In the quaint hamlet of Fletcher’s Grove, it is perpetually early winter. There’s always snow on the ground, twinkling lights festoon storefronts, and chunky knits and puffer coats are practically the town uniform.
And then the director yells “cut” on the scene and the reality of shooting a Hallmark series in southern Ontario in the summer rushes back.
“It was so much more brutal in Season 1, when we were out on that back lot in probably one of the worst heat waves you guys have had in a long time,” says Sarah Drew, one of the stars of “Mistletoe Murders,” a festive cosy crime Hallmark series in which Peterborough, Ont., in June stands in for upstate New York in December.
“I had moments of feeling like, I’m not sure I know what I’m supposed to say next because my body is really just trying to stay conscious.”
Her Canadian co-star Peter Mooney — the town cop to her Christmas store owner with a murky past — paid tribute to her seasonal method acting, however.
“Sarah is so good. When it’s 36 degrees with the humidity, we’ll walk out (on set) with no air conditioning in the sun, and she’ll shiver and pull her coat up,” said Mooney. “That’s acting, baby.”
The show is back for a second season and was filmed in more temperate April and May. As someone who’s been around the block a few times in this business — she spent nearly a decade on “Grey’s Anatomy” as Dr. April Kepner — Drew says she’s learned not to take it for granted that a show will continue.
“I don’t believe anything until I’m on set shooting. There were rumours that it was doing well and people liked it, but we didn’t get the official word that we were greenlit for Season 2 until December,” she said.
“And then I still didn’t believe it until I had the official paperwork. I’ve just been burned too many times in this industry.”
Mooney added that it’s especially great to return to a show that’s been so much fun to make.
“It’s lucky when something people want more of is something you want to make more of,” he said. “I love our little fictional town, even though the murder rate is atrocious and that probably reflects badly on me as a detective.”
“Mistletoe Murders” is part of a thriving ecosystem of feel-good holiday content, which despite relying on predictable tropes and clichés so ubiquitous people play Hallmark bingo, only seems to get more popular each year.
“It’s such a messy, disorienting, frightening time right now and finding comfort is even more important,” theorized Mooney. “And then for me, my personal taste is finding that comfort and messing it up a little.”
Case in point: he just had a “Home Alone” marathon with his daughter.
“They’re such amazing Christmas movies, even though it’s about a home invasion and an abandoned child,” he said. “And you find that little bit of danger and mess in our show, but we also still manage to have that warmth and familiarity. For me, that’s the best of both worlds.”
Drew added that they recently went to Nashville for Hallmark’s big “Countdown to Christmas” event and stopped by the children’s hospital as part of that. There, patients and staff alike told her that the Hallmark channel was playing in “99 per cent” of the rooms.
“Everything is in limbo, everything is uncertain all the time. They don’t know what’s going to happen, if everything is going to be OK,” Drew said. “A tremendous salve to that pain and limbo is watching a movie where you know that, in the end, everything will be made right.”
“Mistletoe Murders,” which layers on the satisfying resolution of a crime in each episode, dials up that sense of order in a chaotic world.
“You start in a place of brokenness, you take a journey and you get to a place where the bad guys get it in the end,” Drew said. “And in a world where justice is not always served, and wrongs are not always made right, we love the aspirational hope and joy of seeing a world where good wins.”
Season 2 of “Mistletoe Murders” debuts Nov. 7 at 8 p.m. on W Network and StackTV, with new episodes every Friday.
