Yes, the book, by the way, is very politically incorrect.
• 24:05
  Eric: It is very dated, the.
• 24:10
  Eric: The Jed has a cousin who Jed comes he's not he's not an ex-convictor from there, I think that but he comes in and he's has a cousin who's mentally challenged.
• 24:23
  Eric: But they don't use such word, they use pretty much outdated.
• 24:30
  Sydney: They use the hard.
• 24:31
  Eric: R word Yep, oh, yikes, and like have them in portray him as yeah, so it was very.
• 24:39
  Eric: There's definitely some data in this, and this book was written in two, like in the 2000s, beginning of 2001 or something like that, so it wasn't you know, 1956 or something, so, but but this, the Jed character who, by the way, in the book turns out to be the bad guy.
• 24:59
  Eric: So I was expecting him to be the bad guy, but I guess I should just ruined it.
• 25:03
  Eric: Oh well, we have a spoiler in this episode, in case you wanted to know but or did want to know who it wasn't, but yeah.
• 25:13
  Eric: So I just didn't like that whole Jed and his girlfriend story line and I just, I don't know, for some reason the two of them just annoyed me and I kind of was hoping that maybe he did do it so he could get locked up again.
• 25:25
  Eric: That's that.
• 25:28
  Eric: I'd rather focus on the good and just talk more about Dolores.
• 25:34
  Eric: Okay, Well all right, let's move on.
• 25:42
  Eric: What did you think of the quality of this mystery?
• 25:47
  Sydney: Well, speaking of Jed the plumber, I did think it was kind of silly.
• 25:52
  Sydney: When Mike asks Jed why he didn't come back to finish the job, I'm like have you literally had a plumbing work done on your house?
• 26:02
  Sydney: Like they're not there, like to crack it on the next day?
• 26:07
  Sydney: They're like, maybe we'll be back tomorrow, maybe we'll be back the next day.
• 26:13
  Eric: Like, like they're punctual.
• 26:14
  Eric: They show up at like 7am the next day.
• 26:17
  Sydney: No, they were even saying that in the other scene.
• 26:19
  Sydney: Like I needed my water heater fixed, I couldn't get anybody out.
• 26:22
  Sydney: It's like that's how life is.
• 26:24
  Sydney: Mike, where are you like thinking that's Jed's not showing up at 5am the next day?
• 26:31
  Sydney: And I mean, I was pretty happy with it.
• 26:39
  Sydney: I enjoyed it much more than the last movie.
• 26:42
  Sydney: Things seemed much more plausible.
• 26:46
  Eric: There wasn't a five year old.
• 26:48
  Sydney: Yes, you know there was an end.
• 26:52
  Sydney: Yes, hannah irked me like with her evidence finding there was elements of that that, like you said, that I found invasive.
• 27:02
  Sydney: And you're right, she does not know boundaries like at all.
• 27:06
  Sydney: In fact, some of the times when she's asking people questions, like just asking people, it's like, oh really, so why did you fire her?
• 27:15
  Sydney: It's like that's not something you ask someone you're not really friends with.
• 27:20
  Eric: I will say it's very true to the book.
• 27:22
  Eric: So are just the books in general.
• 27:25
  Eric: My daughter and I are going through and we're sort of doing our book club and, as Hannah Swenson, so we're reading all of the books run.
• 27:35
  Eric: The third one right now, and.
• 27:38
  Eric: But the second one there's where she goes to the high school to talk to a student who is the basketball player about one of the other students who may be doing steroids, and we're like some adults, just going to show up in the middle school, go to the library where the kids studying and just start talking, give them some cookies and then start talking to him about, you know, these things.
• 28:12
  Eric: So it's that's pretty creepy, you know.
• 28:16
  Eric: So yeah, in the book Hannah definitely has, I would say, even bigger boundary issues with with the things that she does.
• 28:25
  Eric: So it, I'll say a lot of the things that we complain about really do hold true to the book, and so it is the character and people get mad about the love triangle between Norman and Mike and I guess I she's a fluzy she's not really a fluzy because she doesn't necessarily sleep with them and stuff, but she leads them on and, and you know, date some both, and keeps it going and perpetuates it and kind of pits them against each other and all that.
• 28:52
  Eric: So it's all very true to the book.
• 28:53
  Eric: All these things that annoy us, that's what yeah a fluke created.
