Stocking Stuffers 9.7 Mystic Christmas with Brandi & Dave

You're like healthy, you look strong or it shouldn't be your only love? Go question, Yes, my brother's so less invester, Come home and seal the deal with your one and only Christmas crush. How are the seals all seals in the entire world? Yeah, and who knows, maybe we will fall for each other all over again and we will be right back to where we started. I was joking, but you never know.

Mystic Christmas only on Hallmark. Welcome again to another stocking stuffer. We are here today with something that is adorably cute and involves sea animals, though maybe not as many as we don't like to have. And it would be very selfish of me to watch a movie that involved seals and pea coats and not share that. So therefore I am joined today by not one, but two amazing co hosts.

Please welcome Brandy and Day from the Dark Corners podcast. I'm assuming you're all clapping and going yeah, so thank you for that. Brandy and Dave, Hello and welcome Hello. Thanks so much for having us. Now, how is your Mystic Christmas going?

It's going well actually, because of the timing of when my mother passed away last year, which was in early November. I now make Dave start early. So yes, basically by about second week of November, and like, get the tree out. I need this. I've wrong with us.

I started listening to Christmas music, you know, it's the It's just how I roll now, and I'm just creating all these new traditions, like this year, for the first time, we have an advent calendar, and it is fun, very fun. I am still impressed. You have a tree and you have a cat. Yes, problem yewing right now? Yeah, he doesn't care.

He hasn't tried to climb the tree. He will sometimes run under the tree, but he never raised. Is there anything like that? He's just what if? Yeah, I'm wildly jealous.

We put up a tree last year. It was beautiful. It looked great for a day, and then less than a day later we realized, oh no, this cannot work with cats. Sadly, there are no cats in today's movie, but there are seals. Seals, Yes, they have cute Christmas names, which is always a good thing.

The movie today, what is the movie we're talking about? It's Mystic Christmas Smiths And now you selected this movie, I did, What made you choose it? And had you seen it when you said let's do this one? Yes? I had seen it when I said, because I actually really enjoyed this movie.

My my friend Chris Littlefield. Hi, Chris, he actually knows the director of this movie. He's worked with her before, Marlon Hunter. Is that her name? That is her name?

And so I he excited, and he said, you know it's this is the movie that she directed, and I'm sure you're going to watch it. And I'm like, yes, I watched all the Hallmark Christmas movies. Of course I'm going to watch this, but I was. I was really watching it with a keen eye the first time because of this is someone that my friend Christopher knows, and he is very good at picking his friends, let's just put it that way. So yeah, he just said a lot of lovely things about her, and I said, well, I will let you know what I think after I've watched it, and and I did, and he actually forwarded my comments to her and let her know how much I enjoyed it and the things that I thought about it that I really enjoyed the most, et cetera, and how I felt like this was you know, I'm gonna put my cards on the table.

I feel like this is a cut above your typical Hallmark movie. I would agree. Yeah. Something that is interesting too there is that this is, at least to Gordon, to IMDb, her first, like Hallmark, her first Christmas movie direction. It looks like she has one other full movie and then some short films, with this being her first actual, you know, Hallmark Christmas movie.

And it feels incredibly tight. It feels very fitting to what the Hallmark brand is. And yet there's a lot of things and this is also in the script. There's a lot of little things that do take this elevate it, I think quite a bit, both in terms of story and the actual direction acting. Like general the general feel of this movie I wrote very quickly in my notes, Like the first of the note I wrote was this is actually very snappy, like it has pop.

It has people talking to each other in ways that are not like, oh yeah, they got one take to do this, and then they just kept going like there's comic timing here. There is chemistry. And it also for me, I figured, if nothing else, I'll a cute seals, which I did and I'm thankful for. But also I did find myself chuckling quite a bit, so it was a good pick on you. Well, thank you, thank you.

I did. I was very excited after I'd watched it, and when Dave said you were going to do stocking stuffers again, I'm like, I'm begging this one well, and I had considered doing this one initially just from the poster. I love the poster. The poster is uh, the you know what, and we'll talk about this, but like, the colors are a very strange thing in this movie, because we were obviously used to these movies being very red and green and fake snow. And the poster for Mister Christmas is you know, a blue as if it's an aqua, because it is an aquarium, so it's blue ocean as the backdrop with a big seal and then are two leads in front.

And there's something about the blue that really like bothers my eye because it's so different from the rest of these posters, like the old joke and everybody has seen it, like people that do a screenshot of letter boxing the Hallmark lineup and showing how every poster is the same and this one isn't, and like, which is cool, except also it's like oh, but maybe they should be the same. It doesn't fit the look of the rest of them, although in at least in the poster they're wearing green and red, although I don't think they are in the movie. But it happens, So why don't we Uh, Since we've already been talking a lot about it, let's dive into the plot. Can you walk everybody through what this movie is about, what happens in it?

When we can give spoilers because everybody know, I will say, and again I think where I'm glad we kind of started with saying this is a recommend because this way people that do watch these based on like should I watch it or not, like watch this one, because it actually does have like a character surprise or two. So if you don't want it's spoiled for once, I'm gonna say, don't listen door, like you know, go watch it and then come back. But regardless of that, because we have to talk about the end anyway, So tell us about, mister your Christmas. What happens in this zany little rump oh gully. Well, so, mister Christmas.

It starts out with our lead lady Juniper sometimes also called June, and she is an introvert. She actually states that she's an introvert, So I cannot I cannot explain how validating that felt to actually have a person say I'm an introvert in dialogue and just putting it out there. And I was just like rooting for her for the rest of this film just based on that. But I mean there were other reasons as well. So she she is?

Is she Marie? But just I can't remember. I mean, I feel like she has to be. I'm sure they say in the very beginning what she actually does, but then they never really say it. Against I don't know she Is she a marine biologist or a marine veterinarian or is that the same thing or is that different?

And did I just make up the second one. Well, I don't think she is a veterinarian because she is not the person who actually treats peppermint. True. I mean, she does try, but it's it's she doesn't know how to fully diagnose et cetera. And so I think she's more of a marine biologist, which is still a scientist of course, but I just don't think that she's the actual medical part of that.

It seems like she has a very specific job, which is to prepare see life to be returned to the wild. Yeah, when they become stranded. Yeah. Yeah, she's like a marine life coach, a marine rehab life coach. Yeah, it's like parole officer kind of thing.

Yeah. Physical therapy for animals for seals, sure, and emotional therapy. I think emotional therapy too, you know, trying to wean them off human contact sort of thing. And they're so cute because they're sales. Yeah, it's kind of a hard job because you know, to be really close to this sea life and then turn around and wave goodbye to them.

People who foster animals, which is wonderful, and I can never do it because I would just have an entire room full of cats. She's a seal foster parent. Yeah, that's it. She's a foster parent preparing them. That was a life option we have taken, I know, right.

And it's funny because Junifer starts she's finishing up this speech in front of a large group of other scientists and what not in talking about the rehabilitation and getting these seals back into the wild, et cetera. And she's doing very well, and then she gets a phone call from well afterwards, she's like very awkward when people are having this argument about what is the best Christmas song and it has to be an old song and hers is Dominic the Donkey, and you know, she's she's just she's just so believably awkward. I mean, it's just it's it's the kind of situation that I have been in a million times, and I would do the same thing. I'd just be like, oh, oh man, this I got to take this call. I'm sorry.

