Hallmark’s ‘When Calls the Heart’ too predictable
Hallmark Channel’s second original series, “When Calls the Heart” (8 p.m. Saturday), returns for its second season with a two-hour premiere that’s just right for viewers who complain about too much sex and violence on TV.
And there’s something to be said for sweet, innocent TV programming in a 500-channel universe, but watching “When Calls the Heart” also makes one wish such programming could be smarter and less predictable.
Set in 1910, the series follows schoolteacher Elizabeth Thatcher (Erin Krakow, “Army Wives”) in Western Canada’s Coal Valley, where she’s begun a tentative, glacially paced romance with Mountie Jack Thornton (Daniel Lissing, “Last Resort”). Much is made of their one kiss in the season premiere.
“That was the best kiss I’ve ever had,” Jack declares.
“Wait, how many women have you kissed?” Elizabeth asks.
“Not too many,” Jack says, “five, maybe.”
Elizabeth reacts with openmouthed, abject horror.
Based on a book series by author Janette Oke, “When Calls the Heart” continues its serialized story about a trial over a mine explosion that killed the husband of town cafe owner Abigail Stanton (Lori Loughlin, “Full House”), who had eyes for forensic investigator Mountie Bill Avery (Jack Wagner, “Melrose Place”) until she learned he was married. (This is as scandalous as “When Calls the Heart,” gets and by the end of the season premiere it’s even less sensational than it sounds.)
The series doesn’t seem to try to fit its time period all that much — the font used in the sign on Abigail’s Cafe looks particularly anachronistic — and attempts to introduce modern ideas (a female attorney!) are met with almost comically unsubtle jaw-dropping from the town’s women.
There’s nothing wrong with making a sweet-natured, retrograde, family-friendly series, but “When Calls the Heart” is frustratingly obvious. There’s an element to the mine explosion trial that any sentient viewer will spot coming way before the characters, which just makes the show’s characters seem hopelessly dim. That’s not an attractive quality whether a TV series is cutting-edge raw or the TV equivalent of comfort food.