True Justice: Family Ties

True Justice: Family Ties was a little different for Hallmark. It's still a murder mystery but with a larger cast working to prove that the brother of the lead actress is innocent. This movie takes you into the criminal justice system. The cast is made up of newcomers to Hallmark along with two of my favorite regulars - Nikki DeLoach and Benjamin Ayres. DeLoach and her writing partner, Megan McNulty, did a good job with a script that provide twists and turns to keep you guessing. I liked the fact that the writers didn't throw in a gay couple that didn't fit in with the story as Hallmark has had a tendency to do. Hopefully, True Justice will become a regular series.

And this one is no different. It's rubbish from start to ... er, well, I was going to say, finish, but since I gave up watching this nonsense about 30 minutes in, I shall never know what the actual finish is. I can only assume that the brother, who is probably still sobbing right now, the cry baby, is exonerated and he and his sister spend a joyous time celebrating how they beat the system. I couldn't care less. The acting was atrocious, there were far too many characters. They kept popping up like flies. Also, the dialog was so slick, it was barely comprehensible. I even paused after 15 minutes to put my hearing aids in AND I had subtitles enabled. I have never watched any of these rubbish Mystery movies all the way through. I can't believe how Hallmark manages to sell so much utter trash to TV companies.

You know, I understand that Hallmark Mystery Movies aren't exactly realistic. I mean seriously, how often does a librarian, an English professor or an antiques dealer really solve homicides before a seasoned detective? LOL Not often & I'm okay with that, however, True Justice took unrealistic past improbable & made it laughable!

There are so many factual errors on court proceeding & evidence handling here, there are simply too many to name. The writers should really do a little research on court trials, sentencing etc... It's obvious they have no idea how a trial is arranged & regulated.

Also, any evidence Casey or her friends touched would be (at best) viewed with extreme suspicion & would not be readily accepted as fact. Or, & this is the most likely scenario, all the evidence gathered would be deemed tainted due to her relationship to the defendant & ruled inadmissible.

The whole scenario was ridiculous & the acting by most of the cast was sorely lacking. I enjoyed Benjamin Ayres as DA Quinn & Nikki De Loach as Professor Ambrose, but their roles were too small to save this movie.

I wish Hallmark would rethink its decision to get rid of entertaining series like Mystery 101 in favor of a sub-par series like True Justice. I don't like to bash, but i can promise you the ratings will show the audience's dissatisfaction soon enough. In fact, if you look at the reviews & ratings, they are already speaking it loud & clear.

Part of the reason I enjoyed such popular series as Garage Sale Mysteries and the Aurora Teagarden mysteries is because they starred known actresses.

This series lack any actor that is familiar (to me).

One reviewer referred to them as a group of teens, when clearly they are in their late 20s and early 30s (guess they took off some time between college and law school).

The lead actress (Katherine McNamara) looks kind of haggard. I noticed that she is one of many actors who of late has had their year of births removed from their IMDB profile. This seems unusual for an actress who is only 28.

The story wasn't as good as any on the two series I mentioned. I suspect Hallmark isn't going to, but I wish they would bring back Garage Sale Mysteries (with Lori Loughlin) and Aurora Teagarden (with Candace Cameron Burre), the latter being especially unlikely with her departure for another network.

Is anyone besides me bothered by the brother stealing a necklace off of a fresh corpse?

I try to be very kind when reviewing new mystery series on Hallmark because I would like to encourage them to have new mystery content. Having said that I had several issues with True justice. The whole brother character seemed unnecessary, you would think her investigating the murder of her friend would be enough of a motivation for our main character. So many illegal things...the police turning over evidence/personal effects to a boyfriend? A crime lab intern using the crime lab to run trace evidence...not to mention the issue of chain of custody for a conviction of the real killer?!?!? Lots of issues.

I loved seeing both Nikki Deloach as the main character's law professor and Benjamin Ayres as the D. A. It was kind of cool to have them in a relationship...but I wish they had played a bigger role in this film. They were almost so peripheral as to be superfluous to the story. The character of Liam, a rogue investigator, was the most interesting character in the show. I liked the idea of having a group of young students solving crime...but the script needs to be tighter and their roles need to be more well defined (aka what they each bring to the table skill-wise). The intern at the crime lab (as an actual 30 year lab employee with good friends and colleagues working in actual crime labs) would never be able to run random samples whenever they wanted. Testing is highly controlled and regulated. I think they could have benefited from some consultants. Also, there is no motivation for people to talk to these kids...so I don't know why they would.

I would probably watch another one just to give it another chance...but it is definitely not on my recommendation list yet and it has a long way to go to break into my top three Hallmark mystery series (Hannah Swensen, Aurora Teagarden (the original), and Mystery 101).