‘Christmas Island’ Writer Samantha Herman Reveals What Makes the Perfect Hallmark Christmas Movie (Exclusive)

Christmas magic is alive and well at Hallmark Channel. Amid the network’s Countdown to Christmas programming, ET spoke to Samantha Herman, who penned Christmas Island, one of the 31 original films premiering this season, and she revealed what elements make up a perfect holiday love story.

“I think you have to have a great meet cute. It doesn’t matter if they’re former friends, former lovers, already know each other, or a new meetup, but that moment has to hit,” Herman told ET. “You have to have the leads clash, and then come together, and pull apart, just to keep that momentum going and keep that tension going, instead of having it just all be smooth. I think that’s important. You have to have a couple fraught moments of chemistry — chaste chemistry — but still keep that tension going. I love to have a midway kiss if they’ll allow it.”

Then, Herman said, as the end of the movie nears, viewers know the leads are “going to have a come apart moment, and then after the commercial, they’re going to work back together.”

“[I try to] just make that situation a little bit more realistic, a little bit more dynamic. I’ve been guilty of going back to the well of the misunderstanding, or the overhear and misinterpretation, and we’re just trying to diversify that and make that more exciting,” she said of herself and others at the network. “And just make the leads themselves more realistic, less cookie cutter, more quirks, more flaws, just more grounded, real people with more interesting backstories.”

Herman achieved all that and more with Christmas Island, in which bad weather — and Oliver (Andrew Walker), a handsome Air Traffic Control Officer — force Kate, a pilot (Rachel Skarsten), to divert the private plane she’s flying and land it in a small town, potentially ruining the planned Swiss holiday of the Sharpes, the family of four on board, and jeopardizing Kate’s hopes of a new job.

To keep the Christmas magic — and Kate’s potential promotion — alive, she teams up with Oliver to give the Sharpes an unforgettable holiday. Along the way, Kate and Oliver may just fall in love.

Herman, who was “totally thrilled” with the Hallmark stars cast to bring her script to life, hopes that, after watching Christmas Island, or any of her 11 films for the network, viewers “take away a feeling of joy.”

“I know it’s really cheesy and lame, but it’s true. These are some dark days right now that we’re going through,” she said. “… Given all of that, I think it’s nice to have a respite for two hours and just feel family, and spirit, and holiday, and love, sealed with a kiss. I hope people walk away with that.”

Herman is perhaps an unlikely person to bring Christmas love stories to life, as she herself is a single, Jewish woman.

“I joke to my friends that I need to start writing horror movies if I’m going to crack the romance in my real life, but in the meantime, I’m very successful at pairing other people on the page,” Herman told ET. “A bad date, as long as there’s no danger, is always fodder for material, so that’s the attitude I go into it with, always looking for the positives in my experience.”

Though she hasn’t found her happily ever after just yet, Herman said that she’s a “true believer” in love.

“I like working on these movies. I genuinely believe true love is out there for everyone,” she said. “It might not happen as easily as it does in a two-hour block, but it helps to fantasize about the dynamics and the potentials of where you might meet someone.”

While it may not be as easy to find love in real life as Hallmark Channel films would have you believe, Herman said that’s exactly the point of the network’s movies.

“It’s like comfort food,” she said. “Spoiler: they’re always going to get together.”

Christmas Island premieres Saturday, Nov. 11 on Hallmark Channel.

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