Have A Merry Whedon Christmas

Christmas is less than two weeks away, but the average TV viewer will bump into at least one holiday special a day, whether it be Rudolph, Scrooge, George Bailey or the Grinch.

The odds get even better thanks to cable TV offering literally hundreds of Christmas movies, mainly thanks to the Hallmark Channel and Lifetime. Their holiday libraries are so big they usually start just after Halloween, and wrap up on New Year's Eve. Through all those movies, it's likely that several members of the Whedonverse may appear.
In fact, there's several movies where we see our favorite actors...

Dear Santa:  Lifetime premiered this movie three years ago. Amy Acker plays a party girl named Crystal, whose parents demand she straighter herself out by Christmas or they'll cut off her credit cards. She gets an idea from a letter to Santa from a seven year old girl, who wants her widowed dad named Derek to get a new wife. He also runs a soup kitchen. Crystal volunteers there, but also has to battle Derek's jealous girlfriend. Acker is really cute in this movie, quite different from her roles on Angel and Person of Interest.

Holiday Wishes:  Also a Lifetime movie, I thought this had one holiday trope too many, but it's still OK. Amber Benson plays woman looks for her missing sister, and gets support from her boyfriend who may not be who he seems (hint: think angel). Then there's a rich girl and an orphan who switches bodies thanks to a magical ornament. With those three typical holiday plots, it's a bit crowded, but the helpful boyfriend does play a part is resolving things before his true identity is revealed.

Call Me Mrs. Miracle:  This was a sequel to a Hallmark Channel movie with Doris Roberts as the angelic helper who gets a job at a department store although no one remembers hiring here. Jewel Staite plays an assistant to a fashion designer, and she'd like to get her nephew a popular toy. Mrs. M comes up with a better idea that helps her and her store, and gives off a Jennifer Aniston vibe. Despite beng well-known to Firefly and Stargate Atlantis fans, it would be great to see her in a rom-com or two. I reviewed it in my other blog.

A Golden Christmas:  This is from Ion Television. Nicholas Brendon is in this story about a lawyer who's upset her family home has been bought by Brendon's character. The story makes her look like a Scrooge when she tries to get the stop the sale, but a dog plays a big part in changing her attitude. It also turns out they knew each other as kids, but she doesn't remember.

Help for the Holidays:  Another cute holiday movie from Hallmark, with Summer Glau as an elf who helps out at a Christmas store. It seems the owners put too much time in their store and not enough on their kids. She also has a purse that is a smaller version than the one Mary Poppins has. She also starts falling for a guy, which threatens her mission. Glau is a great elf, but I said in my review the story had a ton of missed opportunities.

A Christmas Wish:  The original Buffy, Kristy Swanson, is a woman with three kids whose husband leaves her and leaves her penniless. She gets a job waitressing at a diner that may also close down. However, thanks to finding a root beer recipe, thinks will be looking up for them. Swanson is in a new holiday movie on Ion called Merry X-mas, where she plays a woman who's about to divorce her two-timing husband thanks to some misleading photos. He can't get her to hear his side, but he hopes a blizzard could help.

Road To Christmas:  we can't leave out our favorite SHIELD agent, Clark Gregg, from the list. A Lifetime offering from 2006, it's about a fashion photographer who's on her way to a dream wedding, but is held up by bad weather. Gregg is an artist turned teacher with a teenage daughter. He takes in the photographer, and if you suspect she falls for the teacher, then you know your Christmas plots. Seems inevitable, since the photographer is played by Gregg's wife, Jennifer Grey

Snow Bride:  Tom Lenk plays a small role in this Hallmark movie>He's a reporter for a website hoping to get some dirt on a political family about to announce an engagement. A female rival tries to infiltrate the family, and does thanks to an accident. Thing is, this big-shot political family is more down-to-earth than the reporter thought. It doesn't stop the editor of the website from planning to use some info Lenk uncovers, whether it's true or not. Lenk's also sporting a mustache in this movie.

If you click the DVD covers, you will find out when they will air through Christmas. If not, you'll get a link to where you can buy the DVD.

It's Been A While

It's February, and a few weeks after we celebrated Buffy Summers' 30th birthday...even though she's 23 as of the end of season 8 Dark Horse version. It makes you wonder if in the Buffyverse she will live to be 30.
I hope so. Imagine what she can do with social media and YouTube.

And for the gal who plays her, Sarah Michelle Gellar, it looks like she'll soon be back on TV with that pilot called Ringer. Imagine a girl who hides from the mob by being her rich twin sister...only to find the twin may be crooked and marked for death, too. What's more, the twin may have faked her own death, and could wind up with HER twin's problems. I don't know how long this will last, but CBS better be smart enough to give us an ending to this, no matter what. This will give SMG something to sink her teeth into while Joss is busy with The Avengers. So, for those who pray SMG will be back as Buffy (mini-series, of course), you can still hope.