Yeah, she's really she's fine in front of a crowd. She is fine professionally speaking, but in terms of human interaction, she finds it very difficult. Yes it is. When she's prepared, it's great, but on the fly nope, nope, no, she doesn't handle it well and them inviting her over and she's just like, that's me, that's me right there. Just no, no, thank you with these people that I barely know.

No, no, don't want that. So uh. And then it's her friend that calls her and says, hey, I really need your help. We've got this seal that was stranded and she's not eating. We're having divorce peed her.

Could you please come and help me? Please, Blaze and it's her her very best friend in the world, and so she and she of course asks if her brother is still in the same town, and she says yes, because they had this magical night at this magical weekend, the weekend of this friend's wedding, and the wedding, uh was apparently not as great, you know, because as you say, because I'm like, oh, yeah, I was trying to remember what happened to Canda, Like Candace's a single mom, and she says that a couple of times, but I have no memory of them ever saying what happened to Candace's husband? And I don't know, do we? Yeah, well, don't really know, but I assume that they got divorced, and and I think Candace was saying something to the effect of, you know, I don't want to know about this.

But at the same time, it's like, how did this How did you guys have that much fun? And why didn't I notice? And they're like, well, because you basically they were saying, you're married to terror person. Yes, that makes sense, So she had I guess they had this one wild night or wild weekend together with sawyer Is. The characters said woot and he yeah, well, I guess I'll wait till we talked to him, but yes, I guess he was ginger yep, yeah, uh then he well, like she Basically, there was a misunderstanding and a miscommunication, which happens a lot in the world.

I don't think it happens in the world nearly as many times as it happens in Hallmark. But it led to her. I guess kind of a nomadic lifestyle. Mm hmm. She sent him an email and then he didn't reply and insists that he did.

Yep, and he spent the last do we know how many years supposed to be ten years ago? Yeah, okay, so all that time thinking she stood him up, he thinks. But now they're back, and clearly quickly the two of them kind of reignite their their old energy. I guess right. Yes, they're both so awkward and it's so amiable.

Ye, they call themselves the Mollusks. It's been cute, yeah, not as cue hard on the outside, soft on the inside. And then of course we get the big conflict of I mean, what is the real conflict in the movie here. Well, that's a little bit weird because there is there there isn't the typical thing. I mean, yes, there's the miscommunication, but there's basically our leads are reuniting, but at the same time kind of being cautious about it because Juniper doesn't seem to want to give up her nomadic lifestyle and Sawyer wants to just stay in town and help people.

And the the only real conflict I think is is actually Juniper figuring out how to deal with people, and especially her three interns that she's saddled with that Kens did not prepare her for. They are they are adorable, and she just suddenly gets roped into all of these these things two because of need. Basically these this town takes Christmas very seriously. Oh what a surprise, I know, But she gets roped into these towns kind of asks a lot of her, does it not. Yeah, Like, she's here for a few days of the favor to a friend, she's got a she's an expert in her field.

She's there to save a seal, right, She's there to help release a seal into the wild. And suddenly she is at the town board meeting having to get on stage and speak and hand out flyers all weekend. That's my idea of like, I'm an extrovert, I'm good with with dealing with people, but the idea of like going somewhere as a consultant and then suddenly having to also be like honorary mayor. No, No, that seems like a lot of work. And I mentor to this young child and well, hey, that's her best friend's kid.

I mean basically she's like the aunt of that kid. Yeah, and like she kind of accepted that, Like she kind of proactively took that job, whereas the being a mentor to three in turn, was like, I get you could have warned me about that, you know, that just wasn't a training job. Yeah, there's a huge difference. I'm like as somebody who like has to often deal with the both sides of work as far as like, this is the work I have to get done, but also I have to grow a team and make them do it. Like they're two totally different skills.

And it's one of the weird things about careers in general, is like you get really good at something and then the natural progression is for you to not do it anymore but to teach other people how to do it. Then you're not trained on how to deal with those people, like that's what you get here, and that that's a lot for a weekend job. That you know, she just wants to get on a plane and go to South Africa. Yeah, she thought she did. She thought she did.

Well. See that. I think I think the true conflict is not even between the two leads. It's it's just basically Juniper Uh has conflict with herself. Her parents split up, and so she doesn't really have a home anymore because their mom basically lives on a cruise ship now because she married this cruise director and her dad is just off hiking in the Himalayas or whatever.

Her hot parents are like living their mess life, I know to him and it's like clearly a backdrop Maufactorop. Yeah, we we haven't had like really obvious green screening this year release, not that I've caught, and like this one, Whe's like, oh I missed the green screen dad, Yes, it's so. I think I really think that it's her figuring out what who she is and who she wants to be and where she wants to be, Yeah, what she wants, what she wants to do with her love, And I honestly think and it's kind of alluded to in it, but not really. I kind of think that Candace purposely blindsided her with all of these things because she knew her friend would rise to the occasion, but also because she wanted her to get comfortable here and to enjoy her time there, so maybe she'd want to stick around because she And there is something that I thought to watching this was in the midst of all this, Candace is interviewing candidates for like to be the director of this, uh the aquarium, and like presumably she's like has like top like Misic Aquarium is actually a pretty well known aquarium.

Like it's not you know, like Brooklyn Aquarium, but like it's one step below that, if not even equal. Like so she's probably dealing with very high level people who are like really excited about this very good job and they're probably very qualified. And she's in the middle of like, yeah, I'm sorry, i gotta cut this interview short because my kid needs to read a poem, like whatever all this is going on, and then the whole like, Okay, my friend said she's not taking the job, and she probably has taken the job, so I'm gonna wait to tell this person if they got the job or not. And what it felt like to me was watching this was thinking every like anybody that has ever had troubled job hunting where they're getting very frustrated about I've sent my resume into fifty places and nobody's calling me.

Or I had a really great interview and everything felt great, but then I just they called me and said I wasn't you know, they weren't going with me, they were going with somebody else. Remember, could be this situation. It could be that the person that was gonna hire you instead coordinated this whole affair to back their best friend from South Africa in order to mate with their brother and be part of the family. Like there's always other reasons for why you don't get hired or don't get the second interview, and this movie is a great example of one of those. YEP, I feel like in situations like that, it's not it's not you, it's them exactly exactly yes, And you can say like, yeah, but it hasn't been me five times.

Yeah, But think of how many Hamewark movies there are a year, if that many times, like you haven't applied to that many jobs, like every one of them has this kind of situation going on. Yeah, there's like forty Christmas movies alone this year, I mean yeah, and a lot of them have a similar thing. And something that's been really interesting this year for me is that several of these movies have had and this one, ultimately it is the woman who kind of decides I'm staying. But it's not just I'm staying for the guy. It's I'm staying because actually I've you know, I've kind of I'm stopping my life right now and reevaluating and I'm looking at things and I think this is actually where I want to be.

Uh. Whereas in the old open days of Hallmark, there was a lot of just big city woman comes to small town, gets sucked in and decides her old life wasn't worth anything. But something new this year that I've caught is this is like the third film where the man decides I'm gonna I'm gonna change, And it's different for different movies. The last movie it was where the man actually said like, uh, oh, I'm gonna go with you. You're you're you're a traveling working woman.

