When Calls any part of your anatomy

*Photos owned by Hallmark

 

    This one's to my fellow Hearties...in layman's terms, fans of the TV program When Calls the Heart.  My husband always laughs when this show ever comes up, and says, "When calls the heart, take an antacid!"  Very cute.  

     When Calls the Heart originally premiered January 11, 2014 on the Hallmark Channel.  The show's premise (and this is important, so take notes!) is that a well-off city-bred young woman takes a job as a schoolteacher in the remote frontier town of Coal valley (the name of which is changed to Hope Valley in season 2).  Once she arrives, this young woman (Elizabeth Thatcher), meets the Royal Canadian Mountie Jack Thornton.  They have a very slowly-developing love story.  Very slowly.  Note the word slowly.  

     Another very important character is the recently-widowed Abigail Stanton, played by Lori Loughlin (That is also important to note).  Abigail befriends Elizabeth early on, and later opens a restaurant and runs for mayor.  

     So if you're tracking with me so far, the three main characters are Elizabeth, Jack and Abigail.   

 

     In Season 1, the main plot revolves around the idea that most of the men in the town recently died in a mine cave-in, and all the women are now widowed (Abigail's husband and adult son are among those killed in the mine).  Prior to this, the town's main industry is the mine, hence the original name, Coal Valley.  Things move on from there with renewed business and hope, prompting the new name, Hope Valley early in Season 2.  

     Several other characters come into the show as well.  One of the new aspects of the show is that Abigail learns her deceased son had been married very shortly before his death, but hadn't had a chance to tell his parents about her.  His widow Clara becomes a part of the show, and eventually finds love again.  Abigail also adopts two orphans, Becky and Cody.  Some of the storylines involved them, as well as Elizabeth's other schoolchildren.  

     One of the new industries in town is a sawmill, run by a kind man named Lee Coulter.  He ends up falling in love with a very colorful character named Rosemary, and some of the plots revolve around their relationship and marriage.  To date, Lee and Rosemary's relationship was the quickest-moving in the series (and it wasn't recklessly fast, but just wasn't as agonizingly slow as the rest!).  I think Rosemary is probably the funniest character in the show.  I don't know that I'd want a friend like her in real life, but she is pretty hilarious in the show.  Very dramatic.  

     The show has a lot of things to like: sweet stories from bygone days, well-written character that seem like real friends, beautiful scenery.  I enjoyed this show for a long time.  In some ways, I still do.  But...well, let's dive in a little.  

     Some of the things I consider a little bit funny and unrealistic are the costuming and hair.  No one in this show looks like they're really from 1910.  Compare the cast from this show to a black and white photograph from 1910.  These characters, especially the woman, look like modern women, just dressed up.  Look at the picture above, of Lee and Rosemary.  If they walked into your church on Sunday looking just like that, you probably wouldn't think a thing of it.  I go to a church where some dress up and others are more casual.  Some people wear clothes similar to what they're wearing.  If I saw a woman at the grocery store dressed like Rosemary in this picture, I would probably compliment her and ask where she got her skirt, since I like skirts.  But I wouldn't think she was trying to look like she was from 1910.  If anything, I might thing she was dressed a little nicer than the average shopper, and I might assume she was going somewhere else later.  Several female characters (particularly Abigail Stanton) have very modern highlights in their hair, which was not something a woman from 1910 would have had.  They look pretty, but they aren't even subtle.  They don't realistically look like the era they're supposed to be.  Other aspects of the show seem almost too old-fashioned for the early 20th century, and seem more like the mid-19th century (the whole frontier feel of it).  

Lori Loughlin as Abigail Stanton...beautiful, but not authentic from that time period

     Some of these inconsistencies make me chuckle, but I have a bigger issue with what the show became.  I think a television series is somewhat like a movie, in that is has an overarching premise.  A plot.  A show is different than a movie in that it has multiple stories.  However, in a well-done TV show, each episode, while independent, is subservient to the overall premise of the show.  My rule of thumb (though no one who makes such decisions ever asked me!) is that when a show starts developing away from the premise, it's time to end it.  Maybe start a spin-off related show, but end the original.  I have a hard time staying with TV shows (or book series, or whatever) where they completely stray away from the original premise.  It then just becomes little more than a soap opera.  Unfortunately, I think that is what has happened with When Calls the Heart.  Remember the premise?  City-bred girl moves to the frontier to teach school and falls in love with a Mountie.  Within that, they had several other stories that were good, and contributed to this overarching plot.  For a while.  