• 28:58
  Sydney: Okay, well, thanks Joanna, yeah, yeah I, but I'd say overall I was much more happier with this mystery than the last one and those are really my only like grievances, like I wasn't upset with anything else.
• 29:15
  Sydney: I mean, dolores says the detective was the icing on the cake for me, like her, just like how Andrea was, like she was watching those detective noir movies before I picked her up and she really was owning that and I just also.
• 29:37
  Sydney: I found it so funny at the beginning, when the girl, or Joe, is it Joanna?
• 29:43
  Sydney: Joanna's the girl who has the house right, that's the victim.
• 29:48
  Sydney: She says, oh, that was my brother.
• 29:52
  Sydney: And she's like you know, family disputes, whatever.
• 29:56
  Sydney: And Hannah's like, oh yeah, I don't need.
• 29:59
  Sydney: I have one of those at least every week with my mom and I don't even know they're happening and I was like, well, I've never related to anything more.
• 30:09
  Eric: Or PTSD.
• 30:10
  Sydney: Yeah.
• 30:12
  Eric: Oh yeah, this movie just touched all your things, Alright.
• 30:15
  Eric: So for me I I don't know.
• 30:18
  Eric: I just thought it very much meandered the mystery.
• 30:22
  Eric: I didn't really get to sucked into it, but I will say the final.
• 30:32
  Eric: You know the person, who, who did it.
• 30:35
  Eric: I was not expecting and I thought that the way they did it, so the body would be discovered, I thought that was interesting.
• 30:49
  Eric: So I thought the reveal, I found that actually really interesting.
• 30:53
  Eric: But the whole process of going through the whole thing, I found that mystery just kind of yeah, not too interested in it.
• 31:01
  Eric: And the story I was better in.
• 31:05
  Eric: I guess there that I enjoyed seeing Andrea.
• 31:08
  Eric: I loved the family dynamics and things like that.
• 31:10
  Eric: I like seeing her and Mike having their conversation, some of their conversations and, as you said, it did get spicy.
• 31:18
  Eric: There's a couple different scenes where they're like right there and you know very, very close and you could feel that tension rolling.
• 31:26
  Eric: But I felt the mystery was just so.
• 31:31
  Sydney: Yeah, well, I will say that was clever, like you said, how they they figure it out or how she figures it out in the end.
• 31:39
  Sydney: And I will say when.
• 31:43
  Sydney: When I saw that in the end I thought there's a, there's an Easter egg for that in the beginning of the movie, where I'm like it's so obvious, I should have paid attention, like they made such a point of it.
• 31:57
  Eric: And then I was like, well, and by attention to that that's how usually there are mysteries, like Mr Allen had the same thing.
• 32:04
  Eric: If you kind of paid attention you're like oh caught it.
• 32:08
  Eric: But little things that you don't, you know, don't think are important to slide by.
• 32:13
  Eric: So that's why we're sleuths right, sleuthers Right.
• 32:17
  Eric: Body count Just the one right.
• 32:22
  Sydney: Just the one, but you know it didn't bother me.
• 32:25
  Eric: I don't know.
• 32:26
  Eric: Yeah, it was, we didn't need the second one.
• 32:30
  Eric: I thought it was, it was good and set it up.
• 32:32
  Eric: I think it would have been fun at the beginning.
• 32:34
  Eric: Like I said, I really liked, as you said, that beginning need to put it built in there, but I guess you had to build a little bit of the story around it first.
• 32:43
  Eric: So, yeah, all right.
• 32:46
  Eric: So now we do get to actually talk style as well.
• 32:49
  Eric: I said I liked Hannah, I thought she looked good.
• 32:51
  Eric: We can dive into the style now.
• 32:55
  Sydney: Yes, well, I actually did like Hannah's blue dress.
• 33:01
  Sydney: When she goes to dinner with her sister and her mother at the Italian restaurant, I thought, wow, they are spicing things up for her, only for her to turn around the next day and she's wearing like some hideous, like wrinkled button down in these low rise jeans that she's got tucked in the front with no belt and it looks just like floppy and stupid, isn't that?
• 33:27
  Eric: her like cookie jar working, baking type clothes.
• 33:30
  Sydney: I mean the cookie jar.
• 33:32
  Sydney: She usually wears like a Henley or some like crew neck shirt and then an apron over it with jeans.
• 33:38
  Sydney: I felt like this was.
• 33:41
  Sydney: And then, of course, dolores looks fabulous and they joked about her being the stylish one and I was like where's the lie?
