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‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered: The Impossible Dream’: Eric Mabius on Serving a Soldier’s Story

‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered: The Impossible Dream’: Eric Mabius on Serving a Soldier’s Story

Last updated on: October 4, 2015 at 1:25 pm by Kate O'Hare

‘Signed, Sealed, Delivered: The Impossible Dream’: Eric Mabius on Serving a Soldier’s Story 2015-10-04T13:25:01-08:00 Kate O'Hare

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Some cultural elites dismissed writer/producer Martha Williamson’s “Touched by an Angel” as lightweight fluff, because it didn’t feature profanity, gratuitous sex or extreme violence.

All that demonstrates is that many self-proclaimed cultural elites are arrested adolescents still rebelling against mommy and daddy. They’re eager to shock and titillate and thrill, but not nearly as interested in telling a solid human story. Shakespeare, Mark Twain and Frank Capra didn’t need sensationalist crutches, and neither does Williamson.

In her just-renewed movie series,“Signed, Sealed, Delivered,” for Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Channel, Williamson continues to tell deeply affecting stories without exploitative trappings, and with a respect for faith seldom scene in primetime TV.

The two-hour installments focus on the “Postables,” a team of U.S. Post Office employees that follows the trail of undeliverable and special letters and winds up deep in the drama of ordinary people’s lives.

On Sunday, Oct. 4, in “The Impossible Dream,” the team works against the clock to decode a letter that could hold the key to saving the life of a missing U.S. military medic in Afghanistan, who’s being held as a prisoner of war. It even involves the Postables bringing the damaged letter before a Senate Hearing Committee.

Joining series regulars Eric Mabius, Geoff Gustafson, Crystal Lowe and Kristin Booth are guests stars Mark Valley (who is a military veteran) and Christina Bianco. It’s the follow up to September’s “Truth Be Told,” and there looks to be more to come.

I spoke to Mabius, who plays lead detective Oliver O’Toole — a man who often draws on his strong Christian faith — from his home in Massachusetts.

“Martha’s so brilliant,” Mabius said, “taking on something incredibly complex and making it accessible, and at the same time, it has weight. She still has buoyancy in what she does. Never have I had as much fun and been as challenged as I am, playing this part.”

The story of “The Impossible Dream” picks up where “Truth Be Told” left off. A teenaged girl named Phoebe (Megan Charpentier) gets a letter from her mother, who went missing on the Afghan-Pakistan border. There are questions about whether she deserted to aid the Taliban (shades of Bo Bergdahl there), and now the Postables must decode the message to have any chance of getting this soldier back home.

“No one takes on veterans’ rights,” said Mabius, “or issues with veterans these days without having some sort of chest-beating, flag-waving undertones or overtones. Having been part of the first generation that hasn’t served [in any great numbers], and having done work with the USO and with the troops, I know people who that have served and are serving.

“It’s very near and dear to my heart, people who are willing to lay their lives down for their country. There’s nothing greater than, possibly, being a parent, that’s more noble than that.

“The sacrificing of one’s self for another — you can attach any political party or any faith or none at all, and it’s just as relevant. It’s stripped down to our belief of what should be. It’s human nature.”

Mabius also credits Hallmark — which moved “SSD” from Hallmark Channel to its movie sibling to give Williamson more room to write — for both wanting to appeal to the family audience and to also tell strong, grounded stories

“If you pull back, Martha is really sketching out an ambitious, exciting and energizing path. It’s just exciting that Hallmark has the guts to step out further. There really is no fear from the network.

“People have always turned to Hallmark for a certain thing, which is the peace and comfort and reliability of their programming. But Martha has tried to expand the audience’s length and breadth in so many ways. There are holiday feel-good movies that we all turn to Hallmark for, and they’re known for that niche. We’re trying to maintain the same core values but expanding in every direction, trying to evolve an audience.

“It’s an exciting time, and I’m proud to be all over it.”

Williamson also didn’t spin her story out of whole cloth.

“The plot of our Postables sticking their necks out for their ideals is what grounds an audience,” says Mabius, who was raised a Catholic. “Then, trying to do the impossible, which is the title of this movie, some will say, ‘Oh, that’s completely unrealistic,’ but Martha does her research.

“She went to D.C. and sat down with the people that know, in order to make sure she wasn’t going to step on any toes or do something that’s wildly inaccurate or inappropriate or revealing too much about the process, giving too much away.

“That’s what so great. There are elements of what happens in this movie that have happened. Of course, military men and women have to disavow knowledge of these things.”

“Signed, Sealed, Delivered: The Impossible Dream” airs Sunday, Oct 4, at 9 p.m. ET/PT, on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries (click here to find the channel on your cable system), after re-airings of two previous “SSD” films.

Here’s a preview:

Image: Courtesy Hallmark Movies & Mysteries

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