Adding to their successful Aurora Teagarden, Garage Sale and Signed, Sealed, Delivered mysteries, Hallmark is ready to roll out their latest.
Framed for Murder: A Fixer Upper Mystery (2017) Hallmark Movies & Mysteries TV Film Review
This one stars country singer Jewel as Shannon Hughes, a “renovation expert” (of Victorian homes) who owns her own company. When someone finds her neighbor dead inside his home, Shannon teams up with the new-to-town mystery author, Mac Sullivan (Colin Ferguson) to prove the police wrong. She believes her friend is indeed murdered!
As with each year, the New Year provides new opportunities for new programs, characters and faces. Plus, of course, the inevitable stories we’re sure to fall in love with. While Winterfest invites us to warm up over on Hallmark Channel, the first (new series) mystery of the season debuts on Hallmark Movie Channel. It’s introduces us to a puzzle of a formula that, as always, works well.
This new series features a host of familiar faces from Erin Karpluk (Mrs. Miracle) to leading man Ferguson (Every Christmas Has a Story, Cedar Cove). Only this time, stepping into the leading lady shoes to solve the puzzle, the face is a new one. The cast has a good rhythm together though I’ll admit to it being strange seeing Ferguson in this role.
TV FILM REVIEW | ‘THE JULIUS HOUSE: AN AURORA TEAGARDEN MYSTERY’: Charming and Cozy Mystery
‘Framed for Murder: a Fixer Upper Mystery’ (2017): Hallmark Mysteries New Movie Series #FWarchives Click To Tweet
Based on the Fixer Upper novels by Kate Carlise, her website describes the series like so; “In the small resort town of Lighthouse Cove, California, everyone knows that the best man for the job is a woman.” This teaser does apply to this story, especially in consideration of Shannon’s character. From the perspective of the script, this is an entertaining story. As usual, I like the trail the crime leads the amateur mystery hunters on, and the interaction between the gang of crime fighters. From the small town charms to the characters themselves, this is a wonderful start to a new series.
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You can find Framed for Murder: A Fixer Upper Mystery digitally on Amazon Video
Photos: Hallmark
I can’t believe how off base the 1st movie in this series falls away from the book. It fails to adhere to any of the personality conflicts or relationships that make these books so wonderful. It also fails to come anywhere close to matching the key characters descriptions. And, there are no Robbie and Tigger in Shannon’s life and none of her friend circle either. I love Jewel as a singer snd song writer and she’s not a bad actress either, but I really did NOT enjoy this movie adaptation. I’m sad because it could have been so much better!
I’ve experienced this with Hallmark films before too. Haven’t read the books of these however I did read the Love Comes Softly books years ago and then Hallmark adapted the books. Aside from the first film, the rest REALLY fall really far from the books. Same goes for the When Calls the Heart series. Probably part of why I haven’t started to watch that show again. All this to say, I understand the disappointment. :/