It's Christmastown

SARA KATE WILKINSON is back for CHRISTMAS AT THE PALACE  and :  How a Christmas movie ends ... THEME ... Present! ... Royalty and figure skating ... Well above average ... The Expositional Challenge: Will SK's streak continue? ... Brittany Bristow Appreciation Station ... Secondary plot almost stealing the show ... Elizabeth Reaser Apprectiation Station ... Andrew Cooper: handsome, accented, COPD...

NORTHERN LIGHTS OF CHRISTMAS (2018) rings in our new year with : Geraldine Somerville appreciation station ... Slacking on good movies, transcribing bad ones ... THEME ... Catching up ... A powerfully soporific movie ... Bread Alert ... Let's talk sourdough ... Not a freaky bread sicko ... Mr. Frodo, the sourdough starter ... "Oh, it's the water" ... Distracting from your own shortcomings ... BREA...

SARA KATE WILKINSON is back to MINGLE ALL THE WAY  and :  There's an app for that ... THEME ... This made me crazy ... Title first, plot second ... 1 fake boyfriend, 1,000 plots, 3 meet-cutes ... The Expositional Challenge ... We'd use Mingle all the Way at least once ... Fake networking means fake boyfriend ... Keeping secrets by inviting people to family dinner ... Want some crepes, Beez? ... Je...

It's our Christmas episode! With 2018's WELCOME TO CHRISTMAS and : Worry about your driving ... THEME ... Let's talk about our Christmases! ... Going someplace colder than NYC to not do anything ... Little Rock, a place with a winter ... Cleaning before leaving ... Puddle of Mudd roadie day ... Lax-cooking relatives vs. cooking nerds ... Rope-a-doped into making dinner ... Cousin Dave ruins the de...

Grab your chopsticks, it's won-ton soup time in 2016's THE MISTLETOE PROMISE , which vows : A frozen contract-honoring stupor ... THEME ... Centered-font intra-family legal brief ... Acknowledging the D-word ... We liked it! ... Real-life banter ... Anti-Andie MacDowell ... Is this something stupid you're doing? ... BREAK ... Doing it live: The Expositional Challenge ... Plot cleanup: The Reindeer...

SARA KATE WILKINSON returns a fourth time for THE NINE LIVES OF CHRISTMAS , the movie that spawned the theory that 9/11 never happened in the Hallmark universe and includes: Determined to be unique! ... THEME ... Good movie, cult fandom ... Kimberley Sustad appreciation station ... "Godwink" ... Immortal Kathie Lee Gifford ... The Expositional Challenge ... Old dads and twentysomething sons gettin...

KAREN GEIER is back in our dang kitchen for 2018's  CHRISTMAS AT GRACELAND and:  No response from the Pootie ... THEME ... Outrage on Elvis's behalf ... Not getting "Elvis" ... Drug sponge with a badge ... Bad movie, hard to remember ... EPCOT shout-out ... Kellie Pickler at Waffle House ... Crushing-clunker line reads ... BREAK ... The Expositional Challenge: Reggaeton ... Plot cleanup: Best frie...

Idolator founding editor MAURA JOHNSTON joins us for MARIAH CAREY'S feature directorial debut in 2015's A CHRISTMAS MELODY  and : Andy Daly in the Hallmark universe ... Camptown Races ... THEME ... Maura's Christmas bona fides ... Mariah Carey and Long Island Christmas ... "All I Want for Christmas Is You" ... Idolator shout-out ... BREAK ... The Expositional Challenge ... Are homeless Santa and j...

SARA KATE WILKINSON returns a third time for Countdown to Christmas Four in CHRISTMAS IN LOVE , with : I'll make the Wiki ... THEME ... Hallmark Graceland and Elvis sandwiches ... Christmas decorations: before Pearl Harbor Day? ... Balsam Hill: the ornaments your decorator buys ... Appropriate decoration density ... Hot Take: Cute, and it's good ... Adults with real motivation ... Brooke D'Orsay A...

Sweeten that studio magic, it's 2018's  IT'S CHRISTMAS, EVE , featuring LeAnn Rimes and : One-year-anniversary gift of the magi ... Malaise forever! ... Scouting Report: Young Werther ... Casey Kasem ... Premature rating ... THEME ... Always Christmas/always New Year's Eve ... Pastiche of pastiches ... LeAnn Rimes: Dead-weight energy and stone face ... Junket/glad-handing impatient demeanor ... Th...

KAREN GEIER is cookin' in our dang kitchen for 2018's  CHRISTMAS JOY and: Rap game gingerbread ... Affected by Christmas on a German level ... Caganer: The Catalan pooping figurine ... I got a capon guy ... "Do y'all eat loons?" ... BREAK ... The Expositional Challenge ... Plot cleanup ... What's sexier than a widower? ... Ersatz America without flavor ... A sorority recruitment video, but for mar...

Fascism and criticism abound in the bleak first entry of 2018's Countdown to Christmas, CHRISTMAS AT PEMBERLEY MANOR , including : "In Puke of Lost Turds" by Marcel Poops ... Sigmund Freud vs. The Wolfman ... THEME ... Beautiful and handsome ... A bad movie, it's very bad, folks, many people are saying it ... The Expositional Challenge ... A Seth MacFarlane joke of a plot ... The market cynicism o...

