When I watched the first Good Witch movie I was impressed. It was soppy and it was standard Hallmark channel affairs but it as sweet and certainly had its merits.Gradually I worked my way through the sequels only to find the quality dipping.Here we are on the 6th film and for the first time I have to say this was pretty bad.Full of detestable character, questionable writing and a side story that was just awful.Ontop of that maybe the sickly sweet charm of the franchise is getting old. Everything has a shelf life and I feel the Good Witch has gone stale.The Good: Still has a fraction of the original charm left The Bad:Cassies speaking in riddles is getting really old Poor writing Awful characters this time around Things I Learnt From This Movie: A guy can threaten to make the protagonist disappear and wish them ill and still be made out to be a good guy Everyone in Middleton is a ruddy drama queen A friend trying to ruin your business will still be considered a friend If you stand in front of a mirror and say Cassie 3 times she'll appear and give you life advice

Cassandra is a kind of good natured witch with gentle powers, the second wife of the local police chief in small town America, and much beloved of his children. She is given to doing small things to make things better for people, but suddenly everything starts going wrong, and she starts getting blamed. Factor in a young man called Drew who particularly blames her for losing his business and fiancée, and backs this with threats which coincide with the dates when things happened to Cassandra's predecessor under a curse, and the recipe is set for niceness with mild jeopardy.I was at home feeling unwell, so I watched this. I had not watched - or even heard of - the five previous movies or the subsequent one, so I had no preconceptions. And I didn't catch the word "Hallmark", so I had no warning. But I quite like Catherine Bell despite her now distinctly peculiar top lip, so I thought I would give it a go.Apart from the annoying fat shopkeeper lady, and unpleasant Drew (who miraculously completely changes his character at the end of the film), everybody is nice. Horribly, sickeningly nice. So nice that they practically have treacle oozing out of every pore. And Cassandra herself is annoyingly given to speaking to people in inspirational epithets. Just like the sort of thing you might find in Hallmark cards, in fact. Oh, wait...Well, normally I'm not too demanding if I'm crashed on the sofa feeling poorly, but I must be on the mend because I found this to be unbearably glutinous.

Cassie's "magic" seems to be going wrong and her attempts at helping people are backfiring. Lori discovers that Cassie's great-aunt disappeared on her birthday. A number of parallels between her and Cassie, whose birthday is approaching, has Lori worried Cassie is cursed.The plot to this one's pretty contrived. For five movies now Cassie has been wiping the butts of the people of Middleton. Suddenly, because a few things go wrong, they're being jerks to her. It's all done to make the rather stupid curse story work. I understand Gwen's son Drew (Robin Dunne) blaming Cassie. He doesn't know her and it was written into the story that he never takes responsibility for his actions. But Jake? Martha? It's pretty hard to swallow they would turn on Cassie, even briefly, after all they've been through. To say nothing of Jake being her husband. It's a big drawback to this entry in the series, which have been some of the best made-for-TV movies made in the last decade. The likability of the characters has been a big part of that. But here they aren't that likable. Jake's a sourpuss, Brandon's a stubborn brat, Martha's a traitor, and Lori is annoying. Even Cassie is less likable than usual. She lets her family think she was kidnapped just to surprise them with a party...for herself!!! That was such a bizarre scene. Bell appeared intoxicated walking down the stairs. Just weird. Her immobile upper lip from whatever cosmetic procedures she's had in recent years didn't help matters.The new character, Drew, is a freak. The movie goes out of its way to make him appear psycho and his repeated threats toward Cassie are disturbing. When the inevitable happy ending for everybody comes, it feels off because this guy creeped me out throughout the movie and I thought he needed psychological help. One last thing: a newspaper story from the 1920s features prominently in the movie. The headline uses the term 'restraining order.' Maybe I'm an idiot but was that even a thing in the '20s? I'm not sure if it was even a proper legal term, let alone common enough to be used in a newspaper headline. Still watchable but the weakest in the series so far and definitely the weirdest.

Cassie Nightingale, the Good Witch of Middleton, is having some troubles. As her birthday approaches, her knack for having things fall her way collapses, events around her and her family go poorly and portents of doom surround her in this, the sixth annual "Good Witch" movie on the Hallmark Channel.This movie shows a definite improvement in the script department over the last few episodes. People have to struggle and worry a bit. The real pleasure remains watching Catherine Bell play the role of Cassie in a perky manner, struggling a bit with issues beyond her control. Other characters have real issues, as her step-daughter finds that college is not as easy as she had expected, her step-son finds young love despite her husband's worried disapproval and her father-in-law's wife has to deal with a wayward son who accepts no responsibility for his failures.It all falls Cassie's way in the end, but there is a real sense of tension in this movie. Fans of the series will be very pleased.