Pour The Wine, It's Rom-Com Time

Hallmark’s Return to Office

• Garry & Amy

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Tune in as we pour the wine and discuss Return to Office, a story about what happens when two coworkers, who only know each other by their weekday nicknames, start crafting a connection through creative methods. We're all about the You've Got Mail vibes in this one! 


Music from #Uppbeat

https://uppbeat.io/t/abbynoise/mood-of-summer

Amy:

Welcome to Pour the Wine. It's rom-com time where we'll sip some wine and review all things rom-com on the Hallmark Channel. I'm Amy. And I'm Gary, all right, before we get started, are you going to pour the wine?

Garry:

I'm on it, let's do it.

Amy:

We are pouring a cab salve, as per usual. One day we're going to change it up.

Garry:

I still say no.

Amy:

We will change it up. Well, we just had Valentine's Day a few days ago.

Garry:

Yes, we did. So how do you think it went? I thought it went well. What do you think?

Amy:

I think it went well. We're pretty chill. Yeah, we just have dinner at home. We have steaks and wine.

Garry:

Steak and wine. Steak and wine. You can't go wrong with that, people, can you?

Amy:

And I think that's when we started to watch Holidays.

Garry:

Yeah, that's pretty good.

Amy:

We finally dove into that. I'm really digging it. We're on episode seven now.

Garry:

I know we like binged it for real.

Amy:

Yeah, and we do. You know, here's a confession we love, love, love Christmas.

Garry:

Yes, all things Christmas.

Amy:

And we will watch anything Christmas, any time of the year. Yeah, just ask the kids. You're probably going to hear us reference that, no matter what time of year it is. That is true, we also started Small Town Setup with Ashley Williams.

Garry:

Yeah, it's kind of a really cool concept.

Amy:

I thought so. I mean, when you look at it, there have been a ton of what reality dating shows and this is kind of a cute concept where Ashley Williams goes into these towns and she meets with parents who want to set their kids up.

Garry:

Do you really think you should let your parents set you up? That's asking for something.

Amy:

Sometimes parents know best, sometimes they do. I know our kids don't believe that, but sometimes they do. But yeah, so then they have the members of the town into like a town hall so to speak and they nominate people to go on these dates and then they're narrowed down to the top three.

Garry:

And then.

Amy:

So the town and the parents sort of pick the top three dates for their daughter, and then the daughter in that first episode her name is Victoria. She goes on the three dates.

Garry:

Yeah, and it's kind of weird because the town gets to watch it live.

Amy:

That's pretty crazy. That would be very intimidating, I think, nerve wracking for the family and for the couple who are going? On the date to know that people are watching you live. It'd freak me out too much. I don't know.

Garry:

Yeah.

Amy:

But she handled it really well and in the end it was really cute. So then, towards the end, the town votes on who they think she should pick, based on the dates that they saw.

Garry:

Right.

Amy:

And the parents also vote. And then they had Victoria say who she actually picked out of the three.

Garry:

Yeah, and the parents actually picked who she picked.

Amy:

So I guess they knew their daughter. Yes, yes, they did.

Garry:

The only thing I wish they would have added to it is at the end maybe do like four months later.

Amy:

I think that'd be great.

Garry:

To tell us whether or not they're still together, or did she go back to New York?

Amy:

Maybe at the end of the season they'll they do some sort of wrap up. It just started in. I think it dropped in January. It's a brand new series. So, we'll have to watch the rest of the episodes and see Well let's hope so.

Garry:

Let's hope so. Shall we dive into our review.

Amy:

I think it's time.

Garry:

Let's go for it, okay. So today we're reviewing Return to Office that aired on the Hallmark Channel Saturday February 15th 2025, and is now streaming on Hallmark Plus. This is the third of four all new movies as part of Hallmark Channel's Love you, mary.

Amy:

Love you, mary. Such good timing, since we just had Valentine's.

Garry:

Day yeah. So how about you drop the synopsis?

Amy:

All righty, here we go. After making the return to office on a hybrid schedule, two co-workers, known to each other only as Ms Monday and Mr Tuesday, start sending friendly notes spark and office romance. Janelle Parrish plays Liv, and we loved her in Sugar Plum last Christmas season in 2024. That was such a cute. It was a self-owned movie, but in the best way.

Garry:

It was so good. The giddiness of her was spot on.

Amy:

She was also in Haunted Wedding in 2024, which we also really enjoyed.

Garry:

Yes, and that was good too.

Amy:

And she's known for Pretty Little Liars which I've never seen. Have you ever seen it?

