Stream It or Skip It: ‘Curious Caterer: Foiled Plans’ on Hallmark Mystery, the Coziest Entry in the Nikki DeLoach and Andrew Walker Series

Hallmark Mystery’s Curious Caterer series continues with TV movie #4, Foiled Plans. But don’t let things like continuity keep you away from Nikki DeLoach and Andrew Walker’s series of cuisine-themed whodunits. Curious Caterer: Foiled Plans aims to be the exact kind of cozy mystery that you want to spend some time with on a Friday night in — and you can probably catch one of the other three movies if you turn on Hallmark Mystery right now. But will the mystery in Curious Caterer: Foiled Plans leave a bad taste in your mouth? Or will it leave you eager to go back for seconds?

CURIOUS CATERER: FOILED PLANS: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Nikki DeLoach (A World Record Christmas) returns as Goldy Berry, Colorado’s premier caterer/sleuth. This time around she’s offering her services to the über wealthy Sir Alistair (iZombie’s Andrew Kavadas) and his fundraiser for Elk Park Academy’s fencing team. And since Sir Alistair is a fan of all things medieval, you better believe that everyone, from the caterers to the guests to the students, is decked out in full Shakespearean drag. And since it’s a school fundraiser, all of the local luminaries are invited — including Goldy’s ex-husband Richard (Navigating Christmas‘ Lochlyn Munro) and Goldy’s current boyfriend/crime-solving partner, Detective Tom Shultz (Christmas Island’s Andrew Walker).

And just a heads up: don’t be fooled like I initially was into thinking that Goldy’s catering company has gone international. The medieval castle hosting the event is not located in the United Kingdom. It’s in Colorado, within driving distance for all of the regular cast of characters — and please, don’t bring up the fact that it looks more like a mansion than a castle. That’s probably a sore subject for Sir Alistair.

Anyway — the fundraiser turns hair-raising when Sir Alistair drops dead right before making a big announcement. With a snowstorm raging outside, a dead body on the floor inside, and a murderer on the guest list, Goldy and Tom get to work doing what they do best: solving mysteries… while generating enough heat to keep them warm through a blizzard. What they don’t know is that this mystery has shocking ties to Tom’s own past and solving it could change his life forever — !

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: With a cast of sleuths, sidekicks, suspects, and victims all trapped inside one mansion in the middle of a snowstorm, Foiled Plans really has the Agatha Christie, locked-room mystery vibes down. It’s giving A Haunting in Venice, Clue, Glass Onion, and Hart to Hart’s “Night Horrors” all filtered through Hallmark Mystery’s signature cozy style.

Performance Worth Watching: The entire principal cast brings their A-game to Foiled Plans, but I gotta commend Andrew Walker for digging deep into Detective Tom Shultz and bringing some vulnerability to his otherwise unflinching demeanor.

Memorable Dialogue: “I was kinda hoping that our date would include, y’know, champagne and tiramisu — not snowstorms and corpses.”

Our Take: As far as cozy mysteries go, I’m sorry, but it just does not get any cozier than a bunch of people trapped in a mansion (or “castle”) during a snowstorm — and for some reason, the medieval accoutrements just up the cozy factor. Maybe it’s all the brocade and velvet? Whatever the case, Curious Caterer: Foiled Plans checks every box on the cozy mystery checklist.

There’s even a coziness with this cast of characters, most of them returning for their fourth outing in Hallmark’s (relatively) new Curious Caterer series. There’s a shorthand between Goldy and her business partner Marla (Jaycie Dotin) and Shultz and his partner Detective Mason (Riley Davis), and there’s one between them and the audience as well.

All that being said, the mystery in Foiled Plans is complex enough and engrossing enough for even late arrivals to the Curious Caterer party to appreciate. I mean, a dead body’s a dead body. The stakes are right there on the floor. That’s why locked-room mysteries are a thing.

But what’s great about Foiled Plans specifically is the way it shows off what makes Goldy such a great “amateur” sleuth. Without access to the usual CSI tools and procedures, Goldy has to improvise using her cooking utensils and knowledge of chemistry — knowledge that she usually puts to work in recipes, not investigations. I particularly love the sight gag of Goldy assembling a “murder tapestry” when it comes time to gather all the evidence.

As the photo above demonstrates, the costuming and set design in Foiled Plans is sumptuous. Does it really make sense for everyone to be dressed like the cast of A Midsummer Night’s Dream? Is this an excuse to ride the wave of popularity enjoyed by fancy/royal/palace/period piece romances since Bridgerton dropped? Probably — but who cares? It looks great.

The only real critique I have for Foiled Plans centers around where the mystery goes and how deeply personal it becomes to Tom. The coincidences really start piling up and some of the final act’s sleuthing and deducing might illicit an eye roll or two. Still, those gripes are not enough to ruin the immaculately cozy vibes that Curious Caterer: Foiled Plans curates.

Our Call: STREAM IT. I know it’s spring, but Curious Caterer: Foiled Plans is the kind of movie you want to watch with the lights out and the fireplace going.