• 33:50
  Sydney: Where's the lie?
• 33:52
  Sydney: She is the stylish one in this family.
• 33:54
  Sydney: Okay, and I very much appreciated Dolores calling out Hannah's bad fashion, where she was like Andrea, please help her with something to wear, because otherwise she'll look like a farmer from.
• 34:14
  Eric: And she did look good at the funeral, though.
• 34:16
  Sydney: And Andrea came through.
• 34:17
  Sydney: Oh, she looked great.
• 34:19
  Sydney: She looked great I just wish she could.
• 34:23
  Eric: I guess we just need her go into more funerals to look good.
• 34:27
  Sydney: Or more dinners, I don't know yeah.
• 34:30
  Eric: That's what I guess, that's what I should say, when I thought, when she made the effort, she was successful.
• 34:37
  Eric: But you're, there is other scenes where you're just looking at her and she's definitely pulling the clothes out of the hamper to to just walk around town and it's just like you're not going to go see Mike in that, Are you?
• 34:49
  Eric: Yeah, she doesn't have to work for it.
• 34:51
  Eric: Small town in Minnesota.
• 34:55
  Sydney: Slucky, she makes such good cookies.
• 34:58
  Eric: Yes, the ginger snap goes a long ways and then, as I mentioned before, the style will continue it into the houses.
• 35:06
  Eric: The houses were, they're just very nice.
• 35:11
  Eric: The that was Hannah's house.
• 35:15
  Eric: They were hanging out at right.
• 35:17
  Sydney: Yeah.
• 35:19
  Eric: So you know, the cookie jar definitely makes a good income.
• 35:22
  Eric: So, because her house was great, the house that Michelle was looking to buy, joanna's house Fantastic, the first house that was too expensive, fantastic.
• 35:38
  Eric: So, yeah, really nice decor in addition to fancy.
• 35:45
  Sydney: Yeah.
• 35:47
  Eric: Hannah and then Michelle.
• 35:48
  Eric: I thought Michelle she looks good, so I guess my thing.
• 35:51
  Eric: I've never been the hugest murder she baked fan, so I don't really have the same attachment to Andrea that a lot of people have.
• 36:03
  Eric: So for me I've been totally buying with Michelle and I think Michelle's great, like her character, and I thought her character and this was, you know, fantastic.
• 36:13
  Eric: I do, I definitely did enjoy all you know, all of them together and I thought that was made it even better.
• 36:22
  Eric: But I don't, because I don't.
• 36:23
  Eric: I guess I had this affinity for Andrea.
• 36:25
  Eric: I didn't, didn't miss her, but here, no, no, it was nice to see her.
• 36:29
  Eric: Okay, so shall we get into a little bit of rank rankings.
• 36:38
  Sydney: I think so.
• 36:39
  Eric: Okay, what do you give it on the steam meter?
• 36:46
  Sydney: Eric, I gave it an eight because things got steamy and spicy.
• 36:51
  Eric: Okay.
• 36:51
  Sydney: Tension was there.
• 36:53
  Eric: I only gave it a six and the reason is, like you say, they got that tension and it was going and I was starting to, like you know, loosen the collar.
• 37:02
  Eric: But even at the end they just sort of sat down and said here try my little eclair, you know, they, they, they could have ended.
• 37:11
  Eric: But the house, when the intruder was there and they were in, I know.
• 37:15
  Eric: I know, that's why I said it got some tension going.
• 37:16
  Eric: So it was a six and it was.
• 37:17
  Eric: It was the meter was rising, but then it just and then like in the car they should have had it.
• 37:25
  Eric: They should have had a little, they should have had a kiss, they should have had the embrace They've already.
• 37:29
  Sydney: I am kind of surprised there was.
• 37:30
  Eric: They've already crossed that bridge, so it's not like we're, you know, trying to maintain it.
• 37:35
  Eric: So they should they should have.
• 37:36
  Eric: They should have had it and I understand they did say, oh, we'll take it slow.
• 37:39
  Eric: And there's that and the other one Come on.
• 37:42
  Sydney: Right.
• 37:42
  Sydney: And so, yeah, slow.
• 37:45
  Sydney: It's like how slow can you go?
• 37:46
  Sydney: But it's been how many years?
• 37:50
  Eric: It's once again small town Minnesota.
• 37:54
  Sydney: We're going to be going on a decade pretty soon.
• 37:57
  Sydney: They've been.