Garry:

Nope, nope, can't say that I have.

Amy:

Never seen it, but maybe we'll have to check that out too, oh.

Garry:

Lord, because we love her.

Amy:

Scott Michael Foster plays Tom and I thought he was great in it, but I wasn't really familiar with his work or what other things he's done. So when I did some research, he was actually in you really he played a reporter um five episodes. He was in an episode of not dead yet, a comedy series that we really really liked, but it was canceled I know they always cancel in shows that we really, really like he was in once upon a time oh really, yeah, I knew that would surprise you yeah, and the river oh good, you remember that he had me going at that.

Amy:

That was a while ago. Eric Gao plays Chad, the quirky HR guy.

Garry:

Yes, the quirky HR guy.

Amy:

He's known as Edwin Mitchell. In when Calls the Heart, christopher Shire plays Walter, who is the boss, and he does a ton of stuff.

Garry:

Yeah.

Amy:

For Hallmark. We saw him in Leah's Perfect Gift. Yep boss and he does a ton of stuff. Yeah, for hallmark, we saw him in leah's perfect gift. Yep, in 2024, three wiser men and a boy in 2024.

Garry:

He's really good.

Amy:

I like him and miranda mcdougall plays colette, which is janelle's best friend. She's when I looked her up.

Garry:

She's only been in a handful of things, but most recently when calls the heart oh, in 2025 they have a lot of uh actors in that, that movie or that series interesting yes, yes, one calls the heart.

Amy:

They cross over a lot they really do well, what did you think was your overall opinion about return to office?

Garry:

I thought that homar kicked this one out of the park they really did. I really enjoyed the actors, uh, janelle as Miss Monday and Scott as Mr Tuesday. I thought it seemed very natural.

Amy:

Yes, I thought that too.

Garry:

I really loved the premise behind this movie, the scenes I thought the bar scene, you know, the cooking class scene, that was cute the assistant living I thought all of those were a good part of the whole movie overall.

Amy:

Sort of got into your scenes there for a little bit, but we'll go into more in depth. Yeah, I know.

Garry:

Sometimes I jump ahead of myself. Anyhow, what did you think?

Amy:

Same. I had really high expectations going into it. One because I like the premise, like you said, and two, I just loved Janelle Parrish in Sugar Plum.

Garry:

Oh my gosh, she was awesome.

Amy:

And I was ready for her to bring it and it was a completely different character than what she played in Sugar Plum, but it was great. She was so, so good and I thought that you know, even though the premise isn't new, they gave it a super cute, fun, fresh take. I mean, definitely you've got mail only with post-its and a different kind of messenger.

Garry:

So it was more like you got post-its. Yeah, you got post-its.

Amy:

It was definitely like that and we you know side note, we love you've Got Mail. So I think it had our hearts right away, and our dog is even named after the dog in You've Got Mail.

Garry:

Oh, brinkley yeah.

Amy:

Brinkley. Only we have a girl dog.

Garry:

Yeah, she's a girl. You've Got Mail. Still a cool name, though, for a girl.

Amy:

Anyway, we digress, but yeah, the similarities between which we'll talk about later, the You've Got Mail vibes throughout the entire movie practically, and I think, like what you said too, with Janelle and Scott. They were so great and natural together and I'm not as familiar with his work, but I thought he was so great at doing like the laid back fun kind of style demeanor.

Garry:

Why do they always make nerds dressing like hoodies and a t-shirt? Some?

Amy:

jeans. He wasn't a nerd. Well, he said he was a nerd. He said, well, he was an artist. Well, yeah, I guess he did. Yeah, he's an artist. So you know those type of people. They're always portrayed as kind of like nerdy but, it worked Laid back yeah, but it worked, laid back yeah it worked it really worked. So what were some of your favorite scenes? You kind of mentioned them. Yeah, sorry about that, but go ahead, you're good.

Garry:

No, it's fine. I thought one of my favorite scenes was the all hands, the team building scene.

Amy:

Yes, that was so fun.

Garry:

You know who likes that right. But I thought they really pulled it off with, you know, blindfolding and doing the little football in and out, in and out with your feet. I thought that was pretty good. The hula hoop, the hula hoop, five times.

Amy:

They actually looked like. They looked like fun games. Everybody dreads, like trust building and tell me about yourself and tell me something great about your coworker, and those are all fine, but doing something like an obstacle course would be really fun, yeah it would be If you're paired up with somebody. I would love that.

Garry:

But I don't know if you noticed it, but HR Chad, he was filming with an iPhone on a tripod. Did you notice that? I did not notice that, yeah he was filming the whole thing with an iPhone on a tripod.