I'm gonna give up my life here and go be with you. And explore that, which is very revolutionary for these and in this one sow You're it's not necessarily he doesn't do anything for Juniper. He makes his own decision of you know what, you you made me realize I should go see the world. I've been put in it off forever and you're gonna you know, time doesn't have to stop. I can go do this for a year and come back and you know, we can start life then.

And that's really surprising and very refreshing, and so I'm happy to see these kinds of film. That was quite a surprising ending when he's like, yeah, I'm gonna go live my life like you've been telling me I need to do. I'm gonna go take this year off and travel the world. And every once in a while she'd meet him and some like I think they went to Japan together. Yeah, they were also going to Japan together.

Oh right. But also that whole sense of like a lot of these movies treat things very much as well, when you make that decision to leave, you never come back, or when you make that decision to stay, well, you're never going anywhere. And this is like, yeah, no, the world doesn't work like that like, you you sure you might need like a cat sitter if you're going somewhere, but you know, the town owes you because you've been plastering flyers up all week. So somebody's gonna come and feed your cat. You can go to Japan for a week.

It's okay. And that's you know, nice to see. And one of the many subplots, he's training this young woman to manage the pizza place. So yeah, there's so many stories in this movie. Yeah, yeah, and again it's like another one of those storylines that I appreciate of.

It's, you know, one of those like look, any manager or somebody who's saying, I'm so overwhelmed. There's an aspect of that where that's your fault because you're not trusting your team to do what they should do. And it's and like it's very bad in the beginning where like she's like, hey, I've worked here for seven years. You don't realize this, but I have like an MBA now and you still do won't let me manage her for the evening. But he also has an arc and by the end of the movie, he's like, hey, I'm sorry I was a jerk to you, you're right, you can do this so nice.

I appreciate that, Yes, we do appreciate that. I knew that that was going to happen eventually, because like the minute she starts asking, why can't I take care of this girl's soccer team? And I love how he talked about how, you know, the high school kids, we were animals and the girls were worse than the boys. Yep, especially when they won a giggle. And I appreciated that, like, you go, girls, you go, girls, you'd be animals.

You deserve it? Why not? So shall we dive into our tropes to see if they're all hit here? Yeah? All right, I think we're actually going to be missing if you we maybe let's see the first one.

Is our female lead need of a lesson? Uh? So we have? And does she have a Christmas theme? Name argued about that a little bit because it is a type of tree and it can be a Christmas tree.

But there's so many different types of junipers. There's like desert junipers, so yeah, it's like kind of juniper is a word I would only hear like on the holidays. And I don't know that I know what kind of tree it is. I knew it was something like, I'm sure there I had a candle at one point in life that's a Juniper on it. But it feels like our Christmas name, doesn't it.

It's kind of a need kind of tree. Yeah, it's not. It's not the first thing you think of, right, But if her name was Pine, yes this is my sister, point set a there was what you know? So, I mean we talked about her a lot. One thing that she does actually say about I can't remember who says it.

It must be Canvas asked her about like, oh, why don't you ever settle down? And she says like, well, that's a trick question because or that's it. I think it's Sawyer asks her, what would well, what would you say if the if the right guy asked you to settle down? And she says, that's a trick question. The right guy would never ask, which I was okay, yeah, yes, uh.

And Juniper is played by Jesse Shram. Were either of you familiar with her? Yes, I have seen her in a bunch of movies. She reminds me of this former child actors now comedian and named Tessa Arker. You know, tall, kind of thinner face, blonde I got at Anna Camp.

That's that's who I kept getting. I guess she wasn't Christmas. She's none of the Christmas movies I've seen, so that's why I hadn't realized. But she's really good. She's very funny.

She's as just like a really the kind of like comedic energy. I think these movies assume their leads always have, but often don't, if that makes sense. It does well. She works well no matter who she's playing against, and that's what's really you know, such a strong actor is like the interns, the shop guy in Yeah, the Ki the Seal, very well against the Seal. All Right, so let's talk about our bland love interest, Sawyer.

Now again a bit of a crossover because normally it's you know, the home town guy who's uh, never gonna leave and you know, works with his hands, or poor little rich boy. So in this case it is our hometown, you know, good natured guy played by Chandler Massy, who I do remember, and this movie came up on another show. He was in La Next Stop Christmas, which was like the time travel on from a couple of years ago, and I remember him being really good in that too that he also, like you know, good looking out obviously is good looking. He's in these movies like they can't not be good looking. But he also is not like bull out hunk, like he's just kind of like a cute presence.

I guess here and again I find had like good comic timing. And he's got a touch of dork to him, Oh definitely, which makes him exceedingly attractive to me. I got that. I go for the dorks. What can I say?

Oh, what do you think of that day? Yeah, I'm pretty dorky. So yeah, so let's talk about our setting, big bad city, charming small town or magical winter wonderland. Now it's kind of a trick question, yeah, because do you remember obviously we're in Mistict, Connecticut. Have I either of you been to Mystic, Connecticut?

No? No, So it's a common fifth grade trip where I'm from. So in fifth grade we got on the ferry and went to Mystic and did the aquarium and did like I remember, the big thing was like you're gonna get homemade ice cream there? I think I remember the ice cream. And then we came home and that was my time in Missedic, Connecticut.

Some thirty plus years ago. Now there's a I don't know if you caught this, but there's a line actually about whether or not it's a village or a town, because she having she says it's a small town and then like I think it's Sawyer or the mayor gets very angry, They're like, no, it's not a town, it's a village. Yeah, we got that kind of here in Ogden, like we have a lot of history here, but it's like the city everybody forgets about in utaiabes either Provo or Salt Lake or you know, Brigham City or something like that, and it's like Ogden, Yeah, are you a city or are you a village? Or are you a town? Or are you a community?

But it was he, I think it was Sawyer who was the one who got upset and well not upset, upset and said that it was a village and that it was official from the census. Yes, yes, because it's when she it's when Juniper actually says and again this is where like the script of that which has three different writers associated to it, Nicole Dressful, Christy O'Connor, and Andrew Gernhard. One of them had like a wet, Hot American Summer episode credit. So it seemed like, again, it was like an interesting pool of people writing this. But there's a line that she has it's very which is like when she says, what is it with people in small towns?

And then that's when he argued, screams like, no, it's not a town, it's a village. But yeah, it's a little to traditions, like they're dressing in Victorian garb and she is a masculine kind of thing, which was a nice touch, too. True, that's a good point. Yeah, I was kind of a surprise as like, oh, look at that. Yeah, and it seemed like everybody knew everybody right, Like then I get it, like it's a you know, it's a tourist area, but that means you're going to have you know, the people that work at the aquarium are going to go to the bakery right next door and so on, so you do have that, you know, everybody knows each other.

So I would call it a charming small village. Yes, yes, yes, officially officially according to the documentation of the Town, Village, Village, village, village, all right, number four dead parents or dead wife yep, Oh, Yeah, it looks like a lot of divorce and separated. But does Sawyers have the dead parents dead? Oh, it's a very quick reference, and it comes in at seventeen minutes and forty six seconds because I've been clocking them this year, because that was the whole reason why he didn't finish his trip to Italy. He got to Italy and his dad died, and then he had to come back home, and then he never went to Italy again because I guess he thought his dad would die again.

Uh so it's like a holiday deadpool exactly. He's like, I don't know if I'm going to die waiting for somebody in the movie. A lot of people I like. So yeah, so we do have a dead dad and yeah, and then we have divorce again. So much divorce this year.

