“Remoted” Workday 222 / Day 339 (Thursday)

It has been a temptation lately to write to the Hallmark Movie Channel people.

I want to like their product. Really, I’m trying. I’ve managed to cast aside my intense hatred of the romantic movie genre in which they specialize and allowed the productions to run each evening after work, often because I'm too lazy to find something else. I’ve attempted to suspend belief while seeing the same handful of lead actors changing their wardrobes and job titles to be in yet another movie. The females get to at least change hair color and style, but its confusing with the males who always look the same as the last movie they were in.

Some of the story lines are mildly interesting, and it is slightly amusing to see how many ways they can spin the vineyard/B&B/country inn/small business backdrop into a story that isn’t exactly like the previous dozen movies featuring a vineyard/B&B/country inn/small business, which can’t be easy. But dang, please have someone give the scripts a reality check and a grammar review. 

A recent Hallmark movie was enjoyable until the character who is allegedly a professor said “This was always Tracy and I’s favorite …” Seriously, professor, where did you go to school? And if Tracy wasn’t around, would you say “This was always I’s favorite”? I really need to know. Or is it, "Me need to know?"

Later, in another movie, a character who is allegedly a writer said, “Noah has been like family to Nora and I.” What the actual blankety blank? And I suppose she would also say “Noah has always been like family to I.” After the first egregious misuse of “I” it becomes a game to see how many other errors will present themselves. And they do, but the most grating to my ear is the rampant misuse of “me” and “I.” It's the same in "real life" so maybe they are just trying to be realistic. You know, because everything else about the movies where every cookie cutter character is attractive and well-dressed is so true-to-life.

The latest movie took the cake for a story line issue. The 2017 movie featured a character who is a romance writer. Her recent book was criticized for some research lapse, and to help improve the book in process, she is training with a former Navy SEAL for research purposes. We learn the book signing is already scheduled -- for the book that isn't finished yet. We learn she has never traveled internationally because everything she needs is right where she is. The approaching deadline, the travel, and the research issue come up throughout the movie.  And of course, the romance writer and the former Navy SEAL fall in love, because who didn’t spot that from the opening, but that is okay.

At the very end of the movie, the writer is signing books and the former SEAL is leaving for a planned trip to New Zealand. Mere hours before his flight, the writer’s friend books her a ticket on the same flight so she can go away with her newly discovered love. The same flight that is leaving in a few hours, and the friend says the writer has a credit card so she doesn’t really need to pack anything (and there is no time for that anyway). The writer who has never travelled internationally is now leaving her own book signing to fly to New Zealand in a few hours with no baggage and seemingly with no passport, and should probably already be at the airport. That sounds like a few major issues for check-in and security. Or does she maybe have a secret passport, because who doesn’t love dropping $100 on a little government-issued book allowing international travel when there was never any intention of traveling out of the country? And her personal jet pack will get her to the airport in time. It seems the scriptwriter and the team on the movie project starring a research storyline should have done a little research. Just a thought, Hallmark folks. I don't want to see or hear the errors, but it is hard to ignore when they are right there, larger than life. And this is why I can't watch movies with other people.