For a few years, there have been rumblings about GAC starting to go ultra-conservative on us. Then Candace Cameron Bure announced on social media that she hoped to "put the Christ back into Christmas" at her new home. Well, up till now, there has been little difference between GAC and Hallmark product (except Mike Lindell's My Pillow commercials, which run uncomfortably rampant on GAC), but this film will likely be remembered as the one that started the gears turning. Secular audiences will recognize an essentially Christian thread running through the plot, which is chiefly about a brother helping his sister return to God, and a discomfiting sense that everyone in the film's world shares the same faith. There are deep discussions of individuals' relationships with God, belief that we will all be reunited with our loved ones in the afterlife, dialogue like "It's not just sermons and bibles in there; we have fun!" and "Seeing God's light is one of God's greatest gifts." If this is merely one movie about devout Christians during the holiday season, that's valid enough; there's a place at the table for all faiths and belief systems. But if this is the shape of things to come at GAC, you can bet the channel will be as polarizing as the country it serves. The most telling shift is Bure herself. She was the good-time girl of Hallmark, but her singular glow is unmistakably dimmed here. Marc Blucas, another Hallmark mainstay, emerges charmingly unscathed, but Bure is definitely compromised. "Thank you for making Great American Family the fastest growing network," says the channel during its commercial breaks. "We love Christmas just like you, and our Christmas movies are made just for you." There was just enough inference in the voiceover artist that I instinctively understood that she was not talking about me.
Review of A Christmas... Present