However, it may be the end of the TV line for Summer Glau...for a while. The Cape is doomed, and it's due to a boring hero, an annoying family storyline, the hero's sidekicks would make a better series, etc. Some also blame Summer because she looks like a blank slate as Orwell, the crime-fighting blogger. Well, blame the writers, I say. I think we're not supposed to know her true identity, either. It's been speculated her dad is the evil Peter Chess Fleming, who is responsible for framing the cop who winds up being The Cape. It's bad enough she was introduced too quickly, and that the stories have been dumb.

Joss, of course, had the perfect model. He prepared for just one season, paced all the storylines including the confrontation with the Master, and made sure everyone turned out to be real people.
With The Cape, he could have done this (or I would have): in the first two hours, Vince develops his new role with the help of the Carnival of Crime, Orwell is seen in the shadows until episode four, Fleming tries to terrorize Palm City into giving more police power to him by episode seven, Vince's wife sees her husband wasn't the Cape by episode 9 but is threatened by Fleming's goons by episode 10, and we have the final confrontation between Vince and Fleming in episodes 12 and 13. It winds up as a draw, but Fleming's bid to own Palm City will be delayed. The good guys hide but they prepare for round two. The writers front-loaded their season with too many facts which wind up as nothing, and that's why the show is cut short.

Despite this, we're gonna wish The Cape is back to find out what the F is The Event, which is also bogged down by too many details which mean nothing. It's also back after a long wait, and I doubt people will give it a second chance if they can't understand it.

As for Morena Baccarin, as the Alien queen with the permanent self-satisfied "Foolish Humans!" smirk, chances for V to continue next season aren't too good, but better than The Cape. I think what is supposed to happen in a few days may boost its chances. Let's just say Diana (not the 1980's version) and her prediction that Anna's daughter will continue the "double-cross your mom for fun" family tradition will come to pass.
Thank goodness. It's been way too easy for Anna, and she's not as fun as the original Visitors.

So far, we know Nathan Fillion's TV career will stay strong as Castle will be around at least through 2012. That's why ABC will keeping giving Fox programming suits Christmas cards.
We also know Felicia Day and her Guild will be back, but what is her #mysteryproject? Could it be Epitaph 3, continuing that Dollhouse saga? Making such a project for the net make a lot of sense, because it can be popular that way.
We shall see.

Serenity Movie Weekend: Did She Kill Him With Her Brain?

When it comes to murder mysteries on Lifetime, there are two categories: the heroine is accused of murder, and spends the rest of the movie to clear her name; and the heroine is accused of murder, but you're not quite sure if she's innocent.

Summer Glau has played a genius girl who has been damaged by government (Serenity/Firefly) or by an accident (Dollhouse), and also a butt-kicking android protecting the future (Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles). It has been rare for her to play a typical girl. Last night, though, she got her chance in a new Lifetime Movie Network film called Deadly Honeymoon. She played Lindsay, a new bride on her honeymoon with her husband, Trevor (Chris Carmack). It looks like the couple is well-matched, but looks can be deceiving. Typical murder plot for Lifetime.
The couple meets a fellow passenger, Kim, and three Hungarians that Trevor hopes will help out in a new business he and his wife want to start. However, Trevor would rather party than be with Lindsay, and even one of the Hungarians tries to make out with her.
Then, Trevor goes missing while Lindsay is found in a daze in a hallway under the ship. Is Trevor dead? Did Lindsay do it?

Now, if Lindsay were innocent, without a doubt, the movie will center on her efforts to clear her name. Not so here. The attention also centers on a vacationing FBI agent (Zoe McLellan) who gathers the details about the couple, and the Hungarians. Meanwhile Lindsay is trying to deal with all that has happened. A scene where she talks to her parents through a laptop is heartbreaking. Summer really sells this as a girl who goes from being in a daze to total devastation.
The FBI agent starts to wonder if Lindsay is as innocent as she looks. Lindsay admits there are a few things she didn't mention, but mostly because she's scared what Trevor's family would think.
There is a later scene where Lindsay talks to the captain about what happened. I won't describe it, but it is also devastating for a different reason.
As for how everything is resolved, at least one TV critic was hoping for a more surprising ending, but I thought it made sense.
I'm hoping this movie will open up more chances for Summer to be a typical girl in romantic or dramatic situations, rather than a Terminator or wounded computer genius.
Then again, we're also crossing our fingers that NBC will add The Cape to its 2010 fall lineup. If so, she'll become a crime-fighting blogger...and that's pretty good, too.