Over the weekend, I was scrolling Instagram past midnight, as is too common an occasion, and was served a Reel of an actor crying in his car because he had booked a part on a television show. I was familiar with the actor from long ago days of YouTube, when he was one of many young people who popped brightly into frame on their brand new channel, announcing themselves with much fanfare, before, usually quite quickly, vanishing without warning. I was glad to see that this mostly forgotten person I’d encountered in a past internet age had found himself some work, but I guessed that the show in question couldn’t be much of anything. 

When I looked up the actor on IMDb, I saw that the series he’d landed was something called The Way Home, a Canadian production for the Hallmark Channel. With that boilerplate title, I assumed that it was just some bland family drama. A name in the credits did distinguish it, though: Andie MacDowell, who starred in Hallmark’s first original series, the light-touch judge drama Cedar Cove, and now has returned to the fold. But what struck me more than MacDowell’s involvement was the premise of the series. My eyes grew wide as I read that The Way Home is about a magic pond that acts as a time travel portal. And it’s run for four seasons. 

Upon reading this, I threw on my dressing gown, grabbed a candle, and ran down the stony hallways of my ancient manor home, desperate to ring the bells in the tower to announce my discovery. Meaning, I tweeted. 

Figuring this was just some random little tidbit I’d thrown out onto the internet for people’s brief amusement, I went to sleep, assuming I’d never think about the magic pond show ever again. But to my surprise the next morning, I awoke to a flurry of replies and quote tweets. They were from fans of this mysterious series, not flaming me for my ignorance but simply insisting that The Way Home is, in fact, a good television series. I initially brushed them off, thinking these were just a few devoted fans. But the responses kept coming all morning, person after person saying, “You don’t understand. It’s one of the best shows on TV.” 

After a few hours, I broke. I marched into the bedroom, announced to my partner Andrew what we’d be watching for the afternoon, and we sat down and pressed play (on Netflix) on the first season of The Way Home. What awaited us we never would have dared to imagine.