Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Christmas on Call’ on Hallmark, In Which First Responders Find Love — And Donna Kelce! — In Philadelphia

Hallmark continues to try and outdo itself in the realm of the classic holiday rom-com with Christmas on Call. The movie took the premise of Christmas in Philadelphia, PA and ran with it, concocting an ode to the city full of Eagles paraphernalia, local references, and even a cameo by Donna Kelce, mother of retired Eagles center Jason Kelce. Sara Canning and Ser’Darius Blain star in this title as busy First Responders attempting to find a sense of belonging and holiday cheer in the City of Brotherly Love.

CHRISTMAS ON CALL: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Talented emergency room doctor Hannah Michaels (Sara Canning) has recently moved to Philadelphia to follow in her doctor father’s footsteps, but she hasn’t had time to explore the city or meet people outside of work due to her demanding work schedule. While on the job, she meets EMT Wes Sullivan (Ser’Darius Blain), a born and raised Philadelphian who stays calm under pressure and serves as a pillar of his local community. Wes shows immediate interest in Hannah, and when he learns that she’s new in town, he offers to show her the wonders of Philly at Christmastime.

Wes starts introducing Hannah to the community, which helps her feel less alone while she’s far from the rest of her family in Seattle. Although the two sometimes struggle to find time for each other due to their equally busy work schedules, they still manage to grow closer while decorating a tree, eating cheesesteaks, singing a capella, and serving their community.

At the same time, there is a subplot following cops Danielle (Reena Jolly) and Sanjay (Erik Athavale), whose temporary partnership proves initially awkward and combative as they reconnect a year after the former seemingly ghosted the latter. There’s also a subplot revolving around hospital front desk worker Emerson (Monique Marcker) as she goes through the holidays missing her daughter, Chloe (Juliette Schroeder), who is in the armed forces and stationed overseas for Christmas. There’s even an additional subplot tracking new EMT Julia Sanchez (Tamara Almeida) as she fights to overcome her own self-doubts in order to figure out if this intense and arduous career path is for her.

Can all of these people find community, happiness, and peace over the holidays? And will Hannah’s grueling career prevent her from falling in love with both Wes and Philadelphia?

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Rather than movies, Christmas on Call felt more reminiscent of TV shows like St. Denis Medical, Grey’s Anatomy, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine, combining the comedy, drama, and workplaces of each title with a Hallmark holiday flare and a fixation on Philadelphia.

Performance Worth Watching: I thought that John B. Lowe was consistently affable, if not suspiciously Santa-like, as Hannah’s talented and nurturing superior at the hospital, Dr. Stanfield. His calm, jolly demeanor was always pretty pleasant to behold.

Memorable Dialogue: “Philly is literally like the best Christmas city in the world!” In the WORLD, Wes, really?!

A Holiday Tradition: Station House 21 has an annual holiday open house for both First Responders and the local community, full of festive food, beverages, and lots of holiday karaoke.

Does the Title Make Any Sense?: It’s Christmastime and our leading lad and lady are basically constantly on call with their jobs so, yes, Christmas on Call is perfectly apt.

Our Take: Disclaimer: I am from Pittsburgh, PA so I’m admittedly biased (Philly is our cross-state rival) but will maybe kind of try to be impartial here.

I’ll just begin with the obvious: Christmas on Call is pro-Philly propaganda. From the b-roll of major monuments and local attractions to the incessant Eagles references to all of the people saying how amazing the city is, especially during the holidays, this is clearly a movie by and for Philadelphians. Or it’s by the Philadelphia Tourism Bureau trying to get Hallmark viewers to visit for Christmas. Either way, there’s no doubt that Christmas on Call is, at the very least, an effective love letter to Philadelphia, and you can practically feel the affection for the city and its culture through the screen.

But if you have no strong feelings about Philly, or if you have strong feelings against the city, this may not be the movie for you. The movie relies so heavily on Philadelphia references that you could easily make a potentially deadly drinking game out of all the times the city or some sort of local activity, sports team, or food item is mentioned. Take the city aspect out of it, and you also get a somewhat bland love story that’s hindered by Wes seeming way more into Hannah than she’s into him from the start, making them seem better as friends than lovers by the end.

In fact, I found that Wes might have made more sense romantically with his coworker, Julia, since they spend so much time together on the job and also seem to bond throughout the movie. There are also so many subplots that it ends up detracting from the overall impact of each one and makes it hard to feel fully invested in and emotionally connected to the characters. When the only things that make Christmas on Call stand out from all the other Hallmark movies out there are the Philadelphia setting and Donna Kelce cameo (which isn’t even THAT unique since she also appears at a food joint in Hallmark’s Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story), then maybe this isn’t worth making time for unless those two factors particularly pique your interest.

Our Call: If you’re from or love Philadelphia, you should definitely STREAM IT just for the joy of all the local shoutouts and Easter eggs, but for everyone else, perhaps SKIP IT — Christmas on Call was not made with us in mind.