Stream It Or Skip It: ‘One Bad Apple: A Hannah Swensen Mystery’ on The Hallmark Channel, Another Fun, Cozy Mystery From Alison Sweeney

One Bad Apple: A Hannah Swensen Mystery, now out on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries, is the newest dessert-themed mystery based on the novels of author Joanne Fluke. This one, an adaptation of Fluke’s book Apple Turnover Murder, was written and produced by its star Alison Sweeney, and serves up another reliably cozy mystery, this one involving the mysterious murder of a college professor.

ONE BAD APPLE: A HANNAH SWENSEN MYSTERY: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Hannah Swensen (Alison Sweeney) unloads her car in front of the Lake Eden Community College, where she’s started teaching a college cooking class. But unbeknownst to her, someone is watching her, taking photos of her every move. As she finished unloading the car, she notices that someone has pierced an apple with a knife and left it for her in the backseat.

The Gist: Just to get things out of the way, the person surveilling Hannah in the movie’s opening scene is not some nefarious criminal, it’s Hannah’s own mother, Delores (Barbara Niven). Delores informs Hannah that she’s finally found her calling: she’s going to be a private detective. Hannah, too, has branched out professionally, because on top of her duties running her bakery, she’s been teaching a baking course at the local college. She’s partnered with one of the English professors, Bradford Ramsey (Oliver Rice), and has created a lesson plan where her class will bake a dessert inspired by a novel, when all of a sudden the gas burner she and Bradford are standing near explodes into a fireball.

It seems that this fire was no accident though, and perhaps Bradford was the target, because soon after, Hannah finds the professor dead, stabbed with a chef’s knife in his office. As Hannah works with her mom and sisters to make a list of suspects, ranging from his estranged ex wife to his disgruntled teacher’s assistant, to one of his flirtatious students, there’s one key piece of evidence that’s discovered that throws the whole investigation into chaos: the murder weapon is Hannah’s own knife. Hannah’s not just investigating this case… she’s also a suspect.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Hannah Swensen mysteries — see also Carrot Cake Murder and A Zest For Death — are a particular kind of cozy mystery that make ubiquitous small-town murders seem quaint and charming. To use a baking metaphor, it’s got a dash of Murder, She Wrote, well-mixed with the quirkiness of British faves Midsomer Murders and Pie In The Sky.

Our Take: This latest installment in the franchise formerly known as Murder, She Baked harnesses all the elements that have made past installments so successful. Sweeney and her supporting cast have an easy familiarity in their roles, whether it’s the relationship she has with her mother and sisters or the new flirtation she has with her old friend Norman (Gabriel Hogan), or the professional rapport she has with police detective Lonnie (Daylin Willis), the universe of Lake Eden feels well-established. What’s another small-town murder to these people anyway?

While there are your typical red herrings and classic moments of Hannah snooping and sneaking around where she shouldn’t be, that’s about as dangerous as this movie gets. Even as the prime suspect holds Hannah at gunpoint in the final moments of the film, there’s never a doubt that Hannah will exit unscathed, and that’s the point of the cozy mystery: we watch explicitly for the fact that. Aside from the unlucky murder victim, no harm will come to those involved in the making of this film; justice will prevail and Hannah will go back to flouring her bread board.

Long-term fans of the series will notice the differences from past films, specifically the fact that Hannah’s ex, Mike, has exited the series, making way for other flirtations, but beyond that, Sweeney, who wrote the script in addition to starring in it, has capably adapted this story and has remained true to the series. She knows what her audience expects, and she’s delivered.

Parting Shot: Hannah, her sisters, and her mom gather in her kitchen for some self-congratulatory drinks after solving the case. Delores then notices that someone has pinged her phone and she announces that she has a new client request for her P.I. business. That calls for a toast.

Performance Worth Watching: Victor Webster, who plays the Lake Eden prosecutor Chad Norton, might give Hannah’s love life a jolt now that her old boyfriend Mike (Cameron Mathison, who doesn’t appear in this film at all) has moved to Virginia for a new job at the FBI. Though there’s no real romance between the two yet, it’s obvious that he’s being positioned as a new love interest.

Memorable Dialogue: In a meta nod to this franchise’s source material, Hannah tells her baking students that many authors use food as an allegory in their novels, to which one of her students, Pam, replies, “There’s a great set of mysteries that are all about different desserts.” And you’re watching one of them!

Our Call: STREAM IT! One Bad Apple is the perfect rainy-day comfort watch that will keep you entertained with its familiar cast of characters and engaging (if not terribly surprising) mystery.

Liz Kocan is a pop culture writer living in Massachusetts. Her biggest claim to fame is the time she won on the game show Chain Reaction.