Boring with a Chance of Snoozing

Cute title. But unfortunately, it is dull dull dull, and essentially an hour and a half commercial for Leavenworth, Washington, which is a picturesque if touristy Bavarian Village and home of the Nutcracker Museum. I would like to go there sometime if I am ever in that neck of the woods. But I don’t think I will watch this very informative infomercial again.

Bridget Torres is of Puerto Rican extraction and is the very popular night weather person for her Los Angeles (I think) network. She doesn’t like Drake who is the cohost of the morning show because she thinks he chose his current co-host over her because of their “commonality” meaning “not a minority.” Bridget is a star on the rise, and has been given an important opportunity to host her own on-location Christmas feature in Leavenworth, Washington (see above). Drake’s co-host, Tatum, is jealous and because she is already a star, is allowed to horn in and basically try to steal the spotlight from Bridget. Meanwhile, Drake very passively just goes along with it while looking disgusted even though, far from not wanting to work with Bridget as a co-host, she was actually his first choice. He has had a crush on her from the very beginning. He and his family are from Leavenworth and the crew will be staying at the family resort. He takes Bridget on a multi-day tour of the town (see above), and they get close. She realizes that Drake is actually a good guy with a nice family. Meanwhile, Tatum is revealing her true colors including having somewhat of a hissy fit when she finds out she has to do her own hair and make-up.

Nothing much else happens. For example, the big crisis that brings everything to a head is whether to use a fake snow machine or not. They peacefully compromise. Yawn. Tatum, though unpleasant and bossy does not even come close to derailing Bridget’s big break and the whole feature is a big success. I did like that Bridget always stood up for herself without being unpleasant. She gets her own show and finds out that Drake ended up accepting Tatum as his cohost because the network needed Bridget to save the nighttime broadcast and he was afraid that his feelings for Bridget would compromise his professionalism. This all comes as a surprise to Bridget.  If he liked her so much, why didn’t he privately explain that to her? Why didn’t he have her back while Tatum was trying to take over the Christmas show?  Unasked and unanswered. Tatum apologizes at the end and Bridget agrees to go on a date with Drake. Yawn.

There were some casting problems in this. Brandon Quinn did not have the look of a morning tv host with his scruffy beard, rugged looks, and resting sad face. Also, I still haven’t forgiven him for being such a jerk in A Country Christmas Harmony. 70’s and 80’s TV sex symbol, actress and singer Audrey Landers played his mother. It was great to see her again and looking very young for her age to boot. Way too young to be playing Brandon Quinn’s mother. The two leads never seemed to forget they were pretending in front of a camera. Now Sarah Jane Morris was great as the villainess who turns out to be pretty OK at the end. She mastered her character’s frozen smile and outwardly friendly demeanor while raging and scheming on the inside. She was kind of scary, but nothing ever came of it.