• 38:00
  Eric: They hold hands.
• 38:00
  Eric: They're old fashioned.
• 38:01
  Eric: What did you get?
• 38:04
  Eric: This story, Eight.
• 38:11
  Sydney: I enjoyed it.
• 38:12
  Sydney: It was, I think, you know what for me it made such a punch or a pack, because I was so upset with the one before, like I just did not like the previous, like mystery in the series.
• 38:30
  Sydney: So when I when I watched this one, I thought, well, I don't know, I mean, I don't know if I'll like this, and I ended up really liking it.
• 38:40
  Eric: So All right, I give it a six.
• 38:44
  Eric: I thought it was okay, I like.
• 38:49
  Eric: I like the story of the last one better.
• 38:52
  Eric: You know, despite having the little kid killer, this one kind of reverted back to me where I don't have anything against them all but at the same time they're just okay.
• 39:04
  Eric: I do like, I'll say it, the Dolores and the cookie jar, they just hang out in there.
• 39:10
  Eric: I probably would give it a higher score, but just on it, you know, it's okay.
• 39:15
  Eric: Which brings us to the mystery.
• 39:20
  Sydney: I enjoyed the mystery.
• 39:21
  Sydney: I gave it an eight.
• 39:24
  Eric: I gave it a six too, so you're straight eight.
• 39:25
  Eric: I'm straight sixes so far.
• 39:27
  Sydney: Yeah.
• 39:28
  Eric: All right.
• 39:29
  Eric: Well, let's get to the acting, then the acting.
• 39:33
  Sydney: I gave a nine because it was everyone, and you know what I really appreciate about this series is they seem to get everyone to come back.
• 39:42
  Sydney: I mean this was a great one because Andrea came back, but I mean even her coworker at the cookie jar has been with her since the first episode, lisa.
• 39:52
  Sydney: Yes, I'm like this is probably the best franchise they have at making everyone come back.
• 40:02
  Eric: Yeah, because even like Mystery 101, the detective, the partner changes and other people.
• 40:07
  Sydney: Right, because you are on.
• 40:08
  Eric: Virgin River yeah, and Gourmet Detective same thing.
• 40:12
  Eric: Crossword mystery same thing.
• 40:16
  Eric: Yeah, you're right, they do pretty much keep everybody, and it's the same sheriff the whole time.
• 40:20
  Eric: Too right, because you look different this one.
• 40:23
  Sydney: Yeah, you look different.
• 40:24
  Sydney: No, it's the same one, but you know, I don't think he was.
• 40:30
  Sydney: He wasn't, like really a character in the initial ones.
• 40:33
  Sydney: Like you never really saw a sheriff in the murder she baked portion.
• 40:38
  Sydney: I don't remember seeing one because his coworker was his partner, which was Andrea's husband.
• 40:45
  Eric: Bill.
• 40:47
  Sydney: Yeah, okay so.
• 40:50
  Eric: All right, I gave the acting an eight.
• 40:52
  Eric: I'm right there with you.
• 40:54
  Eric: I didn't like some of the.
• 40:57
  Eric: I guess, like you know, the Jed and his girlfriend.
• 41:00
  Eric: I forget what her name was.
• 41:01
  Eric: Is that Alice, I think, or was Alice the one in the waitress in the bar?
• 41:08
  Sydney: That was Karen.
• 41:09
  Eric: Okay, so so I think it was Alice, so I didn't like or wait.
• 41:13
  Eric: Karen was in the bar, or Karen was the girlfriend.
• 41:16
  Eric: Yeah, karen was in the bar.
• 41:17
  Eric: So I, like I said, I thought they were not great and some of the side side characters weren't there, but if you just went off the core ones they were, they were tense.
• 41:28
  Eric: Cameron Matheson I thought he was great.
• 41:31
  Eric: He was really, really goodness, and usually I'm just kind of lukewarm to him.
• 41:36
  Eric: As I said, Dolores, off the charts.
• 41:39
  Eric: Hannah, for despite her being an annoying person and all that, I cannot deny Alison Sweeney's talent.
• 41:47
  Eric: She, uh, he's just really good.
• 41:51
  Eric: So all of that I still gave it a go.
• 41:55
  Sydney: She can.
• 41:55
  Sydney: She can fake cry at the drop of a pen Like the.
• 42:00
  Sydney: The eyes are getting all red.
• 42:01
  Sydney: They're like tearing up.
