Straight out of the Playbook but not Bad at All.

**spoilers**

This was based on one of the most frequently used Hallmark cliches: A bright and ambitious young city girl goes back to her hometown to accomplish a task for a demanding (female) boss that will ensure the future of her career.  Her lost childhood/teenage love who is still in town is somehow the key to her professional success. We are not spared her reconnecting with beloved loved ones, usually a grandma, grandpa, or other relative, whom for some reason, even though they are “beloved”,  she hasn’t seen for 10 (or 20) years. This time it’s her old best friend from whom she was inseparable until her wedding to another best friend. Just so the viewers know we are not straying outside the box in any way whatsoever, we also have a save the beloved local iconic historical something or other from the big bad multinational development company subplot thrown into the mix. In this iteration, Amelia is a bright and talented music scout (producer? agent?) who wants to sign an under-the-radar indie band from her hometown on the Outer Banks, NC which has now sprouted mountains in the distance because it’s filmed in Canada. Yes, North Carolina does have mountains, but not there. She loves their sound and they have started to develop a large following. And you won’t believe this, but that old boyfriend? He is the lead singer and leader of the band. She doesn’t know this in advance because she mysteriously does not recognize his voice even though her ear for music is almost legendary.

But somehow it worked and I didn’t hate it. Holland Roden was fine as the female lead, Amelia,  and had the advantage of being someone new to Hallmark. She was very pretty. Corey Cott was more than fine as the male lead. He made a believable indie rock star on the rise, as he had the look and was talented with an excellent singing voice. He was very endearing in his love for Amelia. Her always interrupting their intimate moments by answering her phone no matter what didn’t seem to faze him at all! There was one part near the end when I just wanted to bonk her over the head.

Amelia’s boss Lydia and her ex-husband and now rival added some interest to the very basic and predictable plot as well. Unfortunately, it was by virtue of the fact that I  started to “Love to Hate” them both very early on.  I think Lydia was meant to be  tough but kind of quirky and funny in her “over-the-top-ness.” But her bad behavior was just irritating to me. The ex was pompous and arrogant, and I was looking forward to him losing the race to sign the band to the not-so-good “good guys.” I was kind of upset when Lydia turned out to be just as bad as her ex. Worse, really. Because her plans for the group and lies to Amelia were such a betrayal. She was unrepentant and unrehabilitated, so it did pave the way for Amelia to quit and start her own record label. Which will nurture young artists and help them be “their best selves” instead of making lots of lovely money touring and catering to the masses. Eye-roll. Lydia’s expression of shock when Amelia quit was a highlight, however. The actress was good. (Marci T. House.)

It was refreshing that the big bad development company that was buying up land and popular unspoiled local venues in the area turned out to be not so bad after all. Amelia’s friend accepts their generous offer to buy her and her husband’s Inn, which frees them from all of the financial stress and getting up early that they had been burdened with. And her husband lovingly saved their seaside cottage for her. That made me happy.  The money enabled her and Amelia to partner up to form their above-mentioned own label and sign the soon-to-be break-out group plus another one.  That whole scenario was straight out of fantasy land, of course. One of those naive Hallmark business enterprises that does not bear looking at too closely, or closely at all. Heck, just don’t even think about it.

Despite all of the quibbles, it was quite watchable and very summery.