     Within the original premise, they had stories about the town's original mayor, Henry Gowen, getting thrown in jail for his part in the mine cave-in, and then he turns over a new leaf and becomes an upstanding citizen.  Far-fetched, but redemption is a good thing.  The town moving forward as Hope Valley is a good thing.  Of course, I already referred to some of the other characters and storylines that develop within the original premise.  Abigail had a few different romances and hinted-at romances during all of this, but none of them ever worked out, which got frustrating.  I was kind of rooting for her.  But I was proud of her for taking the initiative to open her own café and run for mayor.  She knows how to move forward in life.  

     There were several other characters with hints of romance, or the beginnings of relationships, but didn't go anywhere...or if they did, it was really slow.  

     The glaring issue to me, though is that they drew out Jack and Elizabeth's love story way too much!  They met in the first episode and married in Season 5.  There was all this, "Will they, won't they" stuff for so long.  Lee and Rosemary met after Jack and Elizabeth, and married before Jack and Elizabeth were even engaged.  It just got dragged out way too long.  I like a little mystery in romance stories, but this was too much.  There were times I started losing interest in them at all!  But they finally had them marry in Season 5.  

     Spoiler alert: They had a few glorious episodes together as newlyweds...before they killed Jack off!  The reason?  Actor Daniel Lissing wanted to leave the series to pursue other opportunities.  Well, if they hadn't pussyfooted so long, they could have at least given Jack and Elizabeth a few years together, instead of a few measly episodes.  Some said it would have been better for him to be killed off before the wedding if they were just going to kill him right after, but the writers had their reasons.  In an interview after the fact, it was revealed that they wanted to give the viewers the satisfaction of a wedding for Jack and Elizabeth (I get that), and also a baby.  Yes, Elizabeth finds out she is pregnant in the episode after Jack's death, which is also the season finale (maybe it should have been the series finale, but wasn't).  She ends up having a baby boy.  

     So now, the premise is Elizabeth the single mother schoolteacher in Hope Valley.  Completely unrelated to the original premise.  They had a few episodes of her grieving over Jack, but then, they decide to add a love triangle with two new men coming to town who both like Elizabeth.  Oh, who will she choose?!?  It's between Nathan, who is a Mountie like Jack was, or Lucas, the new saloon owner.  Of course, that was all drawn out as well.  If this were real life, I'd get it.  Life moves forward, and we move on.  But this show had just moved so far beyond its original premise.  That doesn't mean these aren't good stories, but they take forever to accomplish anything!  I'm not patient enough for this.  

     I believe every good story needs to have an introduction, a sequence of events, a climax and a conclusion.  I also believe in quitting while you're ahead.  When things just don't end, but keep going and going with no real resemblance to what you had started watching in the first place, it's really hard to hang on.  I think the climax was Jack and Elizabeth's wedding.  They could have wrapped up the series with the next few episodes, and, if they were just ending it, they wouldn't have needed to kill him off.  

     A further issue that removed the show from its original plot was that Lori Loughlin, who played Abigail Stanton, was fired from Hallmark after her involvement in the College Admission Scandal came out.  She was written out, with just a passing mention that Abigail moved back east to take care of her mother.  Really?  They couldn't come up with something better than that?  And she was such a monumental character.  They really couldn't do more with it than just a mention?  I realize Lori Loughlin's crime had put them in a bad position and they had to edit her out of the unaired episodes from the current season that was airing at the time.  They did the best they could at short notice.  Still, now, out of their original three major characters, only one is left.  None of this would have even been an issue if they had quite while they were ahead.  

     These are my thoughts.  But what do I know?  The show still has a huge fan base.  I love the early seasons (everything leading up to Jack and Elizabeth's wedding).  It just stopped holding my interest...but maybe I should give the newer ones another chance.  My good friend Amy sent me a beautiful paining, reminding me that she and I were always fellow Hearties.  That did something to me, so maybe I'll give the new season a chance.  What do you think?  What are your favorite episodes in the show's history?