“I’m the new kid of Hallmark, and I do feel the sense of family,” Aimee Garcia said during a Hallmark Mystery press conference at the TCA Winter Press Tour. The majority of the panelists were familiar faces to Hallmark viewers, with multiple credits to their names. But The Cases of Mystery Lane is Aimee’s Hallmark debut, playing Birdie Case. “I think Hallmark’s superpower is feel-good, and I think the world needs that right now.”
(Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Hallmark Media)
Playing opposite Aimee Garcia is a familiar Hallmark face, Paul Campbell, who began the panel incognito, wearing a hat and a fake mustache, going by the name “Saul Campbell” until his true identity was revealed. “Whether it’s mystery, whether it’s drama, whether it’s Christmas, or whatever, there is a consistent tone, there’s a consistent feeling,” Paul agreed about the films he’s made for Hallmark. “There’s heart, and there’s humor that’s consistent throughout all of the programming. So even when you’re doing silly things, and you’re in disguise, and you’re running away from bad guys, at the end of the day, there is still that Hallmark feeling that’s consistent throughout. You’re just not wearing coats in 110-degree weather” (most holiday movies are filmed at least six months prior, meaning Christmas movies are often filmed in the height of summer).
The Cases of Mystery Lane follows a married couple, Alden and Birdie Case. “What I love about this movie is that it's re-falling in love with someone that you're already with, rediscovering someone that you brush your teeth with, and spend so much time with,” Aimee Garcia shared about starting with this unique dynamic. “And so, even though they're polar opposites, yin and yang, they've been together for years. They have no hobbies together except for murder…”
“…Solving,” Paul Campbell completed the thought. “When you find people deep into a marriage at a crossroads and having drifted apart, there is a sense of this renewed flirtation when you come back together. And I can brag about Aimee for a second, one of the things that makes her such a great actor, one of the choices she made very early on with these characters because they are so vastly different, was to celebrate those differences. Where the differences can often be the divide between people, she chose as a character to love Alden in those moments, to celebrate him. And instead of it becoming a divide, it became the connective tissue. She would love and enjoy him in his quirkiness and in his difference. It allows people to be authentic in the relationship because they can be authentically themselves. So it’s this really fun dynamic of two people who know each other intimately, but are also rediscovering people for the first time.”
(Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for Hallmark Media)
Based on the success of early previews, The Cases of Mystery Lane has already been given the green light for a sequel, The Cases of Mystery Lane: Death is Listening. “We always look at these franchises as potential series, and we always look at the characters and see what their relationships look like, how can we develop them, how can we put that romance into these movies, as well, and how do we do that push/pull relationship and that slow burn,” explained Elizabeth Yost, SVP of Development for Hallmark Media. “Not only is there a mystery but underneath it, there's very deep character layers that go on through the episode. And coming up in 2024, we're looking to not only increase those character developments, but we've been adding more comedy and more action and more intrigue and suspense to all of the movies.”
Don’t miss the first installment of The Cases of Mystery Land, premiering Friday, March 22nd, at 9/8c on Hallmark Mystery. The film will be streaming soon on Hallmark Movies Now, playing on-demand through cable providers, and coming to streaming platforms with a Hallmark partnership like Peacock and Hulu.