It's wild number Now, what are you going to do? It's exactly, it's twenty twenty three. There is a lot of divorce, which is often a very good thing if you're not happy together. Then yes, number five are sassy side kicks. Well, we had a bunch of them, didn't we was there curly haired, blue eyed in turn whose name is Eric Freeman, And isn't that also the name of the actor who played Ricky and Sele and I Deadly Night too, it's felt completely different?

Or does Eric Foreman hang on silent? This will will bother me because this guy I knew I recognized his face. He was on a lawn art a rest for you episodes, so of course I do. But he's uh, he's working hard. Huh m hm, he's all over this movie.

Yeah, he's given with his very big eyes. As the kids say, Eric Freeman, Yeah, unrelated of course. And their names are spelled differently, or are they when those little numbers in print the sea for a different one. Yeah, and now in my in my the thing too if if you've you both have seen Silently Deadly Night Part two, Garbage Day. I've heard about it a lot because I've heard it reviewed by many podcasts.

Yeah, it's the one that essentially is just recapping like forty five minutes of its run time, is just recapping the first movie. But then like all of the original sequences are so zany and over the top, and the infamous scene that you know of if you you know, and I say Garbage Day, and he's like the main thing on Eric Freeman silent Deadly Night two version is eyebrow acting and Eric Freeman Mystic Christmas is big eye acting. So if the two of them could merge together, we would have the perfect eyeball or like above the nose Eric Freeman. So I don't know how we can make this happen, but we should. I agree.

So the elves all right, So we've got eyeball Elf, we've got gay dessert hating but baker loving Elf. It was very cute. Let me get a b story of romance, which is always fun, and in this case it's a gay romance, which is even better. And then we have a you sho doesn't really get to be sassy, but then there's also actual good marine biologist girl elf. Right.

Yeah, I wondered, then el else, I wondered if Candace would would be like sassy sidekick because I liked how the first scene we get of her, I'm like, Oh, she's not wearing earrings, but she's got a really big bluetooth in her ear Does that count as an ring? I don't. Yeah, I guess, but it's to me, it's just like ear rings are something that you put on to make yourself feel pretty and a bluetooth headset is not that that's fair, that's very fair. Yeah, And Canvas is probably like the most like normal human being in the movie. For the most she's wonderfully normal, which is because she needs to be the normal person against Juniper and Sawyer.

Yes, oh god, Like they're cute together, and I like rooted for them in the movie. But also I'm imagining, like a couple of years down the line, when they're throwing like the baby shower they're doing, I'm like, they're also probably exhausting to have as your in laws, right, not necessarily because again they're both ballusks. So yeah, they're just going to be at home reading books separately. They're not gonna be doing that social butterfly stuff, Okay, I just be I feel like they're gonna like end up posting, and that's when it's gonna be a disaster. Yeah.

That's because they don't want to be hosts. That's why. Yeah, but the town keeps making them do stuff, so they probably will have to. They're gonna have to host the next flyer party. Well, she's never very good at flyering.

Apparently apparently there were six evil women or the villains just never a seal earache. That's not an in the seal. That's you know, I think that's the best we're gonna get. I like that, dude, we're not getting it. It's these movies don't have villas anymore, and it makes me very sad.

And it's I mean, they've improved in a lot of ways, but I missed that bite. I really do all right now. Montage is the one in the bookstore when they're running around finally bookstore. Ever, it's like, how did they not run into each other? Well, they danced, they did run, they were they were dancing magically.

Don't bump into people when you dance at a bookstore. That's how it is, you know. Yeah. I was a little mad because I felt like there was so much opportunity for like cute marine animal montage, and this movie kept doing this something these movies are doing and they keep teasing us. It's like music starts and there's a shot of something and you're like, oh, seal montage and instead it's like no, now people are talking.

I don't mean that. Just give me cute images. Really, Yeah, we didn't get that many seals all in all. We could add more seals but that's true of like Citizen Kane too needed no number Oh god, I love what Like to me, there is nothing better than like if you go to a zoo or you know that kind of like animal preserve and they have the seal shows because like they always do, right in the middle of the of the facility, there's the like okay, two o'clock and four o'clock, we feed them and then like the life of a seal or sea lion, like it's just you. You get to swim, you have a big It looks always looks like they're smiling because the way their mouths are, it's like their lips go up.

So you just see them like swimming and eating fish and smiling, and then they'll do a trick and that just seems like a good life. Yeah. Uh. And with that, you would think there'd be more slapstick, but I don't know that I clocked any. I don't recall any slapstick whatsoever.

And I have more movie three times so cringe kind of awkward kind of stuff, but not really any slapstick. Yeah, which I guess for some people is probably far worse than slapstick. Yeah number nine or sage old person No, there's older people, but they weren't that in Sage. Yeah, the like there's a there's that the scene we talked about earlier, the when she calls her mom and then calls her dad and again like they're old but like they're hot, Like they're both like living their lives. He's hiking up the mountain, like the mom's like in a bikini on the boat.

And they kind of give it. They both give advice, do they not? Because I think the mom is basically saying like, no, don't give something up for a guy, and then the dads like, yeah, go for it. So it's confusing advice but yeah, which leaves it up to her, which is good, I suppose. So maybe they were very Sage because they also communicate with each other, right, because she hangs up with her mom and then the dad calls and he's like, oh, your mom told me you needed me.

So it's nice that the divorced parents are working together. Yeah, what a nice little world this is, he is. I mean, they they just didn't work well as a couple, but they seem to work well as friends. Yeah, and as parents, which is important. Yep, And Santa Claus, come on, Santa.

Yeah, no Santa at all. No, no like not even a mention of Sannah, not like a oh, here's how Mystic does Santa Claus. No nothing, just kind of a little to get seeing kind of Christmas scene with the Victorian clothing, but no Santa, no Father Christmas, nothing like that. It's yeah, I mean again, I'm used to it. I don't think I've had like real Santa in any movie this year.

But it doesn't mean it doesn't hurt. Now the bonus round where we go into the extras, starting with the music and just how much public domain holiday songs do we get? It was like, well to wall a lot of it. It's always it's always pretty much. I will say this movie used a song that I never hear used in these movies, and for me, it's a song I love because every time I hear it, my memory goes to my favorite Christmas like media of all time, which is the Muppet Family Christmas when they're doing the caroling and the count starts singing, I saw three ships since Christmas Day in the morning.

I know, you never hear that in these movies. And they play this at the boat parade, which makes sense. It's perfect and it's a song that I love as well. It's very jaunty. Yes it's John Dy.

That's a good jaunty song, and it works because they're on a boat. There's the other aspect of music for these movies is the Christmas word salad, where it's songs that you've never heard that sound like pop songs but aren't pop songs. And I thought there were a few here, but I also don't know modern music, so for all I know they're real songs, but I don't think they were. They also, let's see, I didn't there's the well the Bookstore song was not like Deck the Halls. It was something about Christmas being back again.

When they released Peppermint into the Ocean, there's a song about miracles. All the only words I wrote down were miracles, and I think this might have been the credit song was a honey I'm Home for Christmas, which is another song I've never heard. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if they're real songs or not. It reminds me of this more contemporary band called the Rosebuds, and they just make Christmas music and like this where they just put words together.

