Hallmark For All Seasons

Summer Nights

A Little Daytime Drama

Time to start catching up on movies I missed in August during my brief hiatus! First up: “A Little Daytime Drama,” which aired on August 21, 2021 during their “Summer Nights” series and starred Jen Lilley and Ryan Paevey. It was filmed primarily in Vancouver, with Heather Hawthorne Doyle (A Godwink Christmas: Second Chance, First Love) directing. The screenplay was written by sisters Sandra and Judith Berg, who began writing for Hallmark in 2016 and have provided scripts for movies such as “Love on the Sidelines,” “A Majestic Christmas,” and 2020’s All Summer Long.

In a nutshell

I have a confession. This movie took me OVER FOUR HOURS to watch. Despite watching during daylight hours, I fell asleep during the first 10 minutes and had to restart. Then at 30 minutes in I randomly decided to do some vacuuming around the house instead of watching the movie. Then at the one hour point I got into a conversation with my son and ended up playing a quick videogame on his Nintendo DS. Then with 15 minutes left in the movie I fell asleep AGAIN and had to ask my daughter (who was in the room at the time) what I missed (I didn’t want to bother rewinding). And I think that just about sums up my opinions on this movie.

The Plot of “A Little Daytime Drama”

In order to save her daytime soap drama from cancellation, head writer Maggie must convince Darin, fan favorite actor and her real-life ex-boyfriend, to return to the show.

Actors & Chemistry

I liked Jen Lilley infinitely more in this movie than her New Year, New Movies outing, Snowkissed. This time around her character was sweet, earnest and open. And while in the last ten minutes Maggie jumped to some pretty ridiculous conclusions versus just talking to Darin, I legitimately felt Maggie’s sense of betrayal AND horror upon finding out what was really going on. I thought Jen Lilley was fabulous in this.

A Little Daytime Drama — image: Hallmark Crown Media

Ryan Paevey came from soap operas (as did his co-star Lilley), and so he was the perfect casting choice for this movie. He smoldered, he reacted, and acted just like a soap actor.

It was fun to see Linda Dano as Maggie’s boss, since she is an absolute matriarch in the land of soap operas. My only wish is that they had gone ALL OUT with this movie and brought in several well known soap actors to be in the movie. That would have been a treat.

I’m very sad that all of Casey Manderson’s scenes were with Ryan Paevey and that he never got to interact with the rest of the cast. I NEED MORE CASEY MANDERSON, HALLMARK!!!

Tropes

Maggie’s promotion to show runner hinges on getting the soap opera back on track. Darin’s house had a front porch type of area. Darin had an ADORABLE puppy! We had an almost kiss at the convention. The screenwriters even managed to fit in some party planning.

Did I Hear/See That Right?

In the 1980s I was a HUGE fan of “Days of our Lives” and attended a couple fan conventions for the show. Those conventions had THOUSANDS in attendance. I’ve also had the pleasure of attending a couple fan conventions for “Doctor Who” as well as the Hallmark convention a couple years ago. Those conventions also had thousands in attendance. There is NO WAY a panel for actors would only have a few dozen in attendance. Fan conventions have seating for hundreds of people to see the actor panels. And while I know the movie could not simulate that kind of attendance, surely they could have more than 50 in the audience of the convention panel?

Maggie follows Darin through a door only 20-30 seconds behind him and she interrupts him in the middle of an acting class scene? No way.

The Forever Cocktail just looked like straight up Grenadine to me. And I loved how the bartender just called it a “ruby cocktail” instead of actually describing what was in the drink. Is it a gin drink? A vodka drink? A rum drink? Chambord? “Ruby cocktail” does nothing to let the person drinking it know what to expect.

Feelgoods

Paevey’s salt and pepper hair is divine. Casey Manderson’s salt and pepper beard is also divine.

I appreciated that some scenes were actually filmed like a soap opera (notably, characters having conversations while facing away from each other so that the camera can see both their faces).

