Stream It Or Skip It?

In its first season, The Chicken Sisters built a warm, inviting world out of the fictional Southern small town of Merinac. Now, in its second season, we know all of the characters that inhabit this town, giving the show a more lived-in feel. People are getting along at the start, but the reality competition episode that brought the town’s rival families (and chicken joints) together is about to air, which we’re sure will shake things up.

Opening Shot: “Welcome back to Merinac, y’all!” says the show’s homey narrator (Margo Martindale) as we see the sign that says “Welcome To Merinac, Y’All.”

The Gist: The narrator talks about how the town’s population “exploded” to over 12,000 with the arrival of train service decades prior, but the train stopped going through the town after a derailment caused a molasses disaster. But now, the town is on the map again, thanks to The Chicken Sisters.

Since the show Ultimate Kitchen Clash came through town and filmed a competition between rival chicken joints Mimi’s and Frannie’s, the two joints merged to become The Chicken Sisters. Amanda Moore Hillier (Schuyler Fisk) has had a reconciliation with her mother Augusta “Gus” Moore (Wendie Malick). Since her MS diagnosis, Gus is being helped by Nancy Hillier (Lea Thompson), Amanda’s mother-in-law. Amanda’s sister Mae (Genevieve Angelson) has permanently moved back into town from New York, and has gotten engaged to Jay (Samer Salem).

The only person who has been left out in the cold during this whole slate of changes is Frank Hillier Jr. (James Kot), Amanda’s soon to be ex-husband. When Mimi’s won the competition, he took the prize money and started his own, fast-food chicken joint. That was unforgivable to the Chicken Sisters, who banned Frank Jr. from the restaurant. Even his own mother, Nancy, has cut off contact. But Frank Jr. hasn’t signed the divorce papers yet and still comes back to Amanda’s house to do laundry. Amanda is still friends with Sergio (Ektor Rivera), though the sexual tension between the two of them is palpable.

With her wedding coming up, Mae wants to finally know who her father is. She thinks it’s a local chicken farmer, but Gus debunks that notion quickly. Yet she still seems to be resistant to say anything.

The Merinac episode of Ultimate Kitchen Clash about to air, and everyone, including Frank Jr., thinks it’ll change their lives and businesses. Even Sabrina Skye (Rukiya Bernard) is in town, having flown to Merinac when her daughter Linzey (Kelcey Mawema) flies there to seek comfort from her friend, Amanda’s daughter Frankie (Cassandra Sawtell) after Linzey’s father expressed excitement over getting a fresh start as a dad with his new family.

Everyone’s excited to see the episode, but then Sabrina mentions to Mae that this episode has hidden camera footage, a first for the show. As that is shown, the chicken poop starts hitting the fan.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Based on K.J. Dell’Antonia’s novel, The Chicken Sisters has the same homey feel as other Hallmark series, like Chesapeake Shores.

Our Take: Erin Gibson is the new showrunner of The Chicken Sisters, and right away she’s taking the show in a slightly more comedic, slightly more scandalous, but equally as warm direction as Season 1. There’s so much peace between the Moores and the Hilliers at the beginning of this season that you knew that it couldn’t possibly last. And the airing of Ultimate Kitchen Clash is the perfect excuse to shake things up in Merinac.

But let’s be clear about this: When we say the show is getting more “scandalous,” we’re not saying that this is going to become some sort of telenovela. No, there may be hard feelings coming to the surface after the hidden camera footage from the reality show hits the air, but it doesn’t mean that we’re going to go into an endless cycle of scandal, feuds and reconciliations. We get the feeling that what’s revealed by the reality show will cause some hiccups in what is a funny and warm group of characters, but only temporarily.

While there are stories galore in this first episode — we forgot to mention that Nancy thinks her new beau, Pastor McGregor (Matthew James Dowden) is going to pop the question, or that Chicken Sister waitress Shawna (Caitlin Howden) is eager to set Amanda up with men around town — the essence of the show comes down to the relationship between Amanda, Mae, Nancy and Gus. We continue to marvel that the series was able to sign on Thompson and Malick, because both bring their usually excellent comic timing, along with their copious dramatic acting skills, to their roles. Fisk and Angelson have a ton of chemistry when sisters Amanda and Mae share the screen, but we always want to see more of Thompson and Malick whenever possible.

Even so, the show has created a good ensemble around the four main characters, one that we love to spend time with. We’re even OK with the narrator, mainly because it’s Margo Martindale, and her character’s homespun observations of the Chicken Sisters and their family’s histories make us chuckle.

Sex and Skin: This is a Hallmark show, so no.

Parting Shot: “The funny thing about guilt, it doesn’t have an expiration date,” the narrator says about Amanda’s tryst with Sergio, which is being shown in the hidden camera footage on the reality show. “Eight months or not, it’s time for this little filly to pay the piper.”

Sleeper Star: We like the friendship between Linzey and Frankie, so we hope to see a lot of Mawema and Sawtell in Season 2.

Most Pilot-y Line: Sabrina’s rental car is a huge pickup truck with flames on the side of it. It could be because she’s a New Yorker who takes cabs everywhere, but she doesn’t seem to know how to drive it. Is it a stick shift?

Our Call: STREAM IT. Even though it seems like everything’s peaceful in the world of The Chicken Sisters, Season 2 introduces just enough tension to keep things interesting, without eliminating the inviting, warm small-town feeling the show had in its first season.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere./