{"id":4640,"date":"2013-12-15T08:15:38","date_gmt":"2013-12-15T13:15:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?p=4640"},"modified":"2013-12-15T08:16:38","modified_gmt":"2013-12-15T13:16:38","slug":"tv-review-finding-christmas-on-the-hallmark-channel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2013\/12\/tv-review-finding-christmas-on-the-hallmark-channel.html","title":{"rendered":"TV REVIEW: &#8220;FINDING CHRISTMAS&#8221; ON THE HALLMARK CHANNEL"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s today\u2019s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture.<\/p>\n<iframe title=\"Hallmark Channel - Finding Christmas - Premiere Promo\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qW0aE-Wd3ZI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<p><strong><em>Finding Christmas<\/em> airs tonight (12\/15) @ 8:00 PM ET on The Hallmark Channel.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.hallmarkchannel.com\/findingchristmas\">from The Hallmark Channel website<\/a>): <\/strong><em><span style=\"color: #333333\">Single mother Ryan (<strong>Tricia Helfer<\/strong>) has just about given up on dating after her divorce, happily accepting her young son as the most important man in her life. That all changes when Ryan&#8217;s brother Owen (<strong>JT Hodges<\/strong>), also feeling unlucky in love after a bad breakup, swaps his home in their small North Carolina town with New York City adman Sean (<strong>Mark Lutz<\/strong>). Ryan feels an instant spark with her new neighbor, but Sean, who signed up for the temporary home swap after a proposal gone wrong, is out of his comfort zone in his new rural surroundings.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p>On the other end of the housing exchange, aspiring musician Owen is charmed when he meets Sean&#8217;s sassy assistant, Mia (<strong>Cristina Rosato<\/strong>), in New York City. As Owen acclimates to his swanky New York City digs with Mia&#8217;s help, he begins to realize Mia might be just the right girl for him. With Christmas approaching and the home swap nearing an end, the future for both of these new relationships is up in the air. Can these temporary holiday arrangements lead to long lasting love?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Review:<\/strong> I found this story especially interesting since a good friend of mine used to run a website that offered people the opportunity to swap homes for vacations. If fact, we even pitched a TV series based on the concept. So, I kinda had an entry point for relating to the concept &#8212; which is, of course, as light and breezy as they come. Still, there is some wisdom enunciated in the course of plot &#8212; including the idea that is in living in the moment (by giving and accepting love) that we build a solid foundation for the future. The four leads cast, meanwhile, are so good-looking that I nearly had to shield my eyes from their collective glow.\u00a0 Country singer JT Hodges projects enormous onscreen charisma (somebody should cast the guy in a TV series) and performs standout renditions of<em><strong> Joy to the World<\/strong> <\/em>and <em><strong>Silent Night<\/strong><\/em>. Meanwhile, women in the audience will no doubt also enjoy watching Mark Lutz as they city guy who trades pads with Hodges&#8217; characters. He, in fact, is already starring in a Canadian drama pilot called<strong><em> E.M.S<\/em><\/strong>. the He too possesses that mysterious thing called star quality. And, while this film certainly falls into the general category of &#8220;chick flick,&#8221; few guys are going to mind spending\u00a0 watching two hours either Tricia Helfer (<em><strong>Battlestar Galactica, Burn Notice<\/strong><\/em>) or Cristina Rosato (<em><strong>Rookie Blue<\/strong><\/em>). Add to that the fact that, at least in this humble correspondents&#8217; opinion, both their characters are fall-in-love-with worthy. Extremely watchable holiday flick. <strong>Recommended. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Encourage one another and build each other up \u2013 <\/em><\/strong><b>1 Thessalonians 5:11<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s today\u2019s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture. Finding Christmas airs tonight (12\/15) @ 8:00 PM ET on The Hallmark Channel. Synopsis (from The Hallmark Channel website): Single mother Ryan (Tricia Helfer) has just about given up on dating after her divorce, happily accepting her young son as the most important man&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,3632,24,31],"tags":[6084,35,6088,6086,6087,6085],"class_list":["post-4640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-christmas","category-movies","category-television","tag-finding-christmas-on-the-hallmark-channel","tag-1-thessalonians-511","tag-cristina-rosato","tag-jt-hodges","tag-mark-lutz","tag-tricia-helfer"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>TV REVIEW: &quot;FINDING CHRISTMAS&quot; ON THE HALLMARK CHANNEL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2013\/12\/tv-review-finding-christmas-on-the-hallmark-channel.