Comparing Mayim Bialik and Candace Cameron Bure's Cancelled-Flight Christmas Movies
We all know a favorite trope of the holiday TV movie genre is having a workaholic city girl visit a small town during December (for business or returning home after she’s lost her job) and realize she needs to embrace life with whatever handsome man she falls in love with there. In that respect, Lifetime’s The Flight Before Christmas (premiering Saturday at 8 p.m.) and Hallmark Channel’s A Christmas Detour (repeating Friday at 10 p.m.) are novel: Both center on busy professional woman — Mayim Bialik’s marketing exec and Candace Cameron Bure’s feature writer for Radiant Bride magazine, respectively — who return to their jobs in Los Angeles when the movies end. But that doesn’t mean the enjoyable films — which each begin with that woman seated next to a man she initially dislikes on a flight from LAX that gets rerouted due to a sudden storm — are cliché-free. Let’s take a closer look.
Related: Ranking Hallmark’s 2015 Christmas Movies (So Far)
#1: One person is about to get married while the other person has sworn off love.
The Flight Before Christmas: Ryan McPartlin’s Michael is thinking about proposing to his girlfriend of five years when he gets to Boston, but Bialik’s Stephanie has just been dumped by the boyfriend she was supposed to move in with over the holidays.
A Christmas Detour: Cameron Bure’s Paige is on her way to meet her fiancé’s parents for the first time in the Hamptons so they can plan their June wedding, while Paul Greene’s Dylan no longer believes in soulmates after his “one” turned out to be made for his brother instead.
Having one person be anti-love at the start helps the audience buy that whatever connection is about to be made in such a short amount of time is real and not just physical. Although…
#2: Someone’s going to get caught almost naked.
The Flight Before Christmas: When Stephanie and Michael get stranded in Bozeman, Montana, they end up sharing the last available room at The Inn at Charles Peak. McPartlin, aka Chuck’s Mr. Awesome, surprises Stephanie by exiting the bathroom wearing a towel after a shower, and we thank him.
A Christmas Detour: When Paige and Dylan get stranded in Buffalo, they get placed in adjoining rooms at an airport hotel. When she knocks on their shared door to ask him to turn down his TV, she’s surprised to find him wearing a bathrobe. Soaking in a warm tub is the first thing he likes to do after getting off a plane. Fair enough.
#3: This town is so festive.
The Flight Before Christmas: Bozeman is having its 101st annual Christmas Eve Fair, where Stephanie proves she has a better throwing arm than Michael. See the size of their prizes.
A Christmas Detour: After Dylan rents the last four-wheel drive vehicle in Buffalo, he crashes it outside Christmasville. While it’s repaired, they get to walk through downtown’s quaint winter wonderland, complete with Mistletoe Junction and chestnuts roasting on an open fire.
#4: There’s dancing, and almost a kiss.
The Flight Before Christmas: Oops, Stephanie’s unstable on her stilettos at the barn dance. (Psst, in case you forgot they’re in Montana, everyone’s wearing cowboy hats to remind you.)
A Christmas Detour: Paige finds the dance floor at Dasher’s Dine & Pub a little too romantic.
#5: It takes them forever to figure out what the audience knows instantly.
The Flight Before Christmas: Worse than the girlfriend who makes Michael do all the flying in their long-distance relationship telling him what tie to not wear and that they’re hanging out with her friends as soon as he lands, SHE NEVER LETS HIM EAT FLAPJACKS. Stephanie, however, pours the syrup on for him. Plus, she actually likes L.A. — they’ve found the same hiking trail and East Coast-style pub.
In all seriousness, this movie spends a commendable amount of time discussing what makes a relationship healthy. While commitment, patience, and compromise are virtues, of course, it’s when you find someone who allows you to be yourself, enjoys life in the same way, and makes you feel comfortable enough to have a disagreement. As Reginald VelJohnson, who reunites with his Family Matters costar Jo Marie Payton to play the innkeepers, says in the film, “Loyalty is important. It’s honorable. But it’s not the same thing as faith. And it is definitely not the same thing as love.“
A Christmas Detour: Worse than Paige’s fiancé telling her they’ll have to postpone their wedding for a year if his snooty parents can’t meet her before their post-Christmas trip around the world, HE’S NEVER MADE HER LAUGH. “Must have a good sense of humor” is the only box he doesn’t check on her handwritten list of “75 Traits of the Perfect Man.” Dylan, on the other hand, makes her snort — and he thinks the sound is adorable. That man is a keeper.
Plus, that man doesn’t consider it a deal-breaker that she lugged her vision board on a cross-country holiday flight instead of taking photos of it on her phone like a sane person.
The Flight Before Christmas premieres Dec. 5 at 8 p.m. on Lifetime. A Christmas Detour repeats Dec. 4 at 10 p.m. on Hallmark Channel.
