Debbie Macomber’s Cedar Cove returns to Hallmark Channel on Saturday for its sophomore season with Sue Tenney (7th Heaven) taking over as showrunner, a move that excites the show’s star, Andie MacDowell. “I feel like Sue has a good handle on things,” she says. “She was able to get us out of all of the high drama that we were left in, and maneuver us into some other situations that I think are actually more interesting.”
The high drama to which MacDowell is referring is Season 1’s sensational conclusion, where MacDowell’s Olivia reunited with her love, Jack, her daughter’s Justine’s new restaurant suffered a mysterious fire and young visitor named Shelley was rushed to the hospital with a pregnancy complication.
Saturday’s episode is the first part of a two-part season premiere which finds Olivia struggling to support Jack & Eric at the hospital as Shelley recovers from her health scare. Painful memories from Olivia’s past resurface and Justine & Seth clash with Warren over the fate of the now-damaged restaurant.
MacDowell likes the show’s dramatic and exciting moments, but says, “What I find really pleasurable about Cedar Cove is the offbeat characters that you meet quite often in my courtroom and the small-town situations that are very dear and sweet.” A show about a small town with a big heart is appealing to MacDowell because, as a small-town girl herself, “It’s comfortable and safe and warm. And I like that because life is hard.”
The heart of Cedar Cove is charming residents who inhabit the charming seaside town. But not every great character is one you’re going to root for. Andie MacDowell agrees, “Personally, I love Brendan Elliott’s character, Warren Saggatt, I love that character. Every town has to have a bad guy, right?”
When asked which characters she finds especially endearing, MacDowell replied, “One of my favorite characters is Moon. I love colorful people and Moon, I think is a very colorful person. He just makes me smile, when I see him, what he has to say, and his acting job is great! He just brings a life to the show that is just something dear and sweet and some of the courtroom characters are like that. Those kinds of characters and storylines — from living in small towns, those are the people I like — colorful, interesting, offbeat. I like offbeat characters. In real life I like them and I like them on the show. I just do.”
The show’s sweet, gentle and open nature is one reason that MacDowell thinks the show did well in its first season. And she’s excited to share the show’s uplifting spirit with others. “We got a pretty good fan base started last year,” she says. “And hopefully we can expand that and have it grow, and have people want to come and watch what’s happening in Cedar Cove.”
images © 2014 Crown Media United States, LLC/Photographer: Katie Yu
