This had potential, with a female mechanic and ex boyfriend mechanic-turned-business exec. It started out well - loved the shots of Detroit - but not sure where this was supposed to take place because it certainly wasn't anywhere in Michigan.
It was disappointing because I couldn't get invested in either lead character. There simply was not enough back story in the beginning to get me invested in their history together or in either one of them. Tyler Hines is probably my favorite Hallmark player - he can make even the worst actress look good, but some of his characters as of late, have been awful. He has been playing too many of these passive overly sensitive, self-doubting characters lately. Katherine Barrel's character was just as insecure and self-doubting. By the time they each goiter it together at rhe end, I was just waiting to see how it ended.
Jess kept telling Luke she couldn't do the car competition without him, but there was so little interaction between them during the actual competition, that I couldn't figure out what she needed him for. They worked together in the second round of competition for a 5-minute scene, then he "accidently" messed up the paint job on the car she was working on in the finale - she certainly didn't need him to help with that. All their interactions otherwise were chance meetings and an occasional walk down memory lane - which those could have helped to move the relationship forward, but felt like filler. They were meant to show a history between the two characters, but were so random that I found them confusing and not very helpful to the plot. Even their big conversation about past dating experiences was so superficial and vague that we learned nothing about either one of them and it does nothing to forward the plot. There was no development of the other characters either.
I felt this story had bland characters, they didn't have much chemistry together, and the story dragged. There should have been a lot more focus and time spent on the competition and more scenes of them actually working together. When the shows host says they make a good team, I couldn't figure out how he came to that conclusion from one 5-minute round where they fixed some headlights - and they didn't even do it "together". For the fact the car competition takes up 2/3 of the show there was little showing of the classic cars, little showing of the competition, and little showing of the actual restorations. I would have liked a full 360 view of her amazing paint job that won her the competition at the end - all we got was a quick glance at one quarter panel.
This was a one-time watch for me. I hope next time Hallmark does a car-focused plot, that there is a focus on some of the cars and some character development to get me invested.
It was disappointing because I couldn't get invested in either lead character. There simply was not enough back story in the beginning to get me invested in their history together or in either one of them. Tyler Hines is probably my favorite Hallmark player - he can make even the worst actress look good, but some of his characters as of late, have been awful. He has been playing too many of these passive overly sensitive, self-doubting characters lately. Katherine Barrel's character was just as insecure and self-doubting. By the time they each goiter it together at rhe end, I was just waiting to see how it ended.
Jess kept telling Luke she couldn't do the car competition without him, but there was so little interaction between them during the actual competition, that I couldn't figure out what she needed him for. They worked together in the second round of competition for a 5-minute scene, then he "accidently" messed up the paint job on the car she was working on in the finale - she certainly didn't need him to help with that. All their interactions otherwise were chance meetings and an occasional walk down memory lane - which those could have helped to move the relationship forward, but felt like filler. They were meant to show a history between the two characters, but were so random that I found them confusing and not very helpful to the plot. Even their big conversation about past dating experiences was so superficial and vague that we learned nothing about either one of them and it does nothing to forward the plot. There was no development of the other characters either.
I felt this story had bland characters, they didn't have much chemistry together, and the story dragged. There should have been a lot more focus and time spent on the competition and more scenes of them actually working together. When the shows host says they make a good team, I couldn't figure out how he came to that conclusion from one 5-minute round where they fixed some headlights - and they didn't even do it "together". For the fact the car competition takes up 2/3 of the show there was little showing of the classic cars, little showing of the competition, and little showing of the actual restorations. I would have liked a full 360 view of her amazing paint job that won her the competition at the end - all we got was a quick glance at one quarter panel.
This was a one-time watch for me. I hope next time Hallmark does a car-focused plot, that there is a focus on some of the cars and some character development to get me invested.