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.

I was about to give up on this movie about 20 minutes into it. Luckily the Liam character joined and provided a much need lift to the cast.

The lead actress and actor who played Casey and Eli were so bad in the opening of the movie that I couldn't take it. No emotion, inappropriate smirking and unbelievably bad delivery of lines. How did they even get the roles?

The rest of the cast was okay, but the movie would have benefited from more screen time from the Hallmark veteran actors.

Like I said, once the actor who played Liam came on screen I enjoyed the movie more. However the plot was weak and the killer of the woman found in the alley was totally unbelievable.

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.

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).

I thought this had potential and the cast likeable enough. There were issues for me.

The first was that the brother of. McNamara's character, Casey, turns out to be pointless and unnecessary. Pay attention to when the girls first start to discuss his case in order to prove him innocent or you might miss why he took the victim's necklace. However, it's all a fake setup to give McNamara a reason to pursue her brother's innocence when they could have simply had her find out about the death of a friend who had become estranged from her. The brother, played by. Sam Ashe Arnold, contributes nothing of importance otherwise and the background story him and Casey seemed like an afterthought to fill out the script and screen time when they need not have bothered..

I thought McNamara was fine, but her cry face is not pretty and the bleached blonde hair was actually a distraction.

The attempt to pair the character of Liam with Sarah seemed an odd choice when PJ might have made more sense, but it's fine. However, it never really went anywhere unless it is to be followed up on in a sequel.

There is a peculiar goof when the gang first meets Liam in that McNamara is shown wearing a top.beneath her jacket that in the next two shots seems to turn into something with a plunging neckline then back to the more full covered top again. It's nothing to get excited about - it's Hallmark..

I do not believe there was any mention of getting justice for a second victim killed sometime before the main one in this story i.e. Reopening her case.

I will leave any other legal technicalities to others as regards these intern characters and their obtaining evidence plus the handling of it all being correct or not - probably not.

Finally, Hallmark seems to be having cameos of their so-called stars in movies mainly starring others. It can be clever, even cute to some, but Deloach.and Ayres could have had their supporting - guest - roles given to some actors who could have used the work more than they and be more believable as genuine characters in this story. It could also be that Hallmark did not trust the main cast to attract viewers, so they cast these two to do so, which is kind of sad that they would need to rely on these over-exposed channel regulars to do anything new and different.