• 42:03
  Eric: She's like oh well, I'd say it's her uh, her soap opera background, but from when I understand, she's like a mean evil person in the soap opera, so she's probably not crying, she's causing the crying.
• 42:18
  Sydney: But yeah, I don't ever watch that, so I don't know.
• 42:21
  Sydney: But maybe you probably have to be able to play both ends and that sort of thing.
• 42:26
  Eric: Yes, that's what I heard.
• 42:27
  Eric: All right, how about the style?
• 42:29
  Eric: Last one.
• 42:31
  Sydney: Oh the style, I gave an eight.
• 42:35
  Eric: Same here and, uh, I was those peaks of Hannah and then I guess I just really liked that house.
• 42:41
  Eric: I keep talking about it.
• 42:42
  Eric: I thought the house was great.
• 42:45
  Sydney: And Dolores.
• 42:46
  Eric: I'd buy I've, oh yeah, yeah, sorry, but I'd buy the house, even with the, with the big bloodstain in the, uh, the bedroom, which, by the way, was cause that was like her head right when she, when she found she had a big bloodstain.
• 42:58
  Eric: It was blunt force and.
• 42:59
  Eric: But when they went back and they were looking for the coins and everything, they did a pretty good job of oxidizing that carpet and getting rid of all that.
• 43:10
  Sydney: Her brother was like we're not taking any chances.
• 43:14
  Sydney: We need to sell this place.
• 43:15
  Eric: Which, oh, let's go back to that before we wrap up and we have to do our over on one second.
• 43:20
  Eric: But so he's just packing heat.
• 43:25
  Sydney: Yeah.
• 43:25
  Eric: I know he's there and all of a sudden he just randomly pulls out a gun and I'm like, cause I know he had the gun when he you know, when he's sneaking in in the middle of the night there.
• 43:37
  Eric: But I can get that, cause he thinks there's an intruder or something like that.
• 43:40
  Eric: This.
• 43:42
  Eric: He seems to be a dude who just packs heat, I guess.
• 43:46
  Sydney: I guess you know I immediately thought that was Ken Purvis and then I was like oh no, it's not cause he doesn't wear glasses, and you could see, like, just from like certain angles you could see the glasses.
• 43:57
  Eric: Oh, at night.
• 43:58
  Sydney: Yeah, like the silhouette, and yeah, that was super random, and then, well, we can't say it.
• 44:08
  Sydney: But Well, that's what I was at the very end when he that's when he pulls out, there I was like this guy is wearing it all the time.
• 44:17
  Eric: Right, exactly that's what I'm saying.
• 44:19
  Sydney: He was sad at the funeral too.
• 44:22
  Eric: He probably didn't shoot up someone there.
• 44:24
  Eric: He's like your.
• 44:25
  Sydney: Hannah, that one that broke into my house.
• 44:29
  Eric: I didn't like you at first, but now you're dead.
• 44:32
  Eric: Yeah, oh, all right, we'll get to our combined score.
• 44:40
  Eric: But yeah, purvis too.
• 44:41
  Eric: It's like.
• 44:42
  Eric: What a name that was a terrible name.
• 44:45
  Eric: He just, but he also seemed like a Ken Purvis too.
• 44:48
  Eric: He was just, I don't know he was a little creepy.
• 44:53
  Sydney: He was too extra Like who talks about a crock and bush.
• 44:58
  Sydney: If I talked about that with my husband he'd be like what?
• 45:02
  Eric: Yeah, well, it was a great anniversary.
• 45:04
  Eric: Okay, getting back to it, what's your score right up to?
• 45:09
  Sydney: It's 41.
• 45:10
  Eric: And I'm 34.
• 45:12
  Eric: So that's a 75.
• 45:15
  Sydney: So so pretty good.
• 45:18
  Eric: Pretty good, I guess.
• 45:19
  Eric: When it's on, watch it.
• 45:20
  Eric: Don't go out of your way to to, you know, take off work to catch it.
• 45:26
  Eric: But if it's on one of those Sunday afternoons, just give it a go.
• 45:30
  Sydney: Yeah, it's a great crafting movie.
• 45:32
  Sydney: You could probably get like four crafts done during it.
• 45:37
  Eric: All right.
• 45:37
  Eric: So one of the things that, as as we wrap up, I just want to say over on Reddit I will you know, I'll share when we post our podcast or the YouTube, and I had somebody leave a comment saying thank you for for your podcast.
