It’s been two years since the POstables crew were onscreen with a new story to tell. This Sunday, the employees of the Dead Letter Office — Rita, Norman, Oliver, and Shane — will return in Signed, Sealed, Delivered: The Vows We Have Made.
The four stars of the series — Kristin Booth, Eric Mabius, Crystal Lowe, and Geoff Gustafson — appeared on Facebook Live to answer questions ahead of the debut, and each one commented on the readjustment.
“So much time had gone by,” said Kristin Booth, who plays Shane in the movies. “That initially I had that sort of tentative, butterflies, what’s it going to be like feeling.”
The last installment in the franchise was 2018’s Signed, Sealed, Delivered: To The Altar, in which Rita and Norman married and Oliver proposed to Shane by wearing an ugly green tie to the wedding. (His character told the others that the men in the O’Toole family only brought out the tie for proposals.)
It was daunting to pick up where they left off after so much time, but the crew, who have been working together since 2013, soon found their stride.
Weddings and missions
In the newest POstables film, Shane (played by Booth) and Oliver (played by Mabius), are planning their wedding as Rita (Lowe) and Norman (Gustafson) adjust to being newlyweds.
But the crew puts everything on hold when they find out about a little boy with leukemia who is trying to reconnect with someone he met.
“There is a final moment where I’m just going to say you better have tissues nearby,” Lowe said.
Each cast member had a word of praise for Martha Williamson, who wrote each of the 13 films and all of the episodes of Signed, Sealed, Delivered when it debuted as a series on Hallmark Channel in 2014.
Not only is she a gifted storyteller, they said, she has also included people who are underrepresented in the entertainment industry.
“She was inclusive when it wasn’t trendy,” Mabius said.
“She is so worldly,” Booth said, adding that she thinks in terms of a global audience, not just one in North America.
The first year is the hardest
Much of the film is devoted to the relationships between the two couples. For Rita and Norman, that means dealing with life that after the wedding.
“We think it’s going to be all easy,” Lowe said of marriage. “You watch every princess movie and they live happily ever after.”
But there is a period of adjustment for all newly married couples, and The Vows We Have Made looks at that in detail. In the film, Rita and Norman start looking into having a family.
Meanwhile, Oliver and Shane are making their own adjustments. Mabius talked about the challenge this involves for his character, who tends to be set in his ways.
“It’s the theme of letting go,” said Mabius, who added that Oliver’s rigidity is a coping mechanism. “The advice he gets in the course of this movie is really invigorating and freeing for him.”
Signed, Sealed, Delivered: The Vows We Have Made will premiere Sunday, October 17 on Hallmark Movies and Mysteries at 9/8c.