Yeah, a little bit of that and it's kind of jaunty, just kind of slick. Yeah, there's a market for it, clearly. I think they have a song about Christmas in New York and stuff, but not that, like a cover of the actual Christmas in New York, Christmas in New York. Nice miss number two. Secret family recipe or needlessly complicated holiday cocktails.

I think there's one. Did anybody catch anything? Weren't they bowling wine or something like that they were doing? There was the whole thing where they were doing the dipping of the cookies and then sprinkling, putting sprinkles off that they forgot about that Louisa and who is adorable by this way, Well she's coming up soon soon. Jumping ahead to my Klin child.

There was one more. There was one more Christmas recipe. Was it one of the pastries? No, though there were a lot of pastries there were, You're right, there was. There was a chestnut pastry, which, yes, try more sweet or more savory than why not that scene?

What? Uh okay? What's the other thing? You know? Mystic for pizza?

Exactly? Then we had a Christmas pizza. I what this Christmas pizza was? I'm like, is it just like spinach on it. It looked like it was just red sauce and spinach and pasto, and like it would make sense if it was.

I thought like pesto and marinara would be a good combo. But I think it's weird recommendation. The what the spinach? It was the perfect perfect portions of spinach, sauce and cheese. Apparently I didn't catch the sausage, but now I'm hungry.

No sauce. Oh right, right, Well, it probably would have been better if they added sausage to it. Now, now that we're saying that, I don't know. I love spinach, So spinach, sauce and cheese sounds like a pizza to me. Well, go to Mango's and perhaps on a night when uh what's his name is not working, and you'll give it a try.

Yeah, let's see small business in danger. The pizza place seems to be doing fine. Ye're living their life. There's a danger. There is a seal in danger.

Yeah, which, although she's not a small business guys, well, I mean, I'm sure she brought in crap deals with that red mm hmmm. I think that flows into product placement, because anything specific here I think there's something I'd like to hear your thoughts. Is it Mystic? Yeah, they're like really working up to I wonder if the town of Mystic like gave some kind of donation, because I feel like they really work to make mystic. It's it's funny because you have obviously some of these movies are very much like New York or Christmas in Nashville or something very specific, and some of them are always like very vague about it.

But this is very deliberately mystic. They filmed and Mystic and they're using I mean, the Mystic Aquarium is a real place, and I guess they filmed the inside of there. I don't know, but they are doing everything they can to make Mystics seem like the kind of place where if you show up to that town and walk into that bakery, you are going to meet somebody that you know will take care of you and bring you a pea coat or something one can only hope and a bunch of steck of flyers to you. And that is the price you pay. You don't give up your soul, but you are going to have to spend ninety percent of your time putting flyers around to it.

Yes, you're going to have to come to all of these meetings, and you're going to have to take minutes as well, and yes you're going to be down council. Yes, oh yeah yeah. Although I guess yes, that's one of those things where like you almost don't want to do that well in or at least I felt like, you know, like you don't want to be the smartest person in town right away because that puts a mark on your back. I think then they're going to make you also like be a town surgeon and suddenly you have to like figure out the budget and do everything. I'm telling you.

They are finding ways to take advantage of these people always, yeah, okay, we're up to it. What is normally the cloying child. And I thought at first, I'm like, ah, here we go. She's got a kid that's not good. But this kid was kind of charming.

She was very much so very charming, and she she's she was just so I mean, if I wish I could have been like that when I was her age and just you know, comfortable in being dead introvert anyway, wasn't and she was just kind of like, yeah, I know what I am and and I love the argument she would have with her mom where she'd say, you are nothing. I'm nothing like you, nothing like me, because I know what that feels like. I mean, my dad was an introvert, but that he was from that generation where you didn't talk about feelings, you didn't show your feelings ever, and he wasn't, you know, fully immersed in that. But he was actually a very emotional man and he was actually he was He could be very very quiet, and we had this quiet understanding where we didn't really need to say certain things.

We just knew, you know, I'm my father's daughter in that way. But but yeah, this this little girl. I think my favorite thing that she does is when she decides she's going to recite this poem and then she's terrified to do it, and then she does it and she messes up once she loses her place because she memorized it, and then she finishes it really fast like a kid would like, oh, yes, I remember the rest of it, and then she goes up. True, I was just so caddy. Yes, you're so excited that she was just so care Yeah, my favorite bit was when she hurt, like her response to the tradition of giving each other books, and she's like, this is the best thing ever.

Yeah. Yeah, as a as a former very I mean still, but as a very nerdy, book bookish child, that was like a very cute like, oh yeah, that would have been exciting to me. And even the way that Juniper immediately bonds with her walking in and being like, oh, you're reading this book. I know this book. I love this book.

Like that, because I think that's very much like how I often like relate to a lot of kids. It's just oh, you like this thing that I like. Cool, we can talk about it. And I thought, like they're they're interactions and it's like credit to both the kid actor, the director and the adult actor of like everybody acts well with that kid, and that is not an easy thing to do for anybody, because there is always work, a different type of work that you have to do. Yeah, it was like she was a tiny adult.

Yeah, she was just really good at everything she was given to do. Yeah. Let's see. Number six is finding the perfect tree. We don't have trees as a plot point in the movie because there is a line that Sawyer says, any town can have a tree.

What does mystic have instead? They don't decorate trees. They decorate this is I don't know how to do hand motions of boats, but boats both yeah, instead of yeah, they're parade their ship parade. Yeah, yep. So sometimes is this the second time this year that they've It is because on the Very Southern Christmas, which was set in Louisiana and the Bayou, like, same thing they don't have They don't talk about trees.

They're like, we don't have trees, we have boats. The theme different themes this year emerging. We've got weird. Yeah, men making sacrifices for women and boats. Actually Southern Family Christmas was last year.

It was last year, but I covered it this year. That's why. Yeah, that's where that episode will come out before this one. But it has been recorded, but it has not been released. That's why I'm myself thanks getting coming soon.

The episode you just did when you were wondering about Donder and Donner, Yes, oh my god. I I went to bed forgetting about it, and then three days later I woke up remembering and then kept forgetting, and I know it's going to keep haunting me. Please give me the answer. Donder is German for thunder that's why it's with Blitzen for lightning, thunder and lightning. It's just over time, the D kind of dropped off and sorry, everybody says it was Donner and Blitzen, but it was originally Donder and Blitzen thunder and like thunder and lightning.

Isn't that I just call him thunder and lightning. That's so good, it's fascinating. Okay, wow, all my life, all everybody's life, we have all been saying it wrong. But it's acceptable now. It's yeah, it's acceptable because you have the D.

Then she dropped off, and just people said should it have? Should it have? Should make you want to happen? Exactly? Okay, Donder, from now on, I'm going to say it.

It's everybody's gonna think I'm saying it wrong. It's it's it's it's like saying the word f o r t E out loud. Yeah, exactly. Oh, it's forte if you're talking about music, very loud and strong. But if you're saying, my f O RTE is identifying trips and Christmas movies, technically it's pronounced for it, but if you were just say that out loud, you would sound like you didn't know how to use it.

So I just never used that word out loud. I will write it, but I will never say it out loud because I don't want to say wrong, but I also don't want people to think I'm an idiot. Yeah. I have the same thing with the word reprise, because it's spelled reprise, but it's reprise. It's pronounced reprise, especially when you're talking about theater.

