HallmarkIf your parents ever told you doing something you hate would have its positives, they were clearly prepping you for the latest episodes of The Way Home Season 3.
We’d all need a stiff drink and the whole of March for me to write out everything going on in The Way Home. In fact, I wouldn’t have enough room here to actually say what I want to. Since January, Ponderers have been taken on Hallmark’s biggest rollercoaster ride to date, basically revealing nobody is who they say they are.
In short, it’s not worth trusting much of anything we’ve seen over the first eight episodes, and that’s frustrating. Showrunners have thrown everything and the kitchen sink into Season 3, and it’s all a bit too much to bear. But I’ve had my time complaining about the show’s shortcomings, and I won’t go there again. I’ve got too much respect for your time.
Instead, there’s been a light at the end of the fictional tunnel. Huzzah! Well, not quite. It comes from an unlikely narrative hero that, in any other situation, we’d punch a baby to avoid. But stranger things have happened in Port Haven than getting us to appreciate something we’d normally hate.
The Way Home Season 3 is a musical fest, and that’s a good thing
HallmarkIf you’ve watched The Way Home Season 3 Episodes 7 and 8, you’ll notice they have something in common other than fantasy family trauma. They’ve both featured musical numbers – one duet by Kat and Elliot, another by Colton and Alice. In all honesty, they’ve been the saving grace of the season so far, and that’s saying something.
Despite the success of musicals like Wicked and Mufasa: The Lion King people don’t typically like being sang at. According to IMDB, musicals now make up less than 1% of films per decade, with Kaggle confirming these few bites of the apple don’t make as much dosh as they used to. Some are now purposefully misdirecting their marketing to hide their musical theater soundtrack (the Mean Girls reboot and Wonka, for example),
TV shows with a random musical episode are much more polarizing. I’m sure we can all remember the cultural impact of something like Glee (and have the tacky merch to prove it), but neither I nor the fandom have ever gotten over Grey’s Anatomy chucking one in when Callie had a car crash. It’s a tightrope you have to tread carefully.
So how on Earth is The Way Home making it work for them? The answer is simple: everything surrounding it isn’t great, meaning time spent on genuinely talented singers can only be a good thing. Alongside a barrage of plots we’re getting frustrated with, other parts of the show aren’t exactly wowing us all the time (ahem, the acting). I think that’s fair criticism… this is Hallmark, after all.
Episode 1 kicked us off with our musical connection to the past in the form of the 1974 timeline, Jimmy’s record shop, and a mysterious recording that had Alice’s voice on it. Tick. The Episode 8 duet goes on to explain how that happened. Another tick. Both the original song and the vocals are incredibly emotive and stunning, even to a non-American Idol judge like me. The hattrick.
It even brought Kat and Elliot closer together for a brief second in Episode 7 before their relationship blew up thanks to a man in a blouse from 1816. In a way, this ridiculous love triangle sums up why the musical angle works in a nutshell.
For a brief moment in time, we’re no longer looking for clues or getting confused; we’re just enjoying a beautiful story. A beautiful, strange, in any other circumstance, not viable story. Isn’t that what the essence of Hallmark is supposed to be?
The Way Home Season 3 is currently airing on the Hallmark Channel. Catch up with Jacob’s return, mystery couple theories, the best Hallmark movies, and best Hallmark TV shows of all time.
