{"id":5755,"date":"2015-01-03T08:15:42","date_gmt":"2015-01-03T13:15:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/?p=5755"},"modified":"2015-01-03T11:03:36","modified_gmt":"2015-01-03T16:03:36","slug":"tv-review-a-girls-best-friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2015\/01\/tv-review-a-girls-best-friend.html","title":{"rendered":"TV Review: &#8220;A Girl&#8217;s Best Friend&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s today\u2019s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>A Girl&#8217;s Best Friend<\/em> airs tomorrow (Sunday, 1\/4) @ 7:00 PM (ET) on UP TV.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"A Girl&#039;s Best Friend - On the Set\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qTmCYRkeEH4?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><\/p>\n<p id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1420283196635_3605\" class=\"yiv3010486601MsoNormal\"><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1420283196635_3619\"><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong>\u00a0 Polka-Dot, an 11-year-old girl with a quirky devotion to Mark Twain&#8217;s <em>Huckleberry Finn<\/em>, befriends a K-9 police unit officer and his bloodhound Luey while hiding the fact that she lives alone while her single mother is in the hospital with a failing liver. The emotional dramedy stars\u00a0 James Denton (<em>Grace Unplugged<\/em>, Desperate Housewives), Laura Mennell (<em>Watchmen, Alpha<\/em>), Kirsten Robek (<em>Hell on Wheels, When Calls the Heart<\/em>) and Lilah Fitzgerald (<em>The Pastor&#8217;s Wife, The 100<\/em>) as Polka-Dot. <span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1420283196635_3608\">Karen Struck (<i>Charlie &amp; Me<\/i>, <em>Monday Mornings<\/em>) teamed with newcomer Jim Buck, a former cop, to write the script.<\/span> <span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1420283196635_3608\">Terry Ingram (<i id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1420283196635_3611\">Christmas Miracle, My Boyfriends\u2019 Dogs<\/i>) is the director. The film is a production of <\/span><\/span><span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1420283196635_3608\">Foxfield Entertainment and Mystique Films.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv3010486601MsoNormal\"><strong>Review:<\/strong> Like most of UP&#8217;s movies, <em>A Girl&#8217;s Best Friend<\/em> is filled with people (and, in this case, a dog) that you like and can&#8217;t help but root for. James Denton is genuinely appealing as <span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1420283196635_3634\"> Cooper \u201cCoop\u201d Brawn<\/span>, the carefree cop who lives on a houseboat and is reluctantly drawn into the life of young Penelope Daught (aka Polka-Dot) while also pining for <span id=\"yui_3_16_0_1_1420283196635_3634\">Samantha McCutcheon (Laura Mennell)<\/span>, his ex-<span class=\"st\">fianc\u00e9<\/span> who has grown weary Coop&#8217;s stubborn refusal take on responsibility in his personal life. She also happens to work for Child Services. Young Lilah Fitzgerald really makes you care about the precocious Polka-Dot and her scenes with single mother (Kirsten Robek) who is in dire need of a liver transplant are moving. Everyone in the cast does a solid job with their roles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv3010486601MsoNormal\">While <em>A Girl&#8217;s Best Friend<\/em> is loaded with charm, humor and poignancy, it does come up quite a bit short in the credibility department. For example, after Polka-Dot sneaks into a police vehicle, thereby complicating a police manhunt, Coop takes her home. It&#8217;s late at night and he leaves her off without even making sure her mother is home. On top of that, unless I missed it, we never actually find out if the cops ever catch that criminal they were after. A capture scene would have provided both suspense and an opportunity to show Coop and Luis in action &#8212; perhaps saving Polka-Dot from the bad guy&#8217;s clutches.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv3010486601MsoNormal\">Getting back to credibility, Polka-Dot&#8217;s ability to, basically, steal Luis from his K-9 base makes so he can accompany her on her nighttime visits to her mother in the hospital makes the cops who are supposed to be guarding the place seem a bit incompetent. But it&#8217;s not just the cops. Doesn&#8217;t anyone at the hospital think to ask who is taking care of this child? And would they really allow a dog into the room of a patient with a failing liver &#8212; and allow the pooch to actually hop on said patient&#8217;s bed?<\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv3010486601MsoNormal\">I also have a minor with the title <em>A Girl&#8217;s Best Friend<\/em>.\u00a0 I know it&#8217;s a little play on the phrase &#8220;man&#8217;s best friend&#8221; but, without knowing anything else about the film, it sounds rather generic &#8212; like just another romantic comedy. Personally, I think <em>Polka-Dot&#8217;s Best Friend<\/em> would have popped a little more.