Hallmark Movie Channel has finally broken out of the “small-town girl returns to the small town after not finding happiness in the big city and falls for small-town guy in the process” formula.
On tonight’s made-for-Hallmark movie, “Strawberry Summer,” the small town girl returns to the small town and falls (reluctantly) for the big-city guy who shows up in the small town. Talk about risk-taking TV!
For good measure, they’ve thrown in some “Glee”-type moments and some “American Idol” catchphrases.
On the good side, it isn’t set in a quaint New England fishing village.
This time, the small town is in northern California and the small-town girl is Beth Landon (as opposed to writer Beth Landman) and is played by Hallmark movie staple Julie Mond. See, Beth tried to make it as a singer in the big city (LA) but she fell like a “B” flat.
But now, she’s back and working as a high-school music teacher in her little hometown and is in charge of — yes! — the glee club.
It’s the town’s annual Strawberry Festival, and somehow or another, Beth has managed to get country singing sensation Jason Keith (not to be confused with country-music sensation Toby Keith) to perform.
Keith (Trevor Donovan, “90210”) is here because his manager wants him to rehab his disgruntled bad-boy image.
But, my! How can that happen when he’s hiding a giant secret? See, he’s disgruntled because he really didn’t grow up in Tennessee on a small horse farm but on the Upper West Side of Manhattan and, worse, went to private school.
At first, he’s a creep and won’t give the small-time strawberry growers the time of day, but — here’s the shock! — eventually he comes around and finds his true voice, as does the music teacher, and they fall in like.
“Strawberry Summer,” also starring classic TV stars Shelley Long as Beth’s mom and Cindy Williams as the family friend, is actually kind of charming and sweet.
The music’s pretty good and the songs co-composed by Donovan are nothing to be disgruntled about. Neither is his voice.