Pie to Die For: A Hannah Swensen Mystery

I've been watching Hannah Swensen movies since they first came on. She has been bold and strong and determined and fearless. I mean, she confronts the killers when she's alone in a room with them, as she did in the first movie!

And now we are supposed to accept the fact that now, after all this time and all the dead bodies and killers she has found and confronted, that suddenly she's overcome and faints?

Unbelievable. Really, I don't believe it. It runs completely opposite of the character that she has created all these years ago!

Hannah Swenson FAINTING? Nope. Wouldn't happen. I completely can not understand how this got written into the script and no one said, "Wait a minute. Hannah does faint."

It was an okay movie but ended on a dumb move.

While ke both Alison Sweeney and Victor. Webster, the characters just don't have the same fit as Hannah and Mike did. Hannah's cat, who liked no one in the past, is now everybody's best friend. I'm not sure how many names Delores gave Hannah, but she's gone from calling her Hannah Joann in " Just Desserts " to Hannah Louise in " A Pie To Die For". Andrea's last name has changed from Todd to something else. Since Alison is credited as an author on this episode, shouldn't someone have been checking for consistency through the history of the series?

Again, Delores's character is outsized and needs revamping. Delores has gone from scatterbrained and pushy, trying to control her daughters, to being off the rails with the PI stuff. There is some consistency with Delores though- she's always more than a bit of a diva!

Really like the more subtle and adult chemistry between Alison and Victor---the last few with Cameron had stilted fights and weird patronizing energy that doesn't work with now middle aged people. Almost feels like writer are using Barbara and sister characters to deal with more "silly" antics of the earlier seasons? Maybe lean into the characters growing over time and maintain the charm of bakery murders? This coupling has my vote over the forced chemistry of yore---this does read more natural. Also like the Easter eggs of introducing characters in episodes that become more central in later episodes, the rival actor in this episode and British prof in preceding episodes.

It was hard to watch this movie. I felt like it was drowning in bad bleach jobs and really really bad hair extensions.

Another problem I had was with the three Central actors Alison Sweeny and Victor Websters are well past their "Hallmark Leads" period. They are both so long in the tooth they could more effectively play the PARENTS of the characters they played. Webster was lethargic. Through the entire movie he acted bored and very blase'.

Barbara Niven is scary to watch with her mass of bad hair extensions and affectations.

This could have been an enjoyable movie with any other set of Hallmark Actors.

Call me desperate for new mystery content on Hallmark Mysteries, but I believe this is the best one yet of the Chad and Hannah Murder She Baked Mysteries. I am actually really enjoying the slow build between these two characters played by Victor Webster and Allison Sweeney. Both are wonderful actors, who I love independently...but even more together.

Hannah still hasn't found a treat to tempt Chad with, snickerdoodle?, but they finally share their first kiss as well as formal date. I am enjoying this slow reveal of Chad's character and we hear more about his time as a marine on their date, as well as experience his quick reflexes, language skills, and rusty fighting skills. Chad continues to speak in a flattering way about Hannah, both in her presence and outside of it...which I love!

In this mystery Hannah discovers the warm corpse of her mother's biggest acting rival at the local theater, Victoria, while delivering banana cream pies to her house for a party. Due to their rivalry Hannah's mom, Delores (Barbara Niven), becomes the prime suspect in the police chief Ealing's investigation. Hannah is very busy doing the heavy lifting for good friend and employee Lisa's family reunion, but she makes time to work on the case in order to help clear her mother. Hannah asks her sister Andrea for help getting ready for her first dinner date with Chad and on the case where Andrea, Mom Delores and Hannah divvy up the three classes that Victoria was taking. Delores gets the French Class, Andrea the martial arts class, and Hannah the dance class...which Chad finds out about and says they should take the class for real-together. When Hannah is attacked in her home by a paid professional, Chad comes to her assistance and aided by a frying pan from a quick thinking Hannah puts an end to the attempt.

I really like the candor between Hannah and Chad, they seem to talk openly about things that many would be silent about and then fret over later...like Chad confirming that it was one of her sisters in the pantry and Hannah explaining why she wanted to audit the dance class, which led to Chad telling her it was a 90 minute class she has plenty of time to get the instructor's attention. These two really seem to strike a nice (and healthy) balance with each other. I'm still excited to see where their relationship is going to go and I am enjoying the mysteries and the rest of the cast along the way. (Normally I miss Norm when he is not there, because he is such a fabulous wingman...but Pie to Die was so tightly written I didn't really have time to miss Norm. And I appreciated all the Chad and Hannah time in Pie to Die.)

My one and only complaint, and this is very minor, is that the mystery was wrapped up a little too quickly at the end. This is the fourth film with Victor Webster paired with Allison Sweeney as Hannah Swensen and it may be my favorite in the series so far and Hannah Swensen's Murder She Baked is my current favorite mystery on Hallmark Mysteries. (It has always been in my top three with the original Aurora Teagarden and Mystery 101...both of which I miss very much.) I can't wait for more Hannah Swensen Mysteries!