Oh, brothers, where art thou this season? They’re making merry on the Hallmark Channel because, honestly, we need some Brenner boys in our lives this time of year!
In the delightful-as-ever third installment of the Brenner Saga — which began with Three Wise Men and a Baby, followed by Three Wiser Men and a Boy — insultingly handsome siblings Taylor (Tyler Hynes), Luke (Andrew Walker), and Stephan (Paul Campbell) are back with another holiday pileup of personal crises, professional road bumps, and toothpicks as they deal with the idea of their mom (the always fabulous Margaret Colin) selling their childhood home.
In addition to that, Luke is freaking out over the impending birth of his twins with wife Sophie (Nicole Major), Taylor is trying to figure out if he wants to accept a life-changing job offer across the country, and Stephan is prepping for his wedding. So let’s just say they’re more harried and uptight than merry and bright.
Tyler Hynes, Paul Campbell, Margaret Colin, Andrew Walker in ‘Three Wisest Men’
Hallmark Media / Craig Minielly
“We pick up essentially where we left off. The boys have…we’ve come a long way since the first movie, and everybody in this movie is moving into another big life decision or direction, whether it’s work-related or life-related,” previews Campbell, adding with a laugh that “we start them off trying to figure out how to be adults, and I don’t know if we get there in the end. But this one is about really coming full circle and completing their journeys from baby-faced misfits to baby-faced adults.”
Once again written by the genuinely hilarious Campbell and Kimberley Sustad (a Hallmark stalwart who steals every cameo she has made in the series), the latest addition to the franchise brings in Riverdale‘s Lochlyn Munro as Stephan’s bird-loving future father-in-law, features yet another run-in with Christmas decorating champion Mark LeClark (Matt Hamilton), and slips in nods to a sleighful of holiday flicks, including a Jingle All the Way subplot about the guys’ ill-advised effort to secure a coveted toy for Luke’s son Thomas (Miles Marthaller, reprising his Boy role). And of course, there is a dance routine, the annual display of ridiculous Christmas outfits along the way, that undeniable feeling that everyone involved is having a blast, as well as so much heart that it makes the reformed Grinch’s triple-XL one seem teeny.
Matt Hamilton, Paul Campbell, Tyler Hynes, Andrew Walker in ‘Three Wisest Men’
Hallmark Media / Craig Minielly
“As much as we do build [these movies] with the audience in mind, we really build them for ourselves,” Campbell confesses. “We go, ‘What would we like to do? What would make us laugh? What do we think is funny?’ It’s lovely that the audience has so largely aligned with our taste. Our taste in the tone, our taste in storytelling, our taste in humor….I want to make Tyler laugh in a scene. I go, ‘What’s going to break that guy up in the middle of the scene? What’s the funniest thing we can do?’ And then it just happens to have found an audience.”
So if they’re intent on getting each other to crack up, exactly how insane is it on set? Especially with such a large cast and multiple group scenes? Imagine Santa’s Workshop if it were run by the Misfit Toys.
“Let me paint you a picture,” Hynes slyly offers. “So Miles will be there punching me somewhere in the mid area. Lochlyn will be making a joke and probably giving Paul or me a line that’s probably better than anything we could ever come up with. Andrew is either on the phone or drinking a green juice. Margaret is probably coming up with some sort of very poignant, relevant thing to be done on the scene. And we’re all probably pissing our pants laughing while [director] Terry Ingram is screaming, telling us that we have to shoot this or everybody’s going to get murdered.”
“It’s absolute chaos,” echoes Campbell. “No joke. It’s absolute chaos. And then the second you hear ‘Action,’ everybody just sort of falls into place, and then somehow we know the lines. Sometimes we don’t. Sometimes we laugh through them, sometimes we make them up as we go. It’s not perfect, but somehow it works out.”
Clearly, it’s working, given the ratings and reactions to the films, so much so that continuing this annual tradition of Brenner family festivities makes sense to the actors…as long as the fans show up. “There’s been talk, yeah,” admits Hynes. “Even from the first one, we’re always listening to what the audience is saying, and it’s our jobs to sort of read the tea leaves and read between the lines.”
“People might go, ‘Oh, I’m tired of this’ or ‘We don’t want to see this anymore.’ So we’re always listening to the reaction to it and trying to then talk amongst ourselves and figure out what would be the most interesting prospect,” he continues. “And everybody has been very vocal about their feelings about the story and these families, and that’s what’s been afforded to us by this network. But the future will hold whatever will hopefully be the most exciting offering that we can give, to try to be of service to our audience in the greatest possible way that we can, based off of their reaction to how they feel about us, these movies, and us as a foursome.”
Three Wisest Men, Movie Premiere, November 15, 8/7c, Hallmark Channel
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