• 45:58
  Eric: I really like it because none of my family likes Hallmark and I have no one to talk to.
• 46:03
  Eric: But listening to the podcast is like my way that I feel I can like connect with other Hallmark fans.
• 46:11
  Eric: You know other sleuther's.
• 46:13
  Eric: Oh so yeah, I was like oh, that's totally.
• 46:14
  Eric: You know how I am because you know I've got my wife in the other room watching ID channel taking notes on.
• 46:20
  Eric: You know how to kill me eventually.
• 46:22
  Eric: I mean you know it's, I come here and I hang out with you and we get to talk and talk about our favorite Hallmark mysteries and have fun with it and get involved, you know, through our Instagram, with the community there.
• 46:34
  Eric: But it was really fun hearing that that, that personally that comment, to know that it is their way of connecting, you know, within that Hallmark community.
• 46:45
  Eric: So I hope other people who listen to the podcast feel the same way.
• 46:50
  Sydney: Yeah, that is so nice.
• 46:53
  Sydney: That's exactly how I feel too.
• 46:55
  Sydney: I'm like oh, it's so nice that I get to talk to Eric about it, because sometimes he doesn't agree with me and we really get to duke it out, and then other times I'm really surprised he does.
• 47:09
  Eric: I'll say the Hannah's been probably our most.
• 47:11
  Eric: I don't know, confrontational, sorry way to put it, but the one where we've disagreed most, like even this one where last one I liked and I was defending Hannah and you were no, no, no.
• 47:25
  Eric: And this time we kind of flip flop where you were like in this one and I'm like no, this one was no, it's just okay.
• 47:35
  Sydney: Well, and we flipped, flopped with Mike and Hannah.
• 47:38
  Sydney: Like I was kind of annoyed with Mike this one, but I see where you're coming from too when you say you appreciated him more in this one.
• 47:48
  Eric: but but all right, so yeah, so if you're listening to our podcast and want to leave us a comment, that would be great.
• 47:58
  Eric: Just tell us what you think.
• 47:59
  Eric: If you're enjoying it, if maybe you find it as your little outlet to stay connected and sort of have these quasi conversations about the movies and all that.
• 48:11
  Eric: So that's not what you think.
• 48:13
  Sydney: Yeah, and you can stay even more connected with the community over on Instagram because we do get, you know, some great comments on on the posts and, you know, feel free to talk to people about mysteries on there.
• 48:34
  Eric: And we even had a jewel get shared with you in our, in our DMs last time, the little jewel of it.
• 48:44
  Sydney: Yeah, thanks, georgia.
• 48:45
  Sydney: I was like oh Julie you're looking fab.
• 48:50
  Sydney: She is like in Italy with Diane on first and we're wearing like the classic wrap dress, looking fabulous.
• 48:59
  Sydney: I know you're going to have to talk to your wife about how good jewels to.
• 49:06
  Eric: I defend you.
• 49:07
  Eric: I'm like I say we're together there and she's like well, I'm not sure if she's going to be able to get into the jewelry, but she's like, well, she's got a lot of jewels, jewels, fantastic, she looks fantastic, she.
• 49:21
  Eric: You know what?
• 49:22
  Eric: Now that we're done with these?
• 49:25
  Sydney: maybe we should get into the fixer upper review over over the holidays, before the end of the year, fixer, upper, deep dive.
• 49:32
  Sydney: Well, yeah, we've got this next one.
• 49:34
  Sydney: And then we were going to do yeah, that we wasn't Andrea saying she wanted to be on the fix she likes.
• 49:46
  Eric: I promised her she could join us, for that one, so you got to, and then we have a long list of people who want to join us for Gourmet detective, because Wow, the best one out there.
• 49:59
  Sydney: So.
• 50:01
  Eric: Oh yeah, I know all your mystery one on one.
• 50:06
  Sydney: You're entitled to that.
• 50:08
  Eric: Yes, okay.
• 50:10
  Eric: Well, on that note, I think it's time to go.
• 50:15
  Sydney: All right, what was fun, eric?
• 50:18
  Eric: I'm going to go grab a little lemon meringue pie and turn in.
• 50:24
  Sydney: Okay, and I'm going to go drink my mock zesty lemon and try to go to sleep.
• 50:30
  Eric: Warm it up like like warm milk.
• 50:32
  Eric: Have a warm Sasty, lemon Sasty, all right, good night, good night.