Tonight's Movie: Murder, She Baked: Just Desserts (2017)
I've just now caught up with this most recent entry in the series, which aired in March 2017. As yet, nearly a year later, there's no word on whether there will be any more MURDER, SHE BAKED films; Hallmark didn't announce any at its latest media event last month. We'll have to cross our fingers than eventually there will be more in this well-done series, which began in 2015, but for the moment nothing seems to be in the works.
JUST DESSERTS begins on a darker note than most films in the series, with Hannah (Alison Sweeney) being injured due to a home intruder; she initially just thinks a basement stair broke but viewers know something more sinister occurred.
The film takes a while to find its feet, with a series of abrupt incidents centering around both a baking contest Hannah is hosting and the local high school basketball team, where Hannah's friend Norman (Gabriel Hogan) is volunteering as assistant coach.When Norman finds the obnoxious head coach (Kurt Evans) dead on the high school grounds and Hannah's police detective boyfriend Mike (Cameron Mathison) begins investigating, the movie settles into the "cozy" MURDER, SHE BAKED style enjoyed in the previous films.
Mike and Hannah are getting serious, but a life-threatening incident causes Mike to second-guess commitment, having already been through losing his wife. Meanwhile Norman is always game to help Hannah with her sleuthing, even when it involves dumpster diving! The mystery comes together in an enjoyable and logical way.
Series regulars Barbara Niven, Lisa Durupt, and Toby Levins return as Hannah's family. Hannah's bakery, The Cookie Jar, on the other hand, seems to change appearance regularly!MURDER, SHE BAKED was directed by Kristoffer Tabori. It was filmed by Brian Johnson, with British Columbia standing in for mythical Eden Lake, Minnesota.
Previously: MURDER, SHE BAKED: A CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE MYSTERY (2015), MURDER, SHE BAKED: A PLUM PUDDING MYSTERY (2015), MURDER, SHE BAKED: A PEACH COBBLER MYSTERY (2016), and MURDER, SHE BAKED: A DEADLY RECIPE (2017).
posted by Laura @ 4:00 PM
2 Comments:
You "turned me on" to this series of movies. I watched them all during 2017 and a week ago, I too, just now watched the most recent "Just Desserts". In the story Alison, the Murder She Baked Girl, forget her character name, sprains her ankle. I believe they did this because in real life Alison broke her leg skiing. If you watched the recent Alison Christmas movie "Christmas At Holly Lodge" I believe that was the time she broke her leg while filming the skiing scene. They worked her injury into the script and continued filming. I would bet that's why Alison still is limping in "Just Desserts".
I, like you, really hope they will continue to make more Murder Bake movies, I find them very enjoyable and amusing. Not the best mystery movies in the world, compared to Nero Wolfe or Sherlock Holmes or even Poirot TV shows, this one is on a lower tier than them. But I still find the show fun to watch and the characters compelling to see what happens to them next. I don't like Lifetime type movies and maybe you could say this is a bit like the Lifetime movies except the man isn't the beast he always is on Lifetime. Hope they make more of these Baked movies, as it's the ONLY Hallmark movie series I do watch. Yes, they're on the simple minded side, but fun to watch.
Hi Lee, I'm so glad I could introduce you to this fun movie series, thank you for letting me know!
There are numerous other good quality movie series and individual films on Hallmark, and one of my goals is to review more of them here, as I enjoy them and feel as though many classic film fans will appreciate them as well. (Lifetime movies I feel are often too dark and crass...) If you like the MURDER, SHE BAKED movies I'd encourage you to next try Hallmark's GOURMET DETECTIVE series which I've reviewed here. There are four films to date -- I hope to review the most recent title soon -- and hopefully there will be a fifth later this year, though I'm not certain of that.
I also like Hallmark's FIXER UPPER mystery films due to the congenial leads (Colin Ferguson and Jewel) but they're on a "lower tier" in my view.
I didn't realize Alison Sweeney had injured herself!
Thanks for your feedback!
Best wishes,
Laura
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