Murder, She Baked: A Plum Pudding Mystery

One of the problems with most of these amateur detective series is that they always make it seem like the police are doing practically nothing. Actually this series is better than most in that regard. Mike is often ahead of Hannah. But sometimes not.

In this episode (if you will), Hannah discovers what appears to be a key clue which Mike acknowledges is helpful. If that's true, Mike is a poor detective. One of the first things modern detectives do is canvas for that particular clue.

Other than that, this is still a decent story. There is some romance too, in the form of a potential love triangle. The characters are appealing, especially Alison Sweeney as Hannah. While none of these actors will win an Oscar or Emmy, the acting is good enough to enjoy the story.

I have to admit that I started to watch this crapfest during the first week of May this year. I couldn't STAND it. Who would say that a week before Christmas is a HOLIDAY? Yes, folks, a voice emanating from a radio said that it was a beautiful HOLIDAY morning. Moments later it is revealed that it's a week before Christmas. This writer by name of Alison Sweeney must be brain damaged.

OK, I'm going to put a season 9 DVD from MARRIED WITH CHILDREN to scrape the sugar off my brain.

If you think for a moment that this is Holiday Fare, fuggedabowddit. "IT'S A BUNDYFUL CHRISTMAS" is far better.

The small town of Eden Lake in rural northern Minnesota is rapidly becoming the murder capital of the stat per capita. Fortunately they have an able amateur sleuth in the person of Alison Sweeney bakery proprietor and creator of the region's best baked goods.

Other than the film is set at Christmas time and plum pudding has come down to us through Charles Dickens as a Yuletide delicacy and someone urges Sweeney to put it on the menu plum pudding really has nothing to do with the story.

But Christmas sure does. Kirby Morrow has opened a seasonal business the Elf's Christmas Yard where he sells Christmas trees. He winds up shot to death and of course it's Alison Sweeney along with town dentist Larry Hogan who finds him. After that no matter how much she's warned no keeping this woman away from a homicide she discovered.

As it turns out Morrow was one sleazy conman and a lot of people have reason not to mourn him. He's got a long estranged wife in town who hosts a radio show about romantic advice and a current fiancé who invested heavily in the business. And there are others.

I have to say in the end I felt a lot sympathy for the perpetrator. A good lawyer could get the person off.

Sweeney has been wavering between Hogan and police detective Cameron Mattison in the various Murder She Baked films. Whomever she marries I see a Lucy/Ricky like relationship with her being constantly warned you can't get into the homicide investigation.

And when she does she'll have a lot of 'splainin' to do.

We watched this out of desperation during COVID-19 lockdown! What a dreary offering! All the characters were equally annoying in their roles! The actress playing the mother was particularly painful! Inane lines, silly situations, nothing really seemed worth caring about! Very disappointed we gave it our attention.

I was so excited to watch the movie after reading the entire series of the Hannah Swensen series. Whoever directed this paid little to no attention to the actual characters, details, and vision of the books. Hannah's hair is supposed to be red and short, her mother is supposed to have short hair, in a few of the movies you never see her youngest sister Michelle, her cat Moishe is supposed to be a big furry red haired cat. There's many more details I could list, it's so disappointing to see the movie and it does the book 0 justice. Please pay attention to the actual books. Joanne Fluke is a great author, her books deserve a better movie that actually highlight her characters.