But yeah, everybody says it wrong, and I just don't bother correcting people because you know, then i'll get a near full instead. You're like, oh, you know when they sing the kind of like the song that the sang earlier, but it's a shorter version, maybe even a different key. Yeah, and then that's kind of I always say reprise anyway, and usually I get this, Yes, I love that love, Yeah, that little like quick eye of it. Did she just say reprise? You're like, yeah, yeah, I did.

I'm sorry, do you want me to repeat it? Oh? You know, I can't remember what it was. What was I watching? It was something it was and it was Lin Manuel Lean Manuel Miranda, and he said the word reprise correctly, and I'm like, huh see see see now listen to people.

He knows what he's talking about. He's written two music, Tony's damn it. Yeah, yes, all right, No Umber seven is our empty coffee cup? Acting? Yeah, empty cup acting in general?

Yeah yeah, and again I think this could easily be solved by just put give him a weighted cup or and why not? I was confused when something else that keeps coming up is like using plastic or using disposable things when you shouldn't be when you're at home. And because another movie, it might have been Southern Family Christmas, there's like the guy like comes into her house. He's like, oh, I just made my grandmother's coffee, but he's got takeout cups. I'm like, do you keep those in your house to bring the people?

That's weird. And in this one too, they're eating pizza in the like little I guess I guesthouse that Juniper is staying in, and Sawyer brings over pizza and they're sitting there and there drinking beer in plastic cups. I'm like, what does it? How? What does the other bridge?

Yeah, Like it's just really odd thing to do, Like you can't drink out of a can like or you can't pour it in a glass and wash the glass like you're just using plastic willing. You're a marine biologist. You should not be just abusing plastic like that. That's gonna get stuck on a turtle. Have plastic straws all over the place, like, oh, we don't decorate our tree with garland.

We use plastic straws. And the and the six pack can plastic rings. You don't cut them because instead we loop them over the branches like snowflakes out of them. Irresponsible, irresponsible, very irresponsible. Number eight actors trying hard not to eat food on camera or camera eating.

Candler Massy just an instatiable appetite for food in this movie. Every time he's like, eh, pizza and he sitting there eating it, and I'm like, what do you keep your finger? Young man? Oh it's like the pastry, the pizza, the cookies. It's like everybody's eating in this movie, going for it.

I'm not used to seeing that. Yeah, yeah I did. I wrote in caps he eats the chestnut croissant in all caps because he actually eats it. Yeah, And I was that shopped shocked by that. And I think if the actor is hungry.

Yeah, she was eating pizza too in that scene where they were first eating pizza, and I also was paying attention to how she was would be wiping her fingers on the napkin after each bite, and I'm like, oh, I do that too, I you know, I went I've gone through phases of that were like I used to sit there and eat pizza and go through like twelve like a pile of napkins. And then there was a period of time where I really thought, like, I'm being wasteful. Why do I need to use a napkin while I'm eating The only thing other thing I'm touching is my glass, So maybe it's fine, Like I'll just you know, I don't need to have clean hands to do that, to just keep eating pizza. And I remember trying that for like, I don't know, maybe a month and realizing how gross, Like I couldn't vent like the glass just like would stick to my hand if I didn't wipe it.

So I know she's doing it right, That's the way you should do it. Yeah, I liked that. Number nine is our canadianisms or obvious tell the movie was not filmed on the location. But no, they're a Mystic. There was one particular bit while they were in the car, and I think it was a sawyer that said something that just sounded so Canadian.

I don't remember exactly what the phrase was, but it was just something so casual that I was like, no, it was it was actual. I can't remember what it was, but it was he was saying an actual he said, or was it Juniper? She was saying a canadianism? And she actually said there's this old Canadian proverb or something like that that goes like this, because she's got all those like international Christmas facts. Yes, and so I'm like, oh, calling it out even though you're not in Canada.

Okay, yeah, yeah, they're both that I was wrong, both Americans. She was from Illinois or Indiana. He is from Georgia. So I got a reference to Canada, just not a canadianism exactly exactly. Now.

Number ten the Warm Weather Watch. Again they filmed in Mystic. I don't think they filmed in winter in Mystic, although again it's been like I don't know what the temperature was today, but I have my like fall coat and then my winter coat, and I have not touched my winter coat yet, and I am in New York and it is December fifteenth, fourteenth, whatever day it is, so we haven't seen much snow here either. Yea. I guess the world is changing and perhaps you you know, can stand outside all evening at a boat perade without gloves and be fine.

Yeah, that beach looked cold though it would be Yeah, it's probably just the wind coming off the ocean is like eh, we're yes. Yeah. That was actually my big clue that probably wasn't filmed during the holiday season or during a winter season, because otherwise that wind from the ocean would just be freezing them. They would be just yeah, shivering and it we're talking. I mean it misstic.

Connecticut is the Atlantic. I mean I grew up on Long Island, so it was the same beach water that I was swimming in, and it really is like I my whole life, like I went to like we have pretty rough waters there, but I would always go to the beach. It would it would be cold or I wouldn't notice. And I didn't notice it until like as a grown up being in my thirties going to the South and going in the water with people from the South and going in like we were in Florida in May, and the water still wasn't like really like warm, but it was Florida in May, and I was with my in laws, who were all from Kentucky and they're like, oh, it's so cold, and I'm like, this this cold. And then I went back the next summer, I went to the beach in Long Island and went swimming.

I was like, oh my god, Yeah, this is like forty degrees. This is freezing. So there is a difference. And yes, that beach would have been very cold in December. Yes, old people aggressively matchmaking our leads.

No, yeah, No. I feel like the town is very ambivalent to whether these two actually get together. Yeah, like other people are invested in other couples, but with these two there, I think everybody's like, I don't know, they're kind of both hot messes. Yeah, it's like more involved in assigning them chores than actually getting them, you know, romantically involved. There's an aspect of like, well, look, if these two are like really in love, they're going to try to flyer together when they're more effective.

If they fly her separately, they ground So maybe there's that too, yeah. Yeah, and if they're noodling that's less time they can be flyer. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, you gotta think of it in terms of what are the priorities of this town? Is covering it in plastic and paper to eventually blow off that board and also do harm to the environment.

So fistic Connecticut, paper or plastic, then dump mister Connecticut. We hate recycling. I did think it was funny that she puts it up with tape and he's like, oh hell no, pulls out staple cut. She's kind of the environment. So all right, we have come to number twelve, which is my most exciting one now, which is the favorite fashion moment and also gives us a chance to kind of dive into the fashion of this movie.

Now it's there's fashion here. We mentioned early on the color palette, not just of the poster, but of the pea coats. It's very interesting because we don't we are doing greens and blues heavy throughout this movie. Yes, and you don't see that often. I know, and I love it.

I love it, and I because it's just yeah, peacoat brown, peacoat tan. What I don't care, give me green, give me blue? Well she has I think it's it's Candae's peacoat in the beginning, is this really beautiful like sea foam color, Like it's not quite sage, like it's got a little little more pop and it's a really unusual color. And I was like, like that, I like that peacoat. It was it was very sort of marine oriented, yes, which makes sense.

And again like I think, you know, I didn't. I have no idea what the budget or the process of costume design for these movies are. It's something I actually really like want to research for next time, because you really do see it and you notice it, and there's there clearly was thought to, Okay, we're doing an aquarium Christmas movie, so you know what, let's not use the red pea coats. Let's actually go with more Marie green colors. And there are so many pea coats.

