I watch the Hallmark Channel strictly for Frasier reruns.  But this New York Times article (see below) caught my eye for this reason: "Viewers accustomed to the intricate, fast-paced, high-anxiety dramas that now dominate television will be jarred by the relative slowness and simplicity of "Cedar Cove," but the Hallmark Channel is built on the realization that not all viewers want their television time to be nonstop trauma and adrenaline."  While I find most programming on Hallmark Channel to be rather banal, it is obvious that their powers-that-be understand niche marketing, because clearly, the channel has proven to be quite successful.

Dialing Down the Adrenaline in a Town With a Laid-Back Judge

Traumas Are Muted in ‘Debbie Macomber’s Cedar Cove’

By NEIL GENZLINGER

Published: July 19, 2013

The fictional town of Cedar Cove seems like an anachronism, and so does “Debbie Macomber’s Cedar Cove,” the new Hallmark Channel series that is set there. But neither of those is a bad thing.

The show, which begins Saturday with a movie-length pilot before switching to hourlong episodes, is doing just what it sets out to do, and an able cast led by Andie MacDowell and Dylan Neal makes it stand out from the stream of interchangeable Hallmark movies that aim for the same tone and audience.

Viewers accustomed to the intricate, fast-paced, high-anxiety dramas that now dominate television will be jarred by the relative slowness and simplicity of “Cedar Cove,” but the Hallmark Channel is built on the realization that not all viewers want their television time to be nonstop trauma and adrenaline. The show is based on the books by Ms. Macomber, who has made best-seller lists by appealing to these same people.

Ms. MacDowell plays Olivia Lockhart, the municipal judge in Cedar Cove, a coastal community in Washington State so idyllic that you expect the darkest kinds of secrets to start emerging at any moment, since that’s what usually happens when a television town seems too good to be true. But “Cedar Cove” isn’t a Stephen King story or even “Murder, She Wrote,” the durable Angela Lansbury crime series set on the other coast.

There are traumas, but of a quieter variety. Jack (Mr. Neal), the newly arrived editor of the local newspaper, who quickly becomes Olivia’s love interest, is battling a personal demon. Olivia’s daughter, Justine (Sarah Smyth), is in a relationship with a man who is wrong for her, an aggressive developer named Warren (Brennan Elliott).

Just as important to defining the series is the pacing of those traumas. The show isn’t afraid to stick to one or two per episode, something that these days puts it in a class almost by itself. In the first hourlong episode, Warren’s coldhearted plan to tear down a beloved lighthouse is enough to occupy the time.

The two-hour pilot has a bit more in it, laying out various back stories. The main event, though, is that Olivia has a shot at the federal bench, a job that would take her out of Cedar Cove. Not much doubt about how that particular plot point will end up, since there wouldn’t be much of a series without her.

Ms. MacDowell isn’t very convincing when she has her judicial robes on because she doesn’t really radiate the fierceness and scariness that everyone keeps attributing to Olivia. But this judge actually spends very little time in the courtroom. Mostly she’s a smart, successful, somewhat wistful single woman about town, and for that, Ms. MacDowell is perfectly suited.