Sadly, barring any miraculous developments, seasons of When Calls the Heart are no longer eligible to receive full reviews. However, this does not prevent us from sounding off on this waning phenomenon of a series. In our viewing, Seasons 7 and 8 ran together due to similar themes and circular subplots. Production, acting, and continuity were much the same in both seasons, so there’s nothing pertinent to discuss except for the continual absurdly of the storyline.
Despite some slightly interesting narratives that had potential, such as the new pastor and his family, most meaning is quickly discarded by the writers in favor of WCTH’s usual brand of sappiness. Nonetheless, there are moments when the sappiness is turned down, even when it comes to Rosemary’s character, in favor of standardly boring drama. Silly, childish conflicts continually take precedence over meaningful plot developments, and mindless conversations are the order of the day. As a result, the characters remain as static as ever, going nowhere on a treadmill of romance.
Did I mention the 438298203 romantic subplots that are found in these two seasons? The doctor and Nurse Carter (before the doctor leaves due to being too expensive of a cast member). Jesse and Clara (with their ridiculous forced dramas). The switchboard woman and the post office guy. The notoriously overlooked Hickam and that new “trendy” strong female character. Stock Lee and Boring Rosemary. Old Bill and some random woman? This is all without mentioning Elizabeth’s nauseating love triangle with the saloon guy and that Mountie from Heartland, which eventually leads to Elizabeth and the saloon guy (for now) and Nurse Carter and the Mountie (maybe).
As the town struggles with first-world problems that you might find inside a dollhouse, the series’ main character (?), Elizabeth, trying to fill the “huge” gap left by the Hallmark-banned Lori Loughlin, is tossed around at the writers’ whims, making random decisions for no reason. She likes the Mountie. She likes the saloon guy. She hates the Mountie. She hates the saloon guy. And on and on and on and on…
Why are we supposed to care about these characters anymore? What are the stakes? What are we supposed to learn? What’s the point? Can Michael Landon Jr. get anymore mileage out of his patented Young Widow Romance Cycle? Is this still a Christian series? Why do I watch it? When will Hallmark finally cancel it? What does Janette Oke really think about this stupidity? How many Hearties will hate this post? Does anybody care about WCTH anymore?
In all seriousness, by reducing the sappiness of the series, the WCTH team might be slowly isolating their own audience. The writers had already painted themselves into a corner, but when the niche WCTH audience isn’t satisfied, will they continue to reward the writers? How many seasons can this series realistically sustain before sagging ratings displease Hallmark’s advertisers, forcing the network to cancel? Do people really want to see this same stuff over and over again?
I supposed that only time will tell as we forge ahead into another ridiculous season.
And once again we return to the fake small town known as Hope Valley for another fruitless season of people living in the dream world crafted by the series creators. Hardly anybody remembers Jack the Mountie anymore except for the fact that he and Elizabeth were married long enough to produce an instant child who’s coincidentally named after him. While Daniel Lissing willingly left the show, which was last season’s biggest news, Lori Loughlin was literally handcuffed, removed, and totally scrubbed from the show. The shadow of her scandal looms over the sixth season, especially with how Hallmark mishandled the whole ordeal and drew unnecessary attention to the problems. As a whole, Abigail’s awkward exit from the show and the subsequent complete rewrite of the show is the most interesting things that happened, but why are we not surprised? Michael Landon Jr. always planned to subject Erin Krakow to his favorite young-widow-starts-sort-of-dating-again treatment as he alwayshas, so there’s nothing left to do but once again point out the same old flaws this series commits and count down the minutes for the Hearties to descend on my little blog post to vehemently defend all things wholesome in the face of such heartless (lol) criticism.
Production Quality (2 points) What’s a Hallmark production without the same carbon-copy lineup of good camera work and video quality, acceptable audio quality, and that predictable, nauseatingly bubbly soundtrack? When Calls the Heart part VI checks all the proverbial boxes in this category, and it’s getting very difficult to differentiate any of the seasons from each other (except for the firsttwo). Hope Valley still consists of the same old sets, locations, and props that are no doubt re-purposed for other Hallmark productions and are designed to make the audience believe this is a real Western town. Also, there’s still that tiny forest area Bill goes to dramatically reveal another part of his vastly complex yet noticeably cagey backstory. The only complaint for this section (besides their doing the same thing with no noticeable changes or improvements) is that we still don’t have a set for the beauty salon where the female characters get their hair done (although we might have gotten a quick glimpse at it in the finale).
Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points) As we’ve said before, ever Hamilton took over Hope Valley, nothing has ever been the same. We just get the same old helium-infused characters spinning in circles as they retrace old plots steps over and over again. The only chances we have to get outside of the Hope Valley crossroads are Bill’s forest trips to tell us another part of his ever-fluctuating history, but now that we have a new Mountie, I guess we’ll have some trips to that bridge or something. Elsewhere, Elizabeth keeps us wondering why she’s even still in the series as her heart (lol) is passed around like a football and only exists for Michael Landon Jr. and company to continue their fetish of pairing a woman with a law enforcement character just long enough for her to get pregnant before killing said man near the end of the movie\series or even in between installments. Seriously, how is Elizabeth and Lucas vs Nathan any different from Charles vs Jack (except that Marcus Rosner was an essential addition to the show yet was stolen from us)? Elsewhere, the town is littered with many empty-minded side romances that they desperately want us to care about (although Aren Buchholz is quickly becoming one of the most important aspects of the entire series). Even Rosemary is losing her luster as a satirical comic relief who reminds us how un-serious the whole ordeal is as the writers are muting her character to go all dark and brooding because of [WHOOPS SPOILER]. And then there’s that whole situation with Abigail. Ironically, just before Lori Loughlin was led away by the police, her character made a hilariously funny reference to how Bill needed to bring some random bad guy to justice, and this is definitely the defining moment of the entire season. Loughlin’s scandalous shadow looms large over the poor town; even after the writers awkwardly tried to erase her from the universe’s memories, everything was clunky following the hiatus. Subplots awkwardly start and stop with no real conclusions. Scenes between Elizabeth and Lucas seem directly copied from Beauty and the Beast (yes, he gave her a library). Gowen is as uneven as ever (seriously, what do the writers expect from him at this point?). They all seem lost without Abigail to guide them in their everyday lives, but alas, she and Cody (awwww he left too!) has bigger fish to fry in court “back east.” Thus, with nothing really new to say here besides the same garbage we’ve seen from the pasttwo indiscernible seasons, Hearties only have this incoherent stream of consciousness to parse through as they rush from Facebook to “own” the author of this post with zingers better suited for a clickbait news site.
Acting Quality (0 points) For the most part, the acting of this season is as sappy as ever, but there are a handful of instances, especially near the end, that feel very muted and more scripted than usual. This is no doubt that this is due to some of the redone footage after Loughlin’s untimely exit, and the cast members were likely just emotionally distraught over her absence. Overall, there’s really nothing new to write home about (although Elizabeth does quite a bit of writing these days), and this section is award no points because we expect better than this after six seasons.
Continuity Quality(0 points) As previously mentioned, some of this season’s subplots seem to disappear from the writing with no warning, which is a likely byproduct of the rework done following Loughlin’s arrest. Otherwise, it’s just typical plug and play romances as the writers introduce one after another to the point where you can’t hardly tell the different between them. Also, as a side note, at least a third of the subplots in season six relate in some way to the upcoming summer spinoff show When Hope Calls, which is possibly where many characters will escape to once When Calls the Heart finally runs out of steam.
Conclusion
Oh yeah, so there’s a seventh season coming up. MLJ has at least two more seasons to use Elizabeth’s indecisiveness and lack of personality as a carrot to dangle in front of his rabid fans, but sooner or later, they’ll get tired of this song and dance. With Loughlin’s scandal-ridden exit, this series is already running on fumes and has only been sustained by constant romance bait-and-switch. I mean, is anybody the least bit annoyed with how they treat Elizabeth? Anyhow, this has been another WCTH review from your favorite reviewer in which I didn’t talk about much substantial and just sort of rambled on about random things I thought of while I binge-watched this season. Begin commenting now……………………….
Box Office Revolution 