Hallmark movies are TV’s comfort food — they’re warm and familiar, go down easy, and always taste just like they did the last time. In many ways, Guiding Emily is another fluffy buttermilk biscuit of a movie … but with a dose of pepper this time.
What Is Guiding Emily About?
Based on Barbara Hinske’s series of novels by the same name, Guiding Emily stars Hallmark favorite Sarah Drew as Emily Main, a tech exec who, with her equally Type A fiancé (Toby Levins), loves indoor and outdoor climbing.
But, after a climbing accident costs Emily her sight, a guide dog named Garth (voiceover by Eric McCormack) comes into her life — along with Matthew (Antonio Cupo), a longtime friend and climbing instructor.
So, we have a romantic triangle and a talking dog (or, at least a dog whose inner thoughts we hear), which sounds cute as all get out, right? And it is.
But Guiding Emily also deals with some raw emotions, and that’s not something viewers always get in a comfort-food movie.
BTW, for my faith audience out there, religion of any sort is not part of Guiding Emily. She neither curses God nor prays. But, that may have not been a part of of the books, either.
Expanding the Range of the Comfort-Food Movie
Usually, films like this live in a narrow range — not too serious, not too dramatic, sexy but not too sexy, funny but not too funny. They’re the just-right porridge.
But as a writer, I’ve always thought that the porridge, like the buttermilk biscuit (I haven’t had breakfast yet, so forgive me), deserves a little something extra.
In my view, there’s no reason why these movies can’t go deeper, can’t offer a bite of something more substantial, perhaps even a little more real.
(And, dare I say it, actually put some Christ in their sparkly Christmas movies. I know, radical, right? But that’s another story, one I’ve already written.)
Don’t worry, Guiding Emily has all the squees and feels you expect — and a talking dog who may even see the future — but Emily’s fear and anger about losing her sight feel more true to life.
She’s a take-charge kind of woman who has to learn to let go and let herself be cared for and helped — and that’s not easy.
Sure, she goes through the stages of grief at her mother’s beautiful seaside home, and she has the most supportive colleagues in the world, and the way that she and Garth skip the normal guide-dog procedures and come together is pure storybook.
This is still a Hallmark movie, after all.
But there are moments that sting, there’s deep disappointment and even depression. Drew does a great job at conveying all of that.
Guiding Emily is able to do all this because it premiered on Sept. 9 on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, whose productions are not as dusted in powdered sugar as on the regular Hallmark Channel.
After all, HM&M does have mysteries, and therefore (non-gory) murder, in the classic cozy-mystery style.
Serving that (Large and Lucrative) Underserved Audience
This isn’t the first time a Hallmark movie has touched on real emotions and serious subjects and added some grit (as I’m sure loyal Hallmark watchers are yelling at the screen right now).
But, as Hallmark, and its competitors in the space, such as UPtv and the newer Great American Family, ponder their futures, a balance needs to be struck.
There will always be a place for fluff and frothy romance, but dessert doesn’t make a meal.
At the same time, what’s being served up by most mainstream media these days may please creatives, executives and a variety of pressure groups, but increasingly, it doesn’t please the audience — which is the ultimate arbiter of success.
And it sure doesn’t please Hallmark’s viewers.
Hallmark’s channels appeal to a huge, underserved audience that is largely, but by no means exclusively, female (yeah, I know a lot of men who watch, too) and Christian (with all the variations that occur within that).
These viewers are hungry for fun and romance but also real stories, told in a way that doesn’t assault their senses, outrage their beliefs, or insult their way of life directly.
These folks live in all parts of the country, come from every ethnic group and level of society, and are happy to support programming (and sponsors) that seem to like and respect them.
And, if showbiz folks are willing to produce for them, they will come.
Can You Still See Guiding Emily?
If you missed the premiere of Guiding Emily, you can catch it this weekend on demand on Peacock, or check the HM&M listings for repeat airings (like the next one, on Sunday, Sept. 10, at 7 p.m. ET).
And if you want to learn more about guide dogs for the visually impaired, or how you can be a puppy-raiser for one of these organizations, click here or here or here.
Image: (L-R) Antonio Cupo, Owen the dog, Sarah Drew in ‘Guiding Emily’/©2023 Hallmark Media/Photographer: Allister Foster
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