Newlywed and Dead

I love the animated opening of this episode. It was fun, colorful and very retro.

I really appreciate the use of married in real-life couple the PenaVegas in this series. They are both absolutely lovely and great together.

The series starts with Ally, a photographer, shooting a difficult wedding. The bride is upset before the wedding and it is partly Ally's brother, Greg's fault. He is the bride's ex-boyfriend and he showed up to the rehearsal dinner where he was quite disruptive. During the first dance the groom ends up shot and killed...enter our handsome detective Sam.

Sam gets partnered up with an older detective, Nick, under protests...because he would rather work alone. He is a big city detective from New York and has moved to this small town where he did the first impulsive thing he has ever done in his life...he bought a fixer-upper.

Greg becomes the #1 suspect in the groom, Kevin's murder. It doesn't help that he was alone at a cabin at the time of the murder.

"What's a six letter word for not innocent?"-Nick

When Ally learns that if Greg is their suspect they will not use time and resources looking for anyone else...she starts to look for the real killer herself. Her assistant is taking a course in criminology...which comes in handy. She assembles her team to figure out who-dunnit...her assistant/crime student and her best friend the actress.

Nick takes Sam to a local diner where they meet Sue, the waitress...who seems to know everything about him...welcome to a small town, Willow Haven. Sue even knew what house Sam had purchased, the real fixer upper.

"No offense, but you seem like the kind of guy who would wear a suit and tie on vacation."-Ally

For some reason this was a slow start to the series for me. Lots of still moments and a few awkward ones...our two romantic leads spend most of the series apart. I really appreciated some of the jazz and Basilian music used in the series. Also, I will note that there are some distinct color schemes in this series, in the picture perfect studio, Ally's home, the police station and Sam's home.

My favorite scene was the Thai food meal in the car for an impromptu steak-out...and great conversation.

Too many quiet moments drag the film down. After all, this is supposed to a fun light mystery....no one is wants numerous quiet moments when nothing happens, such as Sam (Carlos PenaVega) contemplating his chess game all alone and strumming his guitar to himself.

A good cast but they need to write larger parts for Trezzo Mohoro who plays Allie's assistant Noah. He provides great comic relief but we see far too little of him. Also Sunita Prasad is terrific in a smaller part, playing Maya. Also Allie's brother Greg played by Jon Cor is very good & easy on the eyes!

Good editing would have pared this film down to an hour tv show. Hopefully the writing & editing improves with the next one.

This first in a series of whodunits is very enjoyable. A murder occurs in plain view, but the police have few clues. Enter Allie Adams (Alexa PenaVega), the photographer who was filming the wedding reception when the crime took place. When her brother becomes the prime suspect, she starts sleuthing in earnest, despite the protestation of the police detective assigned to the case, Sam Acosta (Carlos PenaVega).

The case and the film proceed at a relaxed pace, aided by some background music that I really enjoyed. The chemistry between the two principals is nascent, as it should be in the first episode. Allie gets plenty of help as she tries to identify the "real" killer. The focus of the police seems to shift whenever they get new evidence. And Sam, who recently moved to Willow Haven from New York, begins to settle in and learn the dynamics of the small town he now calls home.

The two main actors ususlly are horrible in Hallmark movies, but they actually surprised me in this movie in a good way.

This is the first movie I've watched with these two married leads and I was shocked at the zero chemistry between them on screen. Why hasn't anyone at Hallmark picked up on that? Or don't they watch their own films & have their eyes closed during production? Other than that (quite important aspect) the sets were beautiful, everyone had perfect hair and the plot moved along nicely.