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yiv3010486601MsoNormal\">I also would have liked to have seen the actual friendship of the title emphasized a bit more. I&#8217;m talking about Polka-Dot&#8217;s relationship with Luis. While she takes the hound with her to the hospital, he&#8217;s almost a prop rather than a character. We don&#8217;t really see a lot interaction between them. Polka-Dot doesn&#8217;t spend a lot of time talking to Luis. Such scenes, I think, would also have allowed for a greater exploration of Polka-Dot&#8217;s inner thoughts and emotions &#8212; plus it&#8217;s hard to go wrong with scenes featuring a kid and a dog.<\/p>\n<p>But in the end, despite its flaws, I couldn&#8217;t help but like <em>A Girl&#8217;s Best Friend<\/em>. If you&#8217;re willing to suspect some disbelief for a couple of hours, you&#8217;ll probably enjoy it too. <strong>Recommended.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Encourage one another and build each other up \u2013 <\/em><strong>1 Thessalonians 5:11<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here\u2019s today\u2019s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture. A Girl&#8217;s Best Friend airs tomorrow (Sunday, 1\/4) @ 7:00 PM (ET) on UP TV. Synopsis:\u00a0 Polka-Dot, an 11-year-old girl with a quirky devotion to Mark Twain&#8217;s Huckleberry Finn, befriends a K-9 police unit officer and his bloodhound Luey while hiding the fact that&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":225,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,24,31],"tags":[7754,7757,376,7344,7755,7750,7751,7758,7756,7753,7759,7752,7760,7410,5130,4556],"class_list":["post-5755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family-matters","category-movies","category-television","tag-a-girls-best-friend","tag-alpha","tag-desperate-housewives","tag-foxfield-entertainment","tag-james-denton-grace-unplugged","tag-jim-buck","tag-karen-struck-charlie-me","tag-kirsten-robek-hell-on-wheels","tag-laura-mennell-watchmen","tag-lilah-fitzgerald-the-pastors-wife","tag-mark-twains-huckleberry-finn","tag-monday-mornings","tag-mystique-films","tag-the-100","tag-up-tv","tag-when-calls-the-heart"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>TV Review: &quot;A Girl&#039;s Best Friend&quot;<\/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\/2015\/01\/tv-review-a-girls-best-friend.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;A Girl&#039;s Best Friend&quot;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here\u2019s today\u2019s dispatch from the crossroads of faith, media and culture. A Girl&#8217;s Best Friend airs tomorrow (Sunday, 1\/4) @ 7:00 PM (ET) on UP TV. Synopsis:\u00a0 Polka-Dot, an 11-year-old girl with a quirky devotion to Mark Twain&#8217;s Huckleberry Finn, befriends a K-9 police unit officer and his bloodhound Luey while hiding the fact that&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2015\/01\/tv-review-a-girls-best-friend.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Faith, Media &amp; Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-01-03T13:15:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-01-03T16:03:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John W. 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Synopsis:\u00a0 Polka-Dot, an 11-year-old girl with a quirky devotion to Mark Twain&#8217;s Huckleberry Finn, befriends a K-9 police unit officer and his bloodhound Luey while hiding the fact that&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2015\/01\/tv-review-a-girls-best-friend.html","og_site_name":"Faith, Media &amp; Culture","article_published_time":"2015-01-03T13:15:42+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-01-03T16:03:36+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\/2015\/01\/tv-review-a-girls-best-friend.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2015\/01\/tv-review-a-girls-best-friend.html","name":"TV Review: \"A Girl's Best Friend\"","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-01-03T13:15:42+00:00","dateModified":"2015-01-03T16:03:36+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/e5d5ef9caeb6b01bcbf08ca6de6591c2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2015\/01\/tv-review-a-girls-best-friend.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2015\/01\/tv-review-a-girls-best-friend.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/2015\/01\/tv-review-a-girls-best-friend.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"TV Review: &#8220;A Girl&#8217;s Best Friend&#8221;"}]},{"@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\/5755","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=5755"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5757,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5755\/revisions\/5757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/faithmediaandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}