General Thoughts

Knowing that soap operas are filmed on video versus film, there was a missed opportunity to have any of the soap opera’s scene be shot on video. i think that would have been a very fun way to shoot the movie, and cost effective since video is infinitely cheaper to film with.

I have to say that I loved how the movie poked fun at soap operas in general. While I haven’t watched them in at least 20 years, I did watch them a LOT in the 1980s and 1990s. This movie poked fun at characters suddenly going from age 10 to 20 over the course of a weekend. That happened with a character on “Days of our Lives” back in the 1990s (Kirsten Storms as Belle Black) and it was JARRING.

They also referenced having to shoot 180 pages in one day – which those familiar with soaps know – they really do shoot dozens of pages in a day.

I thought Jen Lilley’s clothes in this movie were FIRE. The outfit in the picture below was my absolute favorite of the whole movie, and was just one of several that I loved.

Re-watchability

I loved the soap opera aspect of the movie and it had so much potential to be better than it was. Unfortunately, the script was kind of meandering and I didn’t really feel the stakes (saving the soap) were that big a deal. As such, I wasn’t invested in the story at all, and the romance was incidental.

The Ranking

“A Little Daytime Drama” is unfortunately in the lower fifth of the year. Here’s hoping that Jen Lilley and Ryan Paevey can each have better movies during the upcoming Christmas movie season!

Crashing Through The Snow (air date: July 10) – 705 pts – weighted score: 118.1 (82.8%)
It Was Always You (air date: Feb 27) – 668 pts – weighted score: 114.2 (80.1%)
You Had Me At Aloha (air date: June 5) – 675 pts – weighted score: 111.4 (78.1%)
Sweet Carolina (air date: May 15) – 648 pts – weighted score: 110.1 (77.2%)
Taking a Shot at Love (air date: Jan 2) – 641 pts – weighted score: 108.9 (76.4%)
Don’t Go Breaking My Heart (air date: Mar 27) – 636 pts – weighted score: 108.5 (76.1%)
Right in Front of Me (air date: Apr 18) – 637 pts – weighted score: 108.0 (75.8%)
As Luck Would Have It (air date: Apr 10) – 638 pts – weighted score: 107.7 (75.5%)
Her Pen Pal (air date: June 19) – 636 pts – weighted score: 107.1 (75.1%)
The Baker’s Son (air date: June 13) – 637 pts – weighted score: 106.3 (74.6%)*
A Winter Getaway (air date: Jan 23) – 620 pts – weighted score: 104.4 (73.3%)
Love, For Real (air date: July 31) – 607 pts – weighted score: 103.6 (72.7%)
Mix Up in the Mediterranean (air date: Feb 20) – 590 pts – weighted score: 102.5 (71.9%)
Two For The Win (air date: Jan 16) – 603 pts – weighted score: 101.8 (71.4%)
Chasing Waterfalls (air date: Mar 20) – 570 pts – weighted score: 100.3 (70.4%)
Roadhouse Romance (air date: Sept 11) – 571 pts – weighted score: 100.2 (70.3%)
Sand Dollar Cove (air date: June 26) – 557 pts – weighted score: 96.8 (67.9%)
Hearts Down Under (air date: Apr 24) – 547 pts – weighted score: 95.2 (66.8%)
Fit for a Prince (air date: Mar 6) – 546 pts – weighted score: 94.6 (66.4%)
A New Year’s Resolution (air date: Jan 9) – 516 pts – weighted score: 90.5 (63.5%)
A Little Daytime Drama (air date: Aug 21) – 511 pts – weighted score: 87.7 (61.5%)
Baby, It’s Cold Inside (air date: May 8) – 495 pts – weighted score: 85.6 (60.0%)
Playing Cupid (air date: Feb 13) – 466 pts – weighted score: 82.6 (58.0%)
Beverly Hills Wedding (air date: Feb 6) – 431 pts – weighted score: 80.6 (56.5%)
Snowkissed (air date: Jan 31) – 402 pts – weighted score: 76.0 (53.3%)