TV returns to Mayberry with Hallmark Channel’s Cedar Cove

[truebluefan]

Andie MacDowell and Teryl Rothery in the Hallmark Channel's Cedar Cove.

In the British Columbia-filmed Cedar Cove there are no vampires or zombies.

Middle-aged cast members look like they have been costumed in soothing pastel hues by Reitmans. And the cinematography is nothing if not pastoral, accompanied by sweetly cloying background music.

You might be forgiven for thinking you have stumbled on to the Fireplace channel. But the series starring Andie MacDowell, which airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on W, is actually something of a landmark in television.

First of all, it is the Hallmark Channel’s first prime-time scripted series, once again showing the blurring of lines between broadcasters as niche specialty channels move further into the domain of the legacy networks.

It is also a demarcation point in a long-in-the-tooth television cycle that has been saturated by netherworld creatures, overt sexuality and things that blow up. And viewers who like their television decaffeinated are responding in droves, proving this is no fluke, that there is room for alternative television for grown-ups.

Read more http://www.thestar.com/entertainmen...yberry_with_hallmark_channels_cedar_cove.html