Amy:

Oh, the obstacle course stuff. Oh no, I didn't notice that you would notice that You're a techie.

Garry:

I know, unfortunately, not so much. What about you? What was one of your scenes?

Amy:

One was, I guess, generally the beginning and you sort of touched on that, and the opening is the whole work from home. You have a schedule and we were kind of like that too, where you know you have a particular routine that you do in the morning you get ready for work, you go. You know we would go into the office for about what? The first year after COVID.

Amy:

I think, we, we went home in March of 2020, like everyone else, when the world shut down and then that whole first scene. Then when she's told she's got to come back in. It was definitely our vibe when we were told in 2021, you know, hey, you're going to have to start coming back in, and it wasn't full time, it was just a couple of days a week, but we were like, oh, I got to get it.

Amy:

I loved her pajama bottoms, but her nice blouse you know you could get away with that when you were teleworking and I just, I just thought we related to that so much. I just liked that whole first scene. So, and then another scene would be the post-it note scenes and I love the fact that they were narrated the whole Miss Monday, mr Tuesday, of it, all the evolution of their relationship, via the post-its. You know, when she was snarky in them he kind of stayed nice and that leveled out and then they kind of built up their relationship, so I really liked that whole part of it.

Amy:

So it's not one particular scene, but sort of the general idea of all those scenes.

Garry:

Yeah, I was also wondering what was the rubber ducky for? Did they ever mention that?

Amy:

You know what? I don't know. That's a good question. It could have just been something that he wanted on the desk.

Garry:

Yeah, because he had one at his home office too, and I was just wondering you know, because she had a succulent which kind of looks like a rubber plant, and then you have the rubber ducky. So I don't know, maybe that's what they were trying to do, but what about?

Amy:

did you have any other? Yeah?

Garry:

I liked it. When she found out that Tom was Mr Tuesday and throughout the rest of the movie before it was revealed to him who she was, she kind of dropped little hints yes, I love that.

Amy:

Yes, I have that.

Garry:

He couldn't he had this look on his face like wait a minute, but then he moved on. It was really good, really well written with that.

Amy:

Yeah, I totally agree with that, I concur.

Garry:

That pan of chocolate.

Amy:

That looked delicious.

Garry:

We have to try one of those, the classical music.

Amy:

I don't think I've ever had one, yeah, the classical music.

Garry:

And then when she shows up at the restaurant, that's a big vibe of you've got mail yeah. Yeah. So what about you? Do you have another?

Amy:

favorite scene.

Amy:

I really like the scene where his mom and her friend tell Janelle that they knew she was Miss Monday and she thought they couldn't tell by her and I was so glad that they had people admit that her facial expressions were obvious and the things that she said were so obvious. I just I really thought that was great. You know, sometimes people can pick up on things and I was just glad to see Hallmark kind of go there where they were like, yeah, of course we knew we could tell. You know, the minute we said his name your face lit up, you know.

Garry:

Yeah, she kind of stumbled through that like, oh my goodness.

Amy:

And I really liked the towards the end where they had the post-it notes placed around the restaurant and he had to follow them to her. I thought that was really cute. I thought that was really cute.

Garry:

I liked the one that was on the waiter as he was walking.

Amy:

Yes, yeah, like somebody stuck it on his back and say go this way.

Garry:

That was. That was really good. I really did enjoy that scene too, especially when he walks into the room and she's staring out the window and he doesn't realize who it is yet. And when she turns around, it's like oh.

Amy:

But you know that was just reminiscent of like Sleepless in Seattle.

Garry:

Yes, where she's at the top, yeah.

Amy:

I know, I thought about that and I was like, oh my gosh.

Garry:

I didn't even think about that. I'm glad you brought that up. That was good.

Amy:

Yes, it was so. Any others for you? No, I mean there was a lot, but Well, let's get into the You've Got Mail references.

Garry:

Okay, yes, let's do that.

Amy:

The Post-its.

Garry:

Yes, the Post-its.

Amy:

And of course, in You've Got Mail it's AOL, it's AOL.

Garry:

Messenger.

Amy:

And I guess they were emailing too, but it was Messenger and the narration in You've Got Mail, like when Tom Hanks is reading the message or the mail you know.

Garry:

Meg Ryan is narrating it. You know what else was funny is how giddy they were to get into the office to read each other's post-its.

Amy:

I thought that was kind of cute.

Garry:

But that's like You've Got Mail too, where they were so excited like You've Got Mail Very powerful words that they say and then they split screen and they showed them back to back and you know when they decided that they want to meet and she was all like, oh yes, I really want to meet.