It's 2015's PORTRAIT OF LOVE and time for Logan Echolls to : Pour water on your own damn computer ... THEME ... A Chopped basket of movies ... What are you even acting well in? ... The Expositional Challenge: Failed! ... Corbin Bernsen shot this in 30 minutes ... Street-legal sushi ... BREAK ... Spot the Angel: Jess, first among equals; birthing replacement customers for Stan's diner; maximum chil...

SIMON MALOY helps us get a *little* mean and Dave gets a little tanked for ALL THINGS VALENTINE and : Simon's Hallmark bona fides ... What channel is your Hallmark Channel next to? ... One Dobbs makes you larger ... Does Simon secretly have a Quiverfull family? ... Pie chat ... A darkness in our nation ... The loneliness of getting mad online ... Maybe the corrosiveness of online IS the moral? ......

TARA ARIANO and SARAH D. BUNTING of Previously.tv and the Extra Hot Great podcast return for The Wedding March 2: Resorting to Love and have to realize that : The White House has a leak, needs a plumber! ... The Melman wedding ... THEME ... Wedding marching again and getting predictions wrong ... What catalogue is this like leafing through? ... Leaning into the problems of the first movie ... Cana...

It's 2018's LOVE ON THE SLOPES  and time to divide warrior from worrier with : Is your podcast repeating on you? ... THEME ... How was the Malort? ... Gin-adjacent European liquors ... "I threw up before we started recording this" ... Ghoulies II ... Toddler barf laughter ... BREAK ... Katrina Bowden and Thomas Beaudoin were terrific ... Extremely ungenerous female-lead plotting ... The Exposition...

DESI JEDEIKIN of the Hollywood Crime Scene podcast self-censors for Love on Safari (2018), Jeb mispronouncing "ukuthula" and : Jeb f*cking up an intro ... Desi is custom-made for Lifetime Original Movies ... Whipsawing male emotions in a waiting room ... Publix ... The Expositional Challenge ... A web marketer who never hustles ... Leading man resting-sneer face ... "Make the elephant go viral" .....

It's 2016's ANYTHING FOR LOVE  and time to hide your identity for: The menace of online dating ... Merry Christmas from Jordan Peterson ... Theme  ... Jeb's 3 Favorite NFL season things ... Ryan Fitzpatrick appreciation station ... We liked this movie! ... Meet the cast ... Surly teen patient par annoycellence ... Fizzy writing, groaning tropes ... Brutal closing speech via hospital PA ... Famous...

It's 2017's THE PERFECT CATCH and we are ready to: Play ball! ... Macho Man Randy Savage: fundamentally extreme, underappreciated ballplayer ... Doc Hollywooded in New England ... Rising Sun: racism, nudity, choking ... The Tia Carrere expanded universe ... Other people's driving paranoia ... Why are we talking about reiki healing? ... A rolling thunder of ailments ... Boneskin's waiting ... Kid l...

SARA KATE WILKINSON returns to exquisitely loath  The Mistletoe Inn and :  The world's worst writing metaphor ... THEME ... Sara Kate hates the movie and the lead ... NOT a crush on Alicia Witt ... Too nuanced an actress to nail broad antic/slapstick (still not a crush) ... David Alpay nod ... The Expositional Challenge: Pseudonymous Revenge ... 9/11 non-existence and surprise plane tickets ... A...

ROBERT WHEEL uses his potty mouth to announce which children are sick and which are goldbrickers in 2017's  Magical Christmas Ornaments , and tends to:  Mort, the original gangster ... Bobby to Hallmark: Dreck, Blecch! ... The Expositional Challenge ... A Hallmark podcast talking about podcasts in Hallmark ... How SHORT could this movie be? ... Tiny Tim and Medical Urchinosis ... Office hospital ....

JAY W. FRIEDMAN and CHRIS COLLISION of IDEOTV get incredible value with Garage Store Mysteries: Murder By Text (2017) and: Dual Hallmark noobs ... Lori Loughlin Recognition Station ... Movies for people in the kitchen ... Papyrus credits ... Cozy mystery love ... Older actresses, missed faces ... The Expositional Challenge ... Drunk/mumblecore husband ... Condo-blocking dad ... Sarah Strange: Grea...

KEITH BUCKLEY, author and lead singer of Every Time I Die joins us for 2016's Dater's Handbook and: Giambis ... REO Speedwagon ... They shoot Go-Go's, don't they? ... Rick Derringer, BOC and Nas memories ... The Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle ... Royal wedding/Hallmark crossover ... Food snitching: UNFORGIVABLE ... Artistic Hallmark ... Mindwarped by Lifetime ... The Duchess does ALL her own stun...

TREVOR " HEGELBON " STRUNK, host of the No Cartridge  podcast joins us for 2017's Eat, Play, Love and : Veterinary Professionals' Day! ... Hallmark spousal osmosis ... Sneaky weirdness ... We Rate Dogs: The Movie ... Wisdom by tchochke ... The Expositional Challenge ... Very relatable dog-related senior citizen B-plot ... Sexless chat with the pair Most Likely to Get Married ... Peppy ponytail guy...

SARA KATE WILKINSON joins us for 2016's   Summer in the City and: Her beautiful mind ... Hey, buddy ... A strangely mature romcom written by a teen (City Girl, Part 2) ... Plot in 60 Seconds ... Can't ride bike, can drive commercial truck ... 9/11 Didn't Happen in the Hallmark Universe ... Is it conspiracy, oversight or taste? ... When Manhattan's Manhattan ... The one-chord difference between Hal...