Again and again, Juniper is like a nomad, right. Her whole thing is that she's constantly traveling, constantly like never knows where she's gonna be for more than a week. And yet she goes on this trip and she has how many three different pea coats that she has. She's got like a royal blue one, she's got a green patterned what like it's a green kind of like not flannel but almost tartan style. And then there's I think she has a and she has like a big, like you know, a blue kind of more like puffer jacket, which makes sense for what you know her job is.

But like you need two pea coats on a trip like that? No, Well, see that. That's the funny thing because watch anything on television, Watch absolutely anything on television where someone is outside in a winter coat. You will only ever see and it's a recurring character. You will only ever see that person in that coat one time.

You will never see them in the same coat again. I have been wearing the same coat for like seven years now. Yeah. Yeah, a warm weather watch. It's weird here in Utah because it's a short snow jacket in the middle of December kind of thing.

We see a lot of that. There's very few people wearing coats when they should be. Is it just like, are they all like big dudes with beards, because I know a lot of big dudes with beards who no. A lot of scarny people just going around with shorts and like not even long sleeves. And it'll be the middle of December and sometimes flip flops.

I've seen that. Yeah, sometimes people in flip flops in a snowstorm. Yeah. Funny and very inconvenient and probably dangerous. Definitely dangerous and absolutely stupid.

That too. Yeah, did you have any other like fashion moments that popped out? It's got to be that Victorian garb she's wearing. I think it's also Yeah, and she just looks great, And it was a surprise. It's like, oh, okay, that's how she's taken the Victorian look like a little masculine, a little like just a little androgynous, and I like seeing more of that.

Yeah, it worked for me. Mm hmmm. And something else we get this. That's something else we get in this movie that we don't often get, but we're getting more of. We get a coda mm hmm.

Right, yeah, we get it one year later. Yeah, Yeah, everybody's happy. Yeah, where traveled the World came back? Yeah? Yeah, that was That was just such a surprise because that scene when they're sitting on the beach and they say at the same time, he says I'm leaving and she says I'm staying, and they each other what Yeah, And you're kind of like, oh, how how does this send then?

And it ends that way? Yep, and it you know, I wonder I haven't the message board. I don't look at the messagewards per SAE, but usually I do try to look at the IMDb reviews because sometimes they're very amusing and people can get very angry. And I did not get it to check. Just how you know, what is the overall rating for the movie?

I mean just skinning through ten out of ten, eight out of ten, nine out of ten, six out of ten, eight out of ten. Generally, it seems like people liked it. Yeah, so I one of those things where you're like, oh, people are going to be mad that it doesn't end with the very traditional way. But it seems for the most part that people are not pissed off about that. So good on IMDb users for once to not be terrible.

Yeah, don't count on that happening ever again. No no, no, no, no ah. So overall, I think I know we said at the beginning, but it's always the question do you reckon? Who do you recommend it to? And is there anything more you want to say about it to somebody who maybe thinks they're not going to watch it?

Or disturbating. Well, go first, since I just started talking, Sorry, Dave. This this movie is full of all of these little moments that, taken separately, don't really mean a lot, but when you put when you string them all together in this movie, it's giving you all of these little things about the characters. And one of the things that I really loved it was, it was probably one of my most favorite things is when she's Juniper sitting on the bench with oh my gosh, I can't remember the one that's Candace, No, Eric Freeman, big Eric Freeman, not from Silent the gay one, the gay one, the baker boyfriend, Yes, the Baker's boyfriend to be, Yes, Baker's boyfriend to be, And she's you know, he's talking about how he likes this baker because the baker keeps coming up to him and asking him questions about It's like, okay, so what's the origin of hot chocolate?

I know, you know, And the only reason that he has all this knowledge is because he likes I think the baker's name is Nick. He likes him, but he doesn't like sweets, but he likes him, and so he just learned all this stuff about sweets. So that they would have something to talk about, and it turns out, you know, they just liked each other anyway. But I loved how she was sitting on the bench, you know, like on one side and he was kind of sitting on the other. And when it's time for the hot gosh, she just bushes herself right over so that she's right next to us, like, oh, tell me everything.

It's just little moments like that just really made this. Iways absolutely recommend this movie pretty much to anyone who wants a sweet Christmas movie that isn't full of your typical tropes. So I think this was probably the least heavily troped movie that I've watched from Hallmark so far, with the exception of Three Wise Men and a Baby, because that was also very that follow it is it is, And I don't know if listeners know this, but there was an extended version that was released. I saw that that popped up on Peacock. Did you watch it?

Is it? Like? Like? What did they do? No?

No, no, no, no, it was just it was just certain things that they didn't have time for. And I know I know that the actual script they had to cut a lot from the script, even before they started filming, because Paul Campbell and Kimberly Sustad are very good at what they do, but they also, you know, they want to all of these moments in and they just didn't have time for all of that, okay, and so they put in I think about thirteen minutes of stuff, and I feel like it actually informed the characters more and added a lot to the understanding of why certain people acted the way they did, especially Taylor, and I really actually enjoyed that so much more by having check it out. I think that's the first time I've ever seen Hallmark do that, because these movies are typically so tight.

I mean they I think it's fourteen day, No, it's I think it used to be sixteen. I think it's a fourteen day shoot on average for these movies. Yep. So I can't imagine much ends up on the cutting room floor because they just don't have time for it. They have to.

I mean, that's why sometimes the adr are so bad or scenes just don't quite flow the way they should, because they clearly just had to make it work without doing a reshoot or taking any time to fix it. So it's very unusual to do that or Again, that being said, I think there is a difference, and you might know just from having maybe more like behind the scenes knowledge, there does seem to be a difference between something that either is acquired or some of the like the movies that started the people that you definitely haven't heard of, versus this, or a Merry Scottish Christmas, like the ones that like Lace Schubert's in or some of the heavy hitters where they seem where you're like, oh no, they definitely filmed on location, or they definitely brought in somebody to choreograph this scene.

And so as much as the like you know, they're filmed quickly, they're filmed efficiently. I wonder sometimes if something like that where it was like a Hallmark family everybody in that movie and three wise Men and a Baby have done so many of these movies and are such like Hallmark names that maybe they gave them a little more room to play with. But I wonder I might check that out, just because I'm so intrigued to see that it's not something you normally get. It's true, and I was just I know that there were a lot of things they were just gutted about that they couldn't put in so but yeah, I would definitely recommend that extended version. So Dave, how are you?

Who would you recommend Mystic Christmas too? If you want to like pack in a bunch of Christmas movies in one, this is the way to do it because you get so many little sub stories and you know, subplots and dealing with the supporting cast. Plus like the leading cast, there's a lot stuffed in here. And you get children and animals, which is usually what directors say you should never work with, but they both are done pretty well, so you get a lot. If you're an introvert, maybe you'll identify with the lead.

It's just charming and has some surprises. It's not your typical kind of Hallmark, especially the more classical home Hallmark Christmas movies. It's it's different. Yeah, I really enjoyed it. I think again, the leads are great.

I think Jesse Shram is very funny and has very good timing. The chemistry is there. It is refreshing in how adult and it's I mean, it's it's goofy and all that, but how kind of mature it is approached in terms of a relationship and how these two people like the decisions they should make. It doesn't feel like they made them based on a Hallmark movie. It feels like they these characters made decisions based on what they should do in life, which I was very refreshing.

