User Reviews

This episode was good but that narcissistic, arrogant Martha, the mayor makes me sick. She blames everyone but herself and takes credit for the efforts and qualities of others.

Cassie struggles as trouble finds her every which way she turns.

She will recover, no Thanks to Martha and Martha acts as if nothing had ever happened!

A bit strange and different but a good episode anyway !!

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.

Hallmark seems to feel that it needs to "punch up" the Good Witch movies. The Good Witch Charm and now The Good Witch Destiny attempt to introduce elements of "edge of your seat" danger. It didn't really work for me on The Good Witch's Charm--the danger there felt silly, even preposterous. But in The Good Witch's Destiny, the suspense works better for me, primarily because the danger has a possible element of the supernatural in it.

There is a suggestion that there may be a curse hanging over Grey House, and over Cassie herself. This is especially suggested by Lori (Hannah Endicott-Douglas)--Cassie's step daughter--when she finds the long lost diary of the previous owner, Cassie's great aunt. The great aunt's birthday was the same as Cassie's, and the aunt disappeared at the same age that Cassie is going to be in a few days, never to be seen again!

I would agree with other reviewers, that some of the suspense elements don't really work very well. I found the Drew character, for instance, more odd than frightening.

But Catherine Bell, sells Cassie's bewilderment and uncertainty very well helping us to wonder if there isn't something to the mysterious goings on.

I would add two general observations.

It would work better, I believe, if Jake were written more like George, the grandfather, (Peter MacNeill). George is not quite sure what he makes of Cassie, but he is always open to listening to Cassie, and willing to take any advice of talisman Cassie offers. George trusts in Cassie's wisdom, her intuition, and most of all Cassie's good heart. Jake, meanwhile often seems skeptical and surprised by Cassie's actions, and in this episode even questions her motives for a bit.

The other comment echoes to another reviewer's. Cassie--and Jake too, for that matter--seem almost distant with Gracie, their baby. I don't believe this was meant to be intentional on the producers' part. But it was noticeable that there were hardly any scenes of Cassie with Gracie alone, and none of Jake with the toddler. Maybe the girl wasn't feeling well, or maybe those scenes were simply deleted due to time restraints.

So in the first movie Cassie says that the Grey Lady was her great great Grandma and now in this one it's her aunt

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.