It all begins with an idea.

At first, Netflix top-ten (as of writing this) show Country Comfort seems to have all of the trappings of a Hallmark production: A vague title, a heroine with a beachy blowout, and a love interest who wears plaid and has a steady career. Because the marketing reminded me so much of Hallmark’s aesthetic, I expected Country Comfort to be squeaky clean, sweet, and corny. When I found out that Caryn Lucas (who wrote Miss Congeniality and was one of the writers and producers for The Nanny) created the show, though, I thought that Country Comfort might be a more unpredictable spin on a Hallmarkian sitcom.

This past, bleak February week, I figured the best way to handle the never ending winter is to hide under a blanket, eat cheese, and watch a sitcom. Combing through Netflix’s new releases section, I found Ashley Garcia: Genius in Love (originally The Expanding Universe of Ashley Garcia), a teen/family comedy which had one season in 2020 (Netflix tends to cancel most of its original programming after the first season or three), and decided to try it out.