Suddenly I woke up and it was 1998 again..."When Calls the Heart"

"Hope" is the thing with feathers - (314) By Emily Dickinson

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all - 

 Hope was the theme of this week's episode - Feburary 8, 2014's episode "The Dance" -  of When Calls the Heart on the Hallmark Channel. Conveniently, every story line dealt with this idea of unrelenting hope but in a shocking twist neither the Plot A storyline in which Elizabeth Thatcher (Erin Krakow, from Lifetime's Army Wives) starts to have feelings for the new miner/poet Billy or the Plot B storyline in which widowed Mary Dunmore (Amanda Zimm from Ready or Not of '90s fame) starts to have feelings for another new miner get resolved by episode's end. 

This is unusual for When Calls the Heart, a charming if simple series modeled after fan favorites from the 1990s such as Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (1993-1998) or PAX's Little Men (1998-1999) or even earlier shows such as Little House on the Prairie (1974-1983) (Michael Landon's son, Michael Landon, Jr. produces, writes, and directs When Calls the Heart). There is merit in all these television programs, format was very different than it is today, and thus you can not judge them too harshly compared to contemporary programming. Nevertheless, the same basic formula applies to When Calls the Heart. Rich, naive school teacher Elizabeth,  à la Michaela Quinn, comes to Coal Valley, in the wilds of Canada in the early 1900s, to teach a bunch of miner's children, most of whom have lost their fathers in a recent accident. She interacts with the widows and wives of the miners and learns life lessons in every episode which she captures in her journal. To round things out Constable Jack Thornton (played by Daniel Lissing, Last Resort), reminiscent of Byron Sully and Nick Reilly, tries desperately not to show how much he likes Elizabeth. Lastly, When Calls the Heart is based off of the book series of the same name by Janette Oke (who has also written the popular Love Comes Softly series) but keeps mentions of faith to a surprisingly subtle minimum. 

In "The Dance" new miners come to town to replace the ones that were killed. One of the newcomers, Billy, interrupts Elizabeth's lesson on poetry to showcase that he's not just as dirty, loud miner but indeed a learned gentlemen by finishing Dickinson's poem  314. Embarrassingly, Elizabeth doesn't know the rest of the poem (worst teacher award?) and Billy tries to finish it. Mountie Jack overhears and decides that Billy is not whom he appears to be. Meanwhile, Mary Dunmore tries to make a better life for herself and her son Caleb by accepting the attentions of the kind, new miner who buys her groceries when he sees that she has no more money. However, Caleb just really wants his dad back and tries to stop the romance. 

Several '90esque elements come in to play in this episode such as the two clear plot lines that obviously tie into one central theme, as mentioned. Elizabeth has hope that she will find love, Mary has hope that she can get a second start, Caleb has hope that his father won't be forgotten... furthermore, not only is there a central theme but there is also a moral character building one. Arguably, current programming is more plot driven, where story lines change quickly and new information is built upon episode by episode as seen by The Following (2013-). In When Calls the Heart, the story lines are contained to an episode in which a dilemma is resolved and then a moral lesson is learned. In the second episode of the series, the mining company has decided to kick all the widows out to make room for a new crew. To combat this, the widows ban together and mine for a few weeks to earn and save their homes. All is well that ends well. In a single episode. Through hard work and determination. Lesson learned. As current television - Game of Thrones (2011-) and  Girls (2012 -) for example -  has taught us, life doesn't get tied up in a bow, sometimes bad things stay bad. Moral television is currently very popular (hollywoodjesus.com reported that The Bible (2013) miniseries received more than 100 million cumulative views) and that is all well and good, if that's your thing, but hopefully When Calls the Heart remembers that it is 2014 and not 1994 and creates some depth to a promising show.