Cut, Color, Murder

Those that called this a snooze fest ... I'm not sure what you were watching. This one kept us guessing to the end. Love Julie Gonzalo and Ryan McPartlin aka Captain Awesome. 😊 Yeah it's not true to life but come on this is Hallmark, it's for entertainment not factual real life. We found it entertaining! Loved how the characters progressed from disliking each other to mutual respect to maybe a spark to the cliffhanger ending. All we can say is MORE please!!

This is a new mystery series on Hallmark is which a hair cutter, Ali, at her salon seems to be the best detective the town has. She is a widow who lost her husband in the line of duty. The current Sheriff Tom takes advantage of Ali's knowledge and observation skills to help him solve local crimes...of which there are not a lot. In comes a new out of town detective and a murder at the local beauty pageant. The head of the pageant, the murder victim, has a lot of enemies. But it is a real shock to discover Ali's sister being treated as a suspect...this makes it personal!

I liked the two leads and I think they have potential for chemistry. I am a little concerned about what they will do going forward a hair salon fits in well with a beauty pageant, but beyond solving her husbands murder how will they tie in a hair salon?

I liked the cast and this mystery worked well. I will tune in for the next one to see how it goes.

At this point it doesn't come close to my three favorites Hannah Swensen's Murder she Baked, Aurora Teagarden mysteries and Mystery 101.

Give me back Hailey Dean, Hannah Swenson, or The Chronicles. This was just a flatline movie. First it's so cutesy, then it becomes harder and harder to like either of the leads, too many people look alike, and it's just a trite and very tired attempt to bring in a new series. I did not feel any chemistry among the cast. It's not hard to predict revelations coming in the second installment, her photos at the end were a dead giveaway. We are watching more and more Brit Box and Acorn these days.

I do not rate this movie because I didn't watch it all. I gave up when Ali started going rogue.

I have a personal categorization of these amateur detective mysteries (called Signature Mysteries on HMM) based on how much the non-cop in the story violates procedure and even laws. As a result, I put the Gourmet Detective series in the positive category because the amateur is actually helping the police at their request and he rarely does anything his cop partner wouldn't approve. The different franchises are all over the scale with Aurora Teagarden being near the other end of the scale. This new franchise appears to be on the negative end. One of the first things Ali did regarding the murder was gather DNA evidence from a potential suspect without his knowledge. And she was interrogating people in ways which could potentially prejudice the investigation.

What little I did see wasn't positive.

Put this series on my no list.

I gave it a chance, I think Ryan and Julie are both very talented and I've enjoyed their other movies and projects...but I didn't care for this mystery. I hope that it's not turned into a mystery series-especially when other mysteries were cancelled by the network with better storylines and ratings.