{"id":5428,"date":"2014-08-17T00:57:12","date_gmt":"2014-08-17T04:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?p=5428"},"modified":"2014-08-17T00:57:12","modified_gmt":"2014-08-17T04:57:12","slug":"summer-snow-lands-on-up-tv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2014\/08\/summer-snow-lands-on-up-tv.html","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Summer Snow&#8221; lands on UP TV"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s today\u2019s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Summer Snow<\/em> on UP TV tomorrow night (8\/17) @ 8:00 PM (ET)<\/strong><\/p>\n<iframe title=\"Summer Snow - Trailer\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ck0fkslZ0sc?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><b id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1408021959706_2836\"><i id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1408021959706_2835\"><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1408021959706_2834\" style=\"font-size: 10.0pt\"><\/span><\/i><\/b><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong> <span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1408021959706_2764\" style=\"font-size: 10.0pt\">8-year old Hallie Benson (Rachel Eggleston) has a heart that&#8217;s bigger than she is. She&#8217;s always thinking of creative and unconventional ways to help those around her. Whether it\u2019s baking cookies for cranky neighbors or selling toothbrushes to raise money for a needy friend, Hallie\u2019s acts of kindness always seem to leave a terrible mess for her Dan Benson (David Chisum). Dan is a dentist who is struggling with suddenly becoming a single father following the recent death of his wife. Besides Hallie, Dan is also raising Hallie&#8217;s high school-age brother David (Garrett Backstrom). Older sister Julie (Cameron Goodman), meanwhile, is newly engaged and has an unmarried roommate who is considering an abortion.\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv7887261244MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1408021959706_2766\" style=\"font-size: 10.0pt\">Produced by American Family Studios and filmed in Lexington, Kentucky, <i id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1408021959706_2767\">Summer Snow<\/i> stars Rachel Eggleston (<i>Bereave<\/i>, <em>House MD<\/em><i>)<\/i>, David Chisum (<i id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1408021959706_2837\">Flight of the Living Dead, <\/i><em>Black Box<\/em><i>)<\/i>, Cameron Goodman (<i>Benjamin Troubles<\/i>, <em>90210<\/em><i>)<\/i>, Garrett Backstrom (<i>The Motel Life,<\/i><em> Lab Rats<\/em>), Matthew Alan (<i>The Surrogate<\/i>) and Brett Rice (<em>Moms&#8217; Night Out, The Blind Side<\/em>). The film is w<span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1408021959706_2750\" style=\"font-size: 10.0pt\">ritten and directed by the brother\/sister team of Jeremy White and Kendra White. Executive producers are Dave Johnson, Tim Wildmon and Jeff Chamblee.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv7887261244MsoNormal\" style=\"text-align: justify\"><strong>Will <em>Summer Snow<\/em> melt your heart?<\/strong> The short answer is yes &#8212; at least if, like me, you believe life to be edgy enough and find warm-hearted dramedies like this a good reminder that people can make the choice to be kind. Still, I have to admit a couple of scenes tested even my sugar capacity.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1408021959706_2773\" style=\"font-size: 10.0pt\">My first minor bone to pick the <\/span><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1408021959706_2773\" style=\"font-size: 10.0pt\">film is what the heck does the title mean? It&#8217;s touching and all, perhaps I missed something, but I really didn&#8217;t really get what it had to do with anything that was actually going on in the story. The title would have made a lot more sense to me if instead of Hallie Benson the girl at the center of the story was actually Summer Snow &#8212; you know, with Dr. Dan Snow being her father.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1408021959706_2773\" style=\"font-size: 10.0pt\"><\/span><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1408021959706_2773\" style=\"font-size: 10.0pt\"><\/span><b id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1408021959706_2774\"><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1408021959706_2773\" style=\"font-size: 10.0pt\"><\/span><\/b><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1408021959706_2771\" style=\"font-size: 10.0pt\"><\/span><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1408021959706_2838\" style=\"font-size: 10.0pt\"><\/span><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1408021959706_2766\" style=\"font-size: 10.0pt\"><\/span>As to the story itself, it veers between being very believable in some scenes to a little over-the-top with the cutesiness in others. Most of the latter scenes actually involves Hallie and her friendship with Isabel, a shy immigrant classmate who needs &#8212; but cannot pay for &#8212; dental work. The storyline is fine but the execution was a little forced. Also, the relationship between Hallie and her grumpy neighbor Mr. Jenkins (a character similar to Mr. Wilson in <em>Dennis the Menace<\/em>) seems to switch from &#8220;Don&#8217;t bother me, kid&#8221; to sweet and touching in an unnatural flash.<\/p>\n<p>If the cute-o-meter on those scenes were just dialed back from an 11 to say a 9, Summer Snow would have been a more consistently-real family comedy-drama in the vein of the classic family series <em>Eight is Enough. <\/em>Like that show (one of my all-time favorites), the writers balance multiple storylines involving each member of the Benson family with finesse. There&#8217;s also a nice balance between warm-hearted family drama and genuinely-witty dialogue (even amidst some serious situations).<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1408021959706_2764\" style=\"font-size: 10.0pt\">While there&#8217;s no denying the cuteness and screen presence of young Rachel Eggleston, to me the best-written scenes actually involved <span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1408021959706_2764\" style=\"font-size: 10.0pt\">Cameron Goodman<\/span> as her older sister Julie and her concern for the life of her roommate&#8217;s unborn child &#8212; a concern that threatens her own upcoming marriage. That storyline rings completely true &#8212; with the scenes between Julie and her father and Julie and her <span class=\"st\"> fianc\u00e9 providing what I found to be the real meat of the story. <\/span><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1408021959706_2766\" style=\"font-size: 10pt\"><\/span><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Like many of UP&#8217;s films, the characters in <em>Summer Snow<\/em> are the type of people I wouldn&#8217;t mind following in a series. In any event, <strong><em>Summer Snow<\/em> is recommended<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s today\u2019s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture. Summer Snow on UP TV tomorrow night (8\/17) @ 8:00 PM (ET) Synopsis: 8-year old Hallie Benson (Rachel Eggleston) has a heart that&#8217;s bigger than she is. She&#8217;s always thinking of creative and unconventional ways to help those around her. Whether it\u2019s baking cookies&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4893,9,13,24,31],"tags":[7205,5130],"class_list":["post-5428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abortion","category-adoption","category-christianity","category-family-matters","category-movies","category-television","tag-summer-snow","tag-up-tv"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>&quot;Summer Snow&quot; lands on UP TV<\/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\/2014\/08\/summer-snow-lands-on-up-tv.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&quot;Summer Snow&quot; lands on UP TV\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here\u2019s today\u2019s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture. Summer Snow on UP TV tomorrow night (8\/17) @ 8:00 PM (ET) Synopsis: 8-year old Hallie Benson (Rachel Eggleston) has a heart that&#8217;s bigger than she is. She&#8217;s always thinking of creative and unconventional ways to help those around her. Whether it\u2019s baking cookies&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2014\/08\/summer-snow-lands-on-up-tv.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-08-17T04:57:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John W. 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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\/5428","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=5428"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5430,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5428\/revisions\/5430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}