Amy:

We're kind of aging ourselves too with dial up. You'd hear the sound of the AOL. Oh my God, dial up Kids. Look that up if you need to. You used to have to wait until you would connect and then it literally would say you've got mail, if you have email. It was so cool.

Garry:

I also liked when they switched over to messaging yes. I also liked when they switched over to messaging yes.

Amy:

You know, they kind of brought it into the future. They brought it like full circle right Back to the electronic age. Yeah, yeah, that was good.

Garry:

I did notice something else Now, the little message cloud thingies. I know, like yours is blue, but I didn't know they had a purple. I'm going to have to look that up. I wouldn't have noticed, I know, but I didn't know they had a purple. I'm going to have to look that up. I wouldn't have noticed, I know, but I did. That's another techie thing that you would notice. I'm sorry about that.

Amy:

Some more like. You've got mail. They decided not to meet.

Garry:

Yes, that's the same as in the movie.

Amy:

Once finding out who the other person is. When one person finds out, they don't tell them right away. Yep yeah it's the same same, um, I think that's about. I can't think of any.

Garry:

Oh, the rose the rose, the rose yes, because then you've got male make.

Amy:

Ryan has the rose and pride and prejudice sitting on the table.

Garry:

She says that's how you'll know who I am or how about when she walked into the restaurant where he was and he was like, why, why are you here and she? Well, we both won and we both have gift certificates here so they sit down and they have that talk. That's kind of like when he walked into the restaurant, sat down with her and he knew who she was.

Amy:

He knows it's her, she knows who he is.

Garry:

So that was another good reference, but Yep, Yep.

Amy:

So if you have never seen, you've got mail. That's a great one to go watch if you're into rom-coms. Hello.

Garry:

Yes, you got it. You have to watch that one. Put it on your list.

Amy:

And how great were the rom-coms in the 90s.

Garry:

Oh man, you've Got Mail, yes.

Amy:

Sleepless in Seattle.

Garry:

Yes.

Amy:

Clueless.

Garry:

Yes.

Amy:

My Best Friend's Wedding.

Garry:

Oh, my goodness, you know them all. I don't remember the names, but I remember it was just such a great decade for rom-coms.

Amy:

It really, really was.

Garry:

Nora.

Amy:

Ephron, of course you know with several of those. All right, what's your biggest cheer or biggest cheers?

Garry:

Well, I mentioned it in my favorite scenes, but the scene again at the end where Scott follows the Post-its throughout the restaurant. I thought that was so so cool. And the one that was on the one waiter's back. I mean it was just. It was a cool scene.

Amy:

It really, really was.

Garry:

What about you? You have one.

Amy:

Giving an old premise a new, fresh, modern take oh, I just thought in general, that that, that that was cool, because you never know, it can go either way. You can be like, oh, it's already been done before, but they really, like you said at the beginning, nailed it yeah, that's what I was saying.

Garry:

I think the characters brought it right.

Amy:

I think it brought and that's what the actors brought the characters to life and they did a great job. Great, great job. I love Seattle as the backdrop.

Garry:

That would be another big cheer.

Amy:

Who doesn't love the Space Needle? And it's cool to take it into a city that they don't normally do got so excited about the post-its where they wanted to read the day, you know, on monday she wanted.

Garry:

Oh yeah, before they came in tuesday he wanted to read hers, and I just I enjoyed that part of it too I like the fact that they were opposites.

Amy:

She didn't like smells or sounds, he could work anywhere and he loved being in that desk by the kitchen, because he said something like this is where all the action is or you know something, the creative juices flowing freak him not so much. She was always on time, he was always late and you know they say opposites attract, but they played it really, really well and not too over the top cheesy you know that's funny.

Garry:

You mentioned he was always late. The um the cooking scene, he ran up the stairs. He goes hello, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I'm late and I'm like there you go.

Amy:

Oh, that's right, you know what? I didn't even pick up on that. You know they like to do that.

Garry:

And one other thing I want to bring up real quick before we move on is we didn't mention it, but in you know Unexpected Valentine, where he always parked in loading zones. Yes, and it wasn't until the end that his car got booted.

Amy:

Right the time he needed to hop in his car the quickest.

Garry:

Right.

Amy:

To get back to her. Right. Right, that's just a little side tour from. Sorry about that, but I have to mention it. That was an unexpected felt that's been on your mind since we.

Garry:

And then my last year with this movie was just moving to message where they moved the talking. I thought that was a good transition.

Amy:

To bring it back around.

