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Hallmark Films and Mysteries fulfills all the guarantees of its title with A Zest for Loss of life: A Hannah Swensen Thriller — a film that’s each, properly, a film and a thriller. The most recent installment within the renamed Homicide, She Baked film sequence brings the 2003 Joanne Fluke novel Lemon Meringue Pie Homicide to life. Selecting up the place Carrot Cake Homicide left off earlier this 12 months, A Zest for Loss of life will get the Swensen household collectively to resolve one other homicide in Eden Lake. However is A Zest for Loss of life a tasty deal with or is that this thriller under-baked?
The Gist: Alison Sweeney (A Magical Christmas Village) returns as Hannah Swensen, a small-town baker who additionally occurs to come back throughout murders with alarming frequency. When A Zest for Loss of life begins, we discover Hannah serving to her sister Michelle (Tess Atkins) discover a place to stay. And for these maintaining tabs on Hannah’s love life (like her mother Delores), she is at present estranged from her former fiancé Mike (Cameron Mathison) and engaged in a recreation of cellphone rooster with him. Come on Hannah, simply name him!
Issues take a flip for the lethal, as they’re wont to do in Eden Lake, when the Swensens come throughout a lifeless physique whereas touring a possible house for Michelle. As for who murdered the home-owner, Hannah declines to assist resolve the homicide as a result of she’s busy with work (and likewise depressed, re: Mike) — however Hannah can’t assist however discover clues. Okay, she’s in! She’s a pure within the kitchen and at crime scenes.
Can Hannah preserve the police from pinning this homicide on an harmless man? How will Hannah react to having her mother tag alongside for the investigation? And the place there’s a homicide, there’s certain to be Detective Mike — Hannah’s ex! Most significantly: can Hannah resolve this homicide and cater an occasion for the highschool’s booster membership? Jessica Fletcher by no means needed to cope with this type of strain!
What Films Will It Remind You Of?: Talking of Jessica Fletcher, the Hannah Swensen Thriller sequence is among the many Hallmark TV film franchises that really feel straight impressed by Homicide, She Wrote. I imply, this particular franchise was titled Homicide, She Baked earlier than it returned from a hiatus in 2021.
Efficiency Value Watching: Barbara Niven (Chesapeake Shores) is as soon as once more at her finest as Hannah’s fashionable, overbearing, and confident mom Delores. Watching her get in on the murder-solving motion is a real delight. Delores realizes that discovering a lifeless physique makes one really feel somewhat accountable for fixing the crime (as she hilariously asks her daughter, “Isn’t that the way you felt concerning the many our bodies you’ve found?”). She’s not not good at being a non-public eye, both — she simply must study to snoop round in one thing rather less conspicuous than a pastel pink trench coat and matching hat.
Memorable Dialogue: This, after all, goes to Delores, who provides the next assertion to a police officer, re: the homicide: “I merely wished to take a look at her closet area. Closet area is all the pieces you understand — write that down.”
Our Take: Y’know, it’s straightforward to check any episode-of-the-week thriller serial to Homicide, She Wrote — and we steadily do judging by the variety of different exhibits in our Homicide, She Wrote tag. That’s to not say that these different exhibits aren’t Homicide, She Wrote-y! I’m simply saying that there’s something uniquely Homicide, She Wrote concerning the Hallmark Films & Mysteries film mysteries — and that’s very true of the Hannah Swensen sequence.
What this community’s ongoing thriller film franchises get concerning the cozy thriller sub-genre is their inherent campiness and playfulness. These mysteries happen in a actuality the place murders are frequent however the communities stay nice, the sleuths are hardly ever in peril, and the police are affable gents who’ve a hankering for some baked items.
The Hannah Swensen Thriller sequence works so properly due to its serialized nature, as a result of every installment feels equally of a bigger narrative but in addition totally standalone. And for brand spanking new viewers, a Hannah Swensen Thriller will get the additional advantage of going down in a setting that feels totally realized with a supporting forged that feels totally interconnected. You are feeling welcome, even in case you’re visiting for the primary time.
Now, whether or not or not A Zest for Loss of life will go down as among the finest installments on this franchise — I’d lean in the direction of in all probability not. The central thriller, the homicide of Rhonda (Kendra Anderson), looks like the everyday puzzle that we get in nearly all of those films. It nearly feels just like the film is ticking off homicide thriller components because it goes alongside: Hannah oversees future sufferer arguing with somebody, a priceless heirloom is launched, a secret love affair is hinted at, a man recent out of jail is pegged because the killer, and a lot of locals begin performing shady. It’s by the ebook (and that ebook is Lemon Meringue Pie Homicide by Joanne Fluke).
As a substitute of being hooked by the thriller, A Zest for Loss of life hooks viewers with its forged and its serialized components. For first-timers, the dynamic between Delores and her three daughters is a hoot and a half. The way in which the entire grownup kids know find out how to work in tandem with their mother’s playfully flighty ego feels completely earned, actual, and relatable. And for many who’ve been hanging with Hannah since earlier than the TV films began, there’s the simmering pressure between Hannah and Mike to carry your consideration. Will they get again collectively? And likewise… uh, is Hannah’s little sister actually going to purchase this film’s homicide scene within the subsequent film? Can’t wait to search out out!
The one place A Zest for Loss of life actually falters is within the introduction of Hannah’s previous school flame Bradford Ramsey (Firefly Lane’s Oliver Rice). He will get an enormous introduction as the brand new college professor on the town (That accent! That blazer!) and… then spends the film in his workplace on campus, presumably, distant from the motion. It could’ve been good to see him fire up extra emotions, even uncertainty, from Hannah now that she’s on the outs with Mike. However I don’t know — perhaps that’s the plot of one other Hannah Swensen novel and so they’re saving that tasty plot for dessert. However that’s the benefit of A Zest for Loss of life: it leaves you wanting a second slice.
Our Name: STREAM IT. A Zest for Loss of life isn’t as revolutionary as latest Hallmark films, nevertheless it’s good to see that the previous thriller recipe nonetheless satisfies.
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