And also there's like there's one I forget what scene it is, but like there's a which I think every scene should do this where like there's a character having a conversation on the phone. It's a serious conversation and behind them people are training the seal and the seal is doing things and they're rewarding the seal for doing that, and that make me happy. And also there's a lot of pea coats and they look very good. So yeah, there's there's a lot you really like here and I am very glad you picked it, so thank you. Yes, now this ends our current Christmas journey here.

Now tell everybody where else they can find you, both during the season and off season. I know a lot of your stuff is off season right now, but can they go back picking up? Dig it up? And you know it's everyday Christmas in podcast world in the dark corners of the Internet. Yeah, together we record the Dark Corner Podcast.

It's two goths talking about s geeky things. Mostly, we've been discussing the tarot. We've covered all the major arcana. We're about to get into the suits, and that's when we went on hiatus. I'm apart from that.

I have a SoundCloud page under dj Evil Dave. I've been doing monthly playlists right now. There's one based on Marvel characters. There's songs that share a name with Marvel characters, and some of them are one you might not expect. There's a lot from a band called Bullets for Breakfast.

They would take well hip hop using the themes the Avengers, themes from the sixties from the television show Tony Stark and Thor and Hulk, So it's kind of fun to hear what they did. A spy one planned for January, and then February is Electronic Body Music Day, So if you're into stuff like Front two for two and Nitzareb I'll be compiling something for that. I believe you when you say these are real things, these are real things. I believe you're Twenty fourth is World ABM Day because of two four two, and that's how they do it in Europe is the dates are different the day comes before the month, so two four two it was the twenty fourth of February. I am so not cool.

It all sounds like a different language, but I fully buy it. Harry Neat very neat, Brandy, how about you. Yeah, all my stuff's on hiatus too. It's basically all Star Trek, lots of Star Trek, so much Star Trek that I've heard of that I know. Yeah, there's the Vedic Assembly, which is about Deep Space nine that I do with my friend Nick.

Wow, we really haven't done that in a very long time. He got busy, I was busy taking care of my mom and we just haven't gotten back to it. Shameful. The internet is forever, so if the episodes are there, then people can still find them. They are they are.

And then there's also What the Future Holds, which is about Star Trek Discovery, and we will of course be covering the final season of Star Trek Discover. I'm still upset about that this coming year. I think April is what they have teased is that when that will be dropping, so there will be new episodes of that coming. And then also Boldly Go, which is my Star Trek Exchanging World's podcast, which I am currently doing alone and trying to get guest hosts because my co host, Suzanne, her health will not permit her to continue recording podcasts and I really miss her. It's her a lot.

And so I had to cover season two with a bunch of a bunch of guests, which was great. I met a lot of great people thanks to a friend, Ashley, you know who you are. And I'm still looking for a more permanent co host, but it's got to be a lady or a person who identifies as a lady, because we have to be the one in YEP. And everyone who has seen the episode the Cage, which is how we found out about Captain Christopher Pike, you will know what I mean. Yeah, it's a strange line from Spock from an episode where he was a bit more emotional than you normally see him.

Yeah, this was the early spot. This was actually the original, the original trailer, original pilots episode and after previewing it to audiences, they basically gutted everything but Spock and the ship. Yes, women, yea my star Treknoledge. I appreciate it. It stopped around.

I still haven't seen the last movie or two. No, Yeah, I only saw the first of the new movies. I haven't watched any of the new shows. The Next Generation was probably the last primary last thing. I watched a little bit of Voyager here and there when I was young.

But it's just one of those things that's there's so much of it, so it's just so daunting. So and I think it's great that there's so much of it, And I, you know, every fan, I have a lot of friends who are big fans of it, and yeah, like oh yes, I'm huge, and I'm so happy for them. Like it's the same way I look at it in some ways, the Marble stuff, Like yeah, it's not for me anymore anymore, but like it's fine, keep keep making the stuff if people like it, as long as it's not taking too many resources away from other things that could be done. But yeah, it just seems so daunting to be like, yeah, I'm gonna start Star Trek and die before I finish any of it. Well, here's here's the thing.

Okay, let me let me lighten your burden, all right, because New Star Trek doesn't have twenty six episodes a season. That's true. That's true. So it's a lot more manageable. Also, it's a lot more modern, and it's it's interesting the variety of stories that are being told with the different series.

And I just can't recommend it enough, except you know, Paramounts or a bunch of assholes because they they got rid of Prodigy, which was their their one Uh well it was. It was sort of geared towards children, but not in a way that is annoying. Like I really love that show and thankfully it found a home on Netflix. Yeah, Paramount cut that was that kind of massacre they were doing on their original programming. Yeah, it's yeah, that's the way of the world.

Now. If you love something, get it on physical if you can. You actually can't movies, but well you sometimes can, but it's like two or three years after the I don't know if they even do it anymore. I mean, you used to like go to an and you would pull out, you know, a ten pack of Hamewark movies for three bucks, like every Christmas Shoes movie in one place. But my people don't bite any meds anymore.

So I can't imagine that that's also a dying world. But I don't think that we will ever lack. That's the thing. I don't think it is a dying world anymore, because people are now understanding that something on streaming may get pulled because all of these streaming services had no idea how to run a streaming service. Yes, because there was no template.

Yeah yeah, you just and and you just think, oh, well, we're just going to continue to get subscribers of year after year after year. No, Eventually he's going to level out, especially when every day you turn around and there's a new channel. There was I know there's a show that people love. Is it called from I think is that it? There's some kind of like dystopian action show with Harold Perannu is in it, and people have told me about it.

Multiple people have said, oh, you'd really like it, you should watch it. I'm like, oh yeah, okay, great. Where is it? Well, the first seasons on Amazon. Okay, that's fine, I have that, and then the new season is on MGM plus And I just said, no, that is not a real thing.

I am going to hear no more of this. A casino gome on Like yeah, I'm sorry, MGM Plus Like next thing, you know, it's gonna be like oh yeah, you know, the mar Vista streaming channel, although I have accept that I would totally pay for. But you get the point. It's just too much and there's always too much holiday content. But that's okay because you get to pick and choose and sometimes you find it a light like Mystic Christmas.

Well that's what they say about Star Trek. Now, there's so much of it that you can pick a series that's right for you, Like, if you like kind of the more intrigue stuff, deep Space nine is there, you know, if it want something humorous, there's your lower decks. So yeah, there's something for everybody out there. Like shopping down the Drito's aisle, there's always one you know, you like, I see you like sweet, There's something for you cool Ranch, Yeah, always, I mean everybody likes school Ranch. In the end, all right, well, we will put your infos on the show notes so everybody can follow you.

And I know we're all in like a million different social places and none of us have figured out exactly which one we're going forward with. So I will get your infoone and we will put it on the show notes and everybody else can have a merry Mystic Christmas, Very Mystic Christmas to you. Yes, so thank you. Yes, oh oh yeah, I do wish there were more souls. On the twelfth day of Christmas, my best friend gave Tommy twelve fishy swimming, eleven snaw sailing, ten dolphins dancing, nine starfish shiny, eight octopus of seven, crabs of crafting, six singer sing in fide cops, four jelly fish, three clam shells, two turtle huts, and a well lady Blusia bloo