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"TV REVIEW: &quot;FINDING CHRISTMAS&quot; ON THE HALLMARK CHANNEL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here\u2019s today\u2019s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture. Finding Christmas airs tonight (12\/15) @ 8:00 PM ET on The Hallmark Channel. Synopsis (from The Hallmark Channel website): Single mother Ryan (Tricia Helfer) has just about given up on dating after her divorce, happily accepting her young son as the most important man&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2013\/12\/tv-review-finding-christmas-on-the-hallmark-channel.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-12-15T13:15:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-12-15T13:16:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John W. Kennedy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"TV REVIEW: \"FINDING CHRISTMAS\" ON THE HALLMARK CHANNEL","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2013\/12\/tv-review-finding-christmas-on-the-hallmark-channel.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"TV REVIEW: \"FINDING CHRISTMAS\" ON THE HALLMARK CHANNEL","og_description":"Here\u2019s today\u2019s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture. Finding Christmas airs tonight (12\/15) @ 8:00 PM ET on The Hallmark Channel. Synopsis (from The Hallmark Channel website): Single mother Ryan (Tricia Helfer) has just about given up on dating after her divorce, happily accepting her young son as the most important man&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2013\/12\/tv-review-finding-christmas-on-the-hallmark-channel.html","og_site_name":"Faith, Media &amp; Culture","article_published_time":"2013-12-15T13:15:38+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-12-15T13:16:38+00:00","author":"John W. Kennedy","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2013\/12\/tv-review-finding-christmas-on-the-hallmark-channel.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2013\/12\/tv-review-finding-christmas-on-the-hallmark-channel.html","name":"TV REVIEW: \"FINDING CHRISTMAS\" ON THE HALLMARK CHANNEL","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-12-15T13:15:38+00:00","dateModified":"2013-12-15T13:16:38+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2013\/12\/tv-review-finding-christmas-on-the-hallmark-channel.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2013\/12\/tv-review-finding-christmas-on-the-hallmark-channel.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2013\/12\/tv-review-finding-christmas-on-the-hallmark-channel.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"TV REVIEW: &#8220;FINDING CHRISTMAS&#8221; ON THE HALLMARK CHANNEL"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/","name":"Faith, Media &amp; Culture","description":"Beliefnet Voices - John W. Kennedy","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2","name":"John W. Kennedy","description":"John W. Kennedy is the founder and Dir. of Development of The Creative Universe Entertainment\u2122, a media consultation and development company focusing on the creation, development and support of high-quality mainstream entertainment that upholds positive timeless values, including trust in God. Current projects include \"Bryant Park\" (an uplifting romantic-comedy) and \"Photo Finish\" (an award-winning sci-fi TV pilot). He has written over 100 children's novels based on episodes of the Cartoon Network series \"Ben 10\", \"Ben 10: Alien Force\", \"Ben 10: Ultimate Alien\", \"Ben 10: Omniverse\" and \"Generator Rex\" among others. He also writes Beliefnet\u2019s \"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" blog. Previously, he has produced successful news and talk programming for CNN, Fox News, Pax TV and SiriusXM. Specialties: Script Writing, Movie\/TV Novelizations &amp; Adaptations, TV Content Creation and Development, Creative Consultation, Producing and Booking News and Talk shows. He can be reached for writing, producing and consulting services at 516-640-1182.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/author\/jkennedy"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/225"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4640"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4642,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4640\/revisions\/4642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}