Garry:

Bring it modern.

Amy:

To modern times. But the post-it notes, that was cute too. Yeah, what about jeers? Did you have any?

Garry:

I don't know if this is a jeer or not, but I have to tell you I didn't like Chad's character at first. Hr Chad, I thought it was. He was over the top the first couple of scenes with him was kind of over the top. I didn't think Hallmark needed to do that. I mean, I think he's a funny character anyways, but it just seemed a little too much. But as the movie moved on he kind of grew on me.

Garry:

He did yeah Well he was filming the team building thing All hands team building Right and the cooking scene.

Amy:

Oh, that was hilarious. Where he wiped his eyes after cutting the onion, all right.

Garry:

Let's be serious. How many of us has done that? Either with hot sauce onions, you just accidentally touch your eye and you're like After eating Buffalo Wild Wings.

Amy:

Oh, has done that either way. Hot sauce onions. You just accidentally touch your eye and you're like eating buffalo wild wings. Oh, my goodness, I've done it, raising my hand. You just don't even think, right what about you?

Garry:

what my?

Amy:

biggest jeer would be that scott's handwriting on the post-it. On one of them you could see his handwriting and then when you saw Janelle read the post-it, it was completely different.

Garry:

That was funny.

Amy:

You did mention that throughout the movie You're like that's not his handwriting, that does really bother me and I know that's not a big deal, but I just thought that that was kind of funny. I was like come on, you know it's clear, or have the camera out far enough where you really can't see his writing, then you don't know.

Garry:

Yeah, cause sometimes it looked like he was writing cursive, right Right, so it was print yeah.

Amy:

So that was, that was my biggest year. That would be the only one.

Garry:

I had one more, and that was AI. That logo they made, or Walter made.

Amy:

Oh, that the boss made Right. I mean, come on, walter played by Christopher, yeah.

Garry:

But to be honest, when you do use AI, sometimes it does blur, Like if you're trying to do a photo. If you look at the photo, some of the parts of that photo are messed up.

Amy:

So AI is not quite there yet. Yeah, it was kind of funny when he showed that and they were like, yeah, that's not the best design.

Garry:

But his logo, scott's logo, was cool. His was pretty cool, I'd have used it. Yeah, cool, his was pretty cool, I'd have used it.

Amy:

Yeah, all right. So out of five corks drum roll how many corks? Would you give it Five? What about you? Same, I'd give it five. Yeah, I just thought it was really well done. We've talked about it, we love the premise, we love Janelle, now I love Scott, so I'm waiting for more for them. I know Me too, oh, and you know an interesting little tidbit about Janelle. I was going through some of her interviews and she was talking about how her mom is a big Hallmark-y.

Garry:

Really Big Hallmark-y, and that's how Janelle started to.

Amy:

you know she loved Hallmark movies and her mom kept asking her when are you going to work for Hallmark?

Garry:

When are you going to?

Amy:

make a Hallmark movie. And she said, when they call you know, like I'll do it when they call Hello.

Garry:

they got a call, mom.

Amy:

And then she said you know, in 2020, when the world shut down and you know we've kind of talked about that when the world did shut down, Hallmark called and it was like a bright light for her in all of that. And since then I believe and don't quote me on this she's done four or five films since then and I'm really hoping to see a lot more of her because I think she's great.

Garry:

Oh, we're going to be seeing a lot more. Actually, I think we'll be seeing a lot more of both of them, I agree. I agree, I'm here for it.

Amy:

Both of them, I agree I agree, I'm here for it.

Garry:

So is that a wrap? That's a wrap.

Amy:

All right?

Garry:

Well, thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast, Follow us on social media and if you really really like the show, leave a five-star review. And if you didn't really really like the show, leave a five-star review.

Amy:

Do it anyway. Yes, do it. Where can you leave the five-star review?

Garry:

Do it anyway. Yes, do it. Where can you leave the five-star reviews Apple Podcasts and Spotify?

Amy:

Spotify. You can follow us on Buzzsprout.

Garry:

Yes, that's where our episodes are on the web and where else Social media. Blue Sky yes.

Amy:

Yep, yep, facebook Instagram. Just drop us a line, drop us a review.

Garry:

Yes, Yep, yep, facebook Instagram. Just drop us a line, drop us a review. We'd love to hear from you.

Amy:

Please, please, please, make sure you join us next Wednesday for our review of the fourth and final Love you, mary film, sisterhood Inc. Which airs Saturday February 22nd 2025, and will be streamed the next day on Hallmark+. Until then, fill up your glasses and push play. Thanks for listening, cheers.