Hallmark+ hatches 'The Chicken Sisters': How to watch, changes from book
Settle in for a piping hot serving of “The Chicken Sisters.”
For the Hallmark+ original series, available now on the network’s new streaming service, executive producer Annie Mebane (“The Goldbergs,” “Shrinking”) puts her own twist on KJ Dell'Antonia’s recipe, her 2020 novel.
The TV adaptation is set in fictional Merinac, Kansas, where the fried chicken debate extends beyond flats or drumettes. Dueling establishments have divided the small town into patrons of Mimi’s or Frannie’s, the best of friends until Frannie suspects her husband got Mimi pregnant.
Dell'Antonia was inspired by two restaurants — Chicken Annie's and Chicken Mary's — in Pittsburg, Kansas, which she visited often as a kid.
“They are still there, and I have since learned they are absolutely iconic in southeastern Kansas,” Dell'Antonia says. Her family members were loyal Chicken Annie’s enthusiasts and didn’t visit Chicken Mary's. Dell'Antonia found something about the two rivals enticing.
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“At some point I thought that would be a really interesting story to tell,” Dell'Antonia continues, “and at some later point I thought that would be a really interesting story to just make up.”
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In her fictional account, Amanda (Schuyler Fisk), born into the Moore family that ran Mimi’s, is married to Frank Hillier Jr. (James Kot), a part of the Frannie’s clan. Amanda invites the reality cooking competition “Kitchen Clash” to document the rivals to shine a spotlight on Merinac (and herself). She desperately yearns to be seen in life and in her marriage to her childhood sweetheart, son of Nancy Hillier (Lea Thompson).
Mebane describes Amanda as “a woman at a crossroads, somebody who did all the right things and tried to be good her whole life, and is now wondering where that's left her.”
Amanda’s mom, Augusta “Gus” Moore (Wendie Malick) resents that her daughter works at Frannie’s. Amanda’s sister Mae (Genevieve Angelson), who shunned her small town, returns for the televised competition in an attempt to save her budding hosting career.
When Reese Witherspoon introduced the 2020 novel to her book club via Instagram, she praised it as “a really funny, touching, sweet” read. She told her followers “If you have a sister, you’re probably going to love this book.”
And if you’ve read the book, or heard about it, you might be wondering how the series compares to the best-seller.
One thing that absolutely had to remain the same
Dell'Antonia was not involved in modifying her book for the small screen. “I specifically told them I write books,” she says. “I wouldn't know how to structure a TV series.”
But she knew the story had to remain set in Kansas, as the state “doesn't get a whole lot of stories. I went to high school there and I went to college there. All the other states with little towns get cute little stories about cute little towns, and I've been in their little towns, and they are not any cuter.”
One big change: Frank Jr. is alive
While Amanda is a widow in the book, her husband Frank Jr., is very much alive and well in the series, a way to gain insight into Amanda’s internal dialogue that flows freely in the novel.
“To put Frank on screen, interacting with Amanda, is to explain Amanda in a way that would otherwise have been impossible,” Dell'Antonia reasons.
Frank Jr.’s presence, however, further complicates Amanda’s attraction to Sergio (Ektor Rivera). “What's fun and exciting about the show,” Mebane says, “is that the characters sometimes make choices that you might not make as the audience. But I hope that you understand where they're coming from as you're watching it, and you can still root for them.”
Mebane and her team also decided that Mae would be engaged for the series, instead of married with kids, as that left fewer characters to keep track of.
“I want to simplify it so we can just be focused on what Mae is going through emotionally,” Mebane says.
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Does the series cover the entire book?
Mebane says the season covers the book’s storylines in their entirety.
“If we were lucky enough to get subsequent seasons, we would take the characters in the world created in the book that we expanded upon in the series and keep going from there,” she says, “keep extrapolating what could happen.”
When does ‘The Chicken Sisters’ premiere?
The debut of “The Chicken Sisters” coincides with the launch of Hallmark+ on September 10. A new episode of the eight-part series releases on September 12 and each Thursday thereafter.
How to watch 'The Chicken Sisters'
“The Chicken Sisters” will stream on Hallmark+, a platform chief brand officer Darren Abbott described as a "lifestyle bundle" to reporters in July.
The service will include a new and broader array of programs that were not available on its former movie service, Hallmark Movies Now, reflecting the network's push this fall into unscripted series featuring its stable of stars. It will also deliver subscribers free greeting cards monthly.
Hallmark+ costs $79.99 